leaving thailand

well, i've got to say that overall this has been a pretty damn awesome trip. my only complaint is that it's just too short.
chiang mai is a great city, what with the moat and the city walls, the sheer number of temples kicking around hidden down short alleyways or open on main streets. and the alleyways, oh the alleyways. one of my top favourite things about travelling is finding networks of meandering and beautifully decrepid alleyways.

and koh chang. i'm looking forward to returning to thailand just for the sake of seeing other islands, to see if they're all this amazing, or if perhaps sean and i hit jackpot. the luck we had getting there, and finding a guesthouse with a free room.. and an amazing guesthouse at that.
see, on the island there's only one road that does the circumference, and the entire middle of the island is protected jungle. the island itself is longer than it is wide, the ferries bringing you to the far north. along the long west side is where everything is, and along the east there's pretty much nothing except some waterfalls and a mangrove forest at the very far south. the nice thing about our location was that it's at the far south of the west side - and there's this one stubborn man who owns a chunk of land at the south tip, and he absolutely refuses to have it developped. so, as is, the road around the island ends at either end of his land, and nothing, not even paths, connect the two ends of the road. so our location was relatively secluded - end of the road kind of deal.
and of course there were the beaches, the cozy restaurants, the sandy tourist towns...

but one of the most stricking things about thailand is the way people embrace, and don't feel contempt for, the number of tourists who flow through the country. it's seems to be across the entire country, too, that once you've spoken a few sentences with anybody, they're you're friend and you can talk for hours. Annie, the wife of Danny who tattooed us, and their two young girls spent an entire afternoon with us just hanging out not doing much.
i think that it's almost always the people who make trips so fantastic, and in this case it's phenomenally fantastic. the instant friend is something i truly enjoyed about travelling around in east and southern africa, and it was awesome to have the same welcome in thailand. well, not as energetic and spontaneous... people didn't rush to us while we got off buses, wanting to show us around and take care of us.

anyways, i'm rambling yet again.. and i know how boring really long blogs are...
well, i think that's it for thailand, unless i think of something else to write...

oh yeah, we made it back to wonju safely. after a 6am wake up, and hour bus, six hours flying interrupted by a layover in hong kong, and another two hour bus... we're here! and today we reorganized to house in order to make room for all this stuff we got :)

miss all of you!