It's raining again

Surprise, surprise....

Right now I'm in a bakery/internet cafe on the street outside the Samui airport. I'm not sure if I explained it before but the "airport" is a collection of cute tiny huts with straw roofs. One for the domestic departures, one for domestic arrivals and one for the international departures and arrivals. Then there are maybe two little restaurant huts and a gift shop hut. It's all very cute. Until it starts pouring. Oh well. It stops eventually.

So Wednesday night Chau (the bar owner) told Ot and me that were in charge of the bar again. People came this time!! We did really well! Ot was young, dark, and didn't understand what people were saying half the time, so he made you feel like you were in Thailand and I made it not look empty and then could actually speak with people who came in. There was a Spanish guy, a Finnish couple, an Australian/English couple, a German couple, an English painter guy, and then a bunch of Thais who were really amused by my attempts to speak Thai. My favorite part is when they try to teach me something, then I say it exactly how I think they're saying it and they said, "Noooo!!!! Not (however I said it)," and then repeat exactly what I thought I had just said. Language is crazy. They have Bs and Ps but then they have half way between Bs and Ps. Same with T and D. It's really hard to get. It's the same when I try to teach Ot stuff. When he says stuff sometimes it sound sooooo wrong to me but he thinks he's saying it exactly the way I'm saying it. Yay language!

Anyway, Ot and I were doing awesome but then someone ordered a Mai Tai. We looked at each other. I said, "mai ru" (I don't know). Same with him. Luckily Chau came running in. I have no idea where he was or how he knew we were stuck. That night I said (for the fourth time?) "I have to go tomorrow." Chau said, "No stay! Work at the bar! I'll give you money to pay for a bungalow! Come on, stay!" I said, "Ahhhh!!!! Don't tell me that!!! I would love to stay!! But I have to go do other stuff! I only have a month left!" We had had a conversation about Laos (Chau speaks English really well) and he was really excited about me going, so he understood.

So that was Wednesday night. The bar was so fun that night I decided I couldn't leave. So I said, "Ok, one more day."

That turned out to be a really good decision. I had been trying to meet up with Mote (from Haad Rin) who does the boat tours but either the trips had been canceled due to rain or I had missed him when he was in Mae Haad. But yesterday (after being pulled over by some Thai women to try some random things shoved in a leaf and drink warm soy drink with things floating in it) I finally met up with Mote and did the rest of the boat tour that I never did the first time. Yay! I went back to Haad Rin too and Mote and I went on a one hour motorbike adventure from the southern most tip to the northerwestern most tip of the island. Very very cool. Except for the hills with the 20% grade. Ahh! He would put the bike in 1st gear and we'd go really slowly up the hill. Walking may have been faster. Then he'd say, "My motorbike, not so much power." It's ok! Mai pen rai! And for the record, I didn't die again!

So last night was sad. Mote came to the bar for a little bit and when we sat down I said, "What do you want?" and then got it. Mote was freaking out. I told him it was ok. Then I asked if he wanted to get ice cream with me. He said yeah and when we were getting up he started freaking out again because he was scared Chau would think he was trying to steal the beer. I got Chau to tell him he knew I'd be back and he wasn't worried. It was really really really cool. Chau earlier that day had said, "If you need anything you just take it, ok? You're like family here. You understand??" Oh god, I almost cried.

I kind of have this feeling the whole village wanted me to stay so that I would eventually marry Ot. People would scream stuff from the motorbikes when they saw us and I'd say, "What did they say?" and he'd laugh and say, "soo-ay" which means beautiful, but I'm like 90% sure that's not what they were saying. He wouldn't have laughed every time if that's what they were saying.

Anyway, last night was nice. The bar had people. The artist English guy and his friend had been painting a new sign and then other little random things all day and the place looked really nice.

This morning I thought I was going to get a taxi to Thong Sala (where the ferries are) and then Ot said, "No! Motorbike!" I laughed and said, "Big bag! No power!" His bike is pretty weak. He said, "Ok ok ok, I change" and came back with a really nice one! I have no idea where it came from. It took him, me and my huge backpack to Thong Sala in no time. The boat wasn't going to leave for another hour so I asked him if he wanted to eat breakfast. He said yes and took me to a Thai breakfast place (no English menu) where we got soup, and pork and rice, which comes with your choice of second meat. We went with chicken. He got me to order it and do all the communicating. It was very very cool.

The boat ride was fine. I fell asleep. When we got to Samui I got to go do something I've wanted to do my whole life. It was up there with "driving across a time zone change."

I went to an airport without a ticket!

Woo hoo! Everything worked out fine. I got another Discovery Pass. Samui to Bangkok, Bangkok to Samui and Samui to Hong Kong. I can get to Chiang Mai cheaper with a different company or take a bus or train. And then the Luang Prabang flights from Chiang Mai are with Lao Air. The website for Laos Air is TERRIBLE (http://www.laoairlines.com). It looks like a 3rd grader put it together when they were first learning about HTML, but the flight is only an hour and to go by bus takes two days. Laos isn't known for their superior infrastructure.

My showing up to the airport without a ticket decision has landed me with an 8pm flight. But I'm on stand by for an earlier flight and according to travel agents and the internet all the flights were full anyway. So I had nothing to lose. One travel agent even told me that the Discovery Pass promotion was over. Kon guy hok! (Liar!) I almost believed her too!

Good thing I'm smart!

Ok, I've finished my baked goods and I'm going to go back and check my stand by status. But everything is going well, no dying on motorbikes, no taking up permanent employment at an island Reggae Bar, no marrying 17 year old Thai boys. When I get to either Bangkok or Chiang Mai I'll finally get the pictures up.