Thailand Top Ten

TEN THINGS I WILL MISS ABOUT THAILAND

1. Coconuts are delicious, especially a chilled one on a hot day.  Cut the top off and stick a straw in and you have a magical drink that is extremely healthy as well!  Then you can take a spoon and scoop out the meat from the inside and it is very filling.  I love coconuts!  And mangoes.  Actually, all the fruit is amazingly vibrant and flavorful.  
2. Street food, especially fried bananas, yum!  Samosas, roti, coconut ice cream, pad thai, cashew chicken, meat kebabs, Thai iced tea, smoothies...
3. Bowing.  The Thai people put their hands together in the Namaste gesture and bow as a way of being polite.  I loved it!  It felt so nice to bow and show respect and goodwill with just a simple gesture that everyone understood.  Politeness is very important there which was really refreshing.  I found the Thai people to be amazingly patient with me and I enjoyed interacting with them and they seemed to enjoy teaching me about their culture.  
4. Decorations.  Everything there is decorated, the rooftops, the fences, there are altars and offerings and statues everywhere.  It makes everything so interesting.  It’s going to be boring looking at plain old buildings again.
5. Inexpensive prices - it really is amazing how cheap some things are.  You can get a meal for $.75, clothes and shoes for $6, haircut for $7, taxi ride for $6, songtaew ride for $.60, rent for $100 a month and up. 
6. Tuk tuks and songtaews.  Public transportation is incredible there, just stick out your hand and flag one down, they are everywhere.  I will miss being driven around in a tuk tuk and feeling like a princess! (A songtaew is a converted pickup truck with a cover on the back and two benches along the sides.  You tell the driver where you want to go and hop in.  It's a very efficient and cheap way of getting around.)
7. Speaking three languages in one day and somehow making it work. (English, French, and Thai)
8. Elephants and tigers and water buffalos, oh my!  And the cute little geckos.
9. Monks everywhere.  It was so cool to see the monks in their orange robes walking around everywhere, doing normal things like shopping at the mall or riding a songtaew.  It's like a reminder of the spiritual in the everyday life.  I also was honored to get a blessing from a monk at the temple, which was a really nice experience.
10. A general feeling of spirituality, history, and culture everywhere you go.  Lots of festivals, blessings, offerings, and rituals to make every day sacred.  Also a laid back feeling and a slower pace of life.  Things aren't rushed, they happen when they happen.  Sometimes that was frustrating but for the most part I was able to relax and go with the flow.

TEN THINGS I AM EXCITED TO GET BACK TO/WON’T MISS ABOUT THAILAND

1. Remedies that I am used to like Ibuprofen and Tums.  Couldn't find anything like them over there.    
2. Mexican food, mmmmm.  Any kind of beef for that matter.   
3. Drinkable tap water, not having to worry every time I brush my teeth or wash something out.  
4. Mayonnaise - the mayonnaise there is disgusting!  I don't know what they did to it but that’s not mayonnaise!  Also tomato sauce is weirdly sweet, like they didn’t quite get the recipe right.
5. Pest Control!  Clark, I needed you in Thailand!  No disease carrying mosquitos or deadly snakes/spiders/insects/arthropods everywhere you turn.
6. Air conditioning.  OMG the HEAT!  Dying of heat every freaking day! Sweating and sweating and all the restaurants are open air, aargh!  Eating under fans with ants all over your table.  Ugh!  Covered with ant bites, better than mosquito but still not fun.
7. Clean streets.  There is a serious trash management problem there, which probably doesn’t help the rat/cockroach situation.  And general OSHA/FDA oversight.  They’re not perfect but they’re better than nothing.
8. Smoking everywhere.  I couldn't get away from it whatever I did.  The best I could do was try not to breathe too much of it in.  
9. Seeing the people I love and have missed, not just on Facebook, although that was pretty fun.
10. Freedom of speech and the freedoms we take for granted.  Life is hard over there and they don't have the basic freedoms we take for granted.  This is the first time you'll hear me talk about this because I was afraid to say anything while I was in country.  It's not a joke, the government can do anything they want and the people have little to no rights or recourse.  That general unsafe feeling weighed heavily on me while I was there and I can tell you I am so thankful to be an American citizen!  It's not perfect here but we are so very fortunate to have the freedoms that we do.