Today is my one-month anniversary in Thailand. In addition to having crazy dreams I’ve been up to quite a bit. I arrived here on a Sunday and immediately flew to Phuket where Christie, Steve, and Griffin were nice enough to let me occupy the extra room in their apartment. I got in lots of pool, beach, and baby time during my week and a half there! Christie and Steve also took me to my first hash! For those who haven’t heard of this ‘hashing’, as described on one website, is ‘a drinking club with a running problem’. Hashing is basically an excuse for many expats and some locals to get together, participate in a sporting event (running, biking, hiking), and then stand around in a circle and make fun of each other while drinking beer. Once you’ve hashed for awhile you get a nickname, usually not in the PG range.
The hash that we went to (Christie, Steve, and baby in the hiking pack) was a hike through a rubber plantation/jungle. The organizer marked out the trail for us using tiny brightly-colored pieces of paper. The papers are in a pile and with each pile you find, you know you are on the right path. Some ran and some walked. We hiked up and sometimes slid down, forded small streams and thwarted snakes and mosquitoes. But we all eventually made it outta there! After the hash most continued on to a yummy Thai buffet where I learned there is no such thing as a non-spicy stir fry here. All in all a fun evening and great first hash! See pix below.
After I hashed it was time to get down to business. So I arranged to get my Open Water PADI certification (diving license). My instructor was French and the class was the first he had taught in English. The other student was a lovely German woman (Urlike) from Hamburg (I’ve met more Germans from Hamburg these past few months than actual Germans in my life…well except for ‘the wedding’). We started out in the pool to practice breathing and what to do if you lose your mask or breathing apparatus, and then did 4 dives over the next two days to seal the deal. Two days later Urlike and I went on a day-long diving tour to the Phi-Phi islands where we saw a lot of beautiful (and poisonous) fish. Diving is no fun to just talk about so here are some pictures! (having slight technical issues with these- keep checking back here!)
After a week and a half I headed to Bangkok to start networking and job hunting. Thanks so much to Christie, Steve, and Griffin for hosting me and to Urlike for being such a great dive partnerJ
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