Thailand II

We hit the beaches of Hua Hin, an area with beautiful sand and a nice ocean area to swim in. It was overrun with retired Scandanavians, mostly old men. The food was good, and we spent a couple of days in the sun at the beach reading books and swimming. Being of Celtic origins, I got heat rash on my fish belly and neck.

I read a Japanese novel called "Kafka by the Shore", and it reconfirmed my notion that Japanese people are weird. It was so filled with metaphors it was like a dream, but had enough concrete events that it made it a bit irking trying to pin down the order. I know that was the author's intention, but for me it was so metaphor filled it seemed too formless and lost meaning in the jumble rather than gain it. Maybe it's because the author wants me to reflect on each paragraph rather than read it at the beach. Screw him.

We after a couple of days we made it to the resort we had booked to meet Mark, Mandy, Keith, and Glenis. The good news was that we were upgraded to the honeymoon suite for free. It was an awesome room! An in-room jacuzzi, relaxing cushioned lounge chair, huge king size bed, two-sink bathroom, spacious balcony overlooking the resort, etc... We had the best room of the resort. It was a really great place to relax, very quiet and picturesque, and they had a good cook. We ate Christmas dinner there, which was good, but very expensive (100$ if I include the bottle of wine). We had a great time at the resort, but I was really dissapointed I didn't see the friends we were supposed to meet, especially Mark. I havn't seen him much at all over the last few years, and probably won't see him much in the next year or more, so it would have been awesome to meet up in Thailand, but it didn't work out. Reflecting on the situation, I found I would have traded a honeymoon suite at a beautiful beachside Thai resort for some time with good friends or family anywhere. It's cliche, but it's really true that luxury means nothing compared to time spent with good friends and family.

After our time at the resort we went to Bangkok for a couple of days, since our plane to Cancun was leaving from there. We spent a remarkable new years eve here. I say remarkable not because we saw a ping-pong show or anything like that, but because I had my first back spasm of my life that day. It was a nightmare. We were standing in line to see Diary of the Dead, and my back freaked out. I got this horrible twitching and then my right shoulder seized up and sent white hot pain to a point in my neck. I had to go sit down and I could barely move. It was the worst pain of my life. We went back to the guest house (I can't believe I made it) and I laid prone on the bed in physical distress as the new year rang in. Anita massaged, and it helped, but she couldn't do much as the smallest of movements to my neck caused intense pain. I had to hold my head with my hands to move it rather than rely on my neck muscles. The good news was that we had a 30 hour flight the next day.... Ug....