Friday, January 18, 2013

oliphants

love oliphants. the art kind and the real ones.
 and oliphants love sugarcane.

 and saying hello!

Sunday, January 13, 2013

if it has eight eyes, it should die.

So i love Thailand because it is beautiful, and warm, and my skin doesn't feel all pins and needles from being too dry.

I love Thailand because the people are kind. PS--let's have a chat TSA in Seattle about not being assholes for no good reason, read no reason, on a sunday morning. PPS--why is everyone in the seattle airport a grump-tastic mess?

I love Thailand because i can eat a full meal for like $2.50 cents in the north. and eat more than my share of green curry i did.

I love Thailand because i can swim without feeling like i might die of hypothermia either in or after getting out of the water.

I love Thailand because i can find anything i could ever need in a market if i am willing to brave weekend craziness.

huntsman--the size of my hand.

I do not love thailand for these guys:
orb weaver (we think)















Anyone who knows my husband knows he likes to set the spiders free when we find them in the house. I, on the other hand, am pretty sure setting them free means they are going to return in my bed and eat me. therefore, all spiders should die--the sneaky bastards. so, when adam came into our treehouse in the Mae Taeng valley wilderness and announced that there was a huge spider in the bathroom, you have to understand i was legitimately concerned. he never, ever, calls spiders huge--even the orb weaver we saw earlier in the day that was like coffee cup sized.  define huge, i said. huge, said adam with a serious look on his face, hunting for something i had hoped would be used to kill the "huge" spider. instead, he picked up the camera (again, not a good sign) and my slipper (gifted to me by emma who stole it from some hotel and the current prized possession) and headed back to the adjoining outdoor bathroom. a flash and some banging ensued and adam returned to tell me he had scared it away. "it jumped out the back wall."

number one---WTF. since when do spiders the size of a chihuahua jump out a hole in the wall.
number two--the answer to where was it happened to be, oh right by the toilet.
number three--congratulations, instead of killing the spider, you now get to watch me pee for the rest of our stay in case the dog/spider returns.
number four--the next day at breakfast, he tells everyone how he had no idea where it went. nice. good job lying to your wife. uck.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

i.love.vacation.



this post could alternatively be titled:
1. i.love.the.warm.;
2. adam lives in the pool; or
3. it was all good until the spider showed up.

for the record:  i love the Andaman sea. I am pretty sure i could just be a sea gypsy, floating to my heart's content and living off coconuts and fish i caught with a spear.

As many of you know, on xmas day we left seattle for a stint in thailand. teh trip was well needed because we discovered around thanksgiving that i was going to be laid off from Liberty.  the hunt for a new gig is in progress. So, off to se asia we went and we were lucky to have the gracious hospitality of a friend from law school, abe. he did his best to keep adam from being molested by lady boys and me from getting run over by vehicles in the street.
"Jesus rays on A Buddhist temple?" queried Adam.
Bangkok is a large bustling city that only partially ever feels like southeast Asia to me....it just lacks the grit of Manila and has instead way too many old white men accompanied by too young Thai women. Clearly, white exploitation of former colonies is still alive and kicking. Never-the-less, i love Thai architecture and its Buddhist sentimentality. outside every building is a household shrine to which offerings of fanta, juice, and sweet pastries are in a never ending supply. Seems the universe has a sweet tooth. The other thing that always strikes me is the combination of old and new, ornate and modern, a juxtaposition without moderation or middle ground.



Bang Pa-In Summer Palace

Ayyuthaya
We traveled around quite a bit this trip. After visiting Ayyuthaya and the Summer Palace, we went down south to Phuket for New Years.
Truthfully, we were staying in Patong, which i will never do again. it was too touristy for my tastes, but did make for memorable new years eve--thousands of people on the beach, lighting off lanterns, sending their hopes skyward for the new year.

We set off ours and i was surprised to find that my hopes didn't rest on a new job or the dog not acting like an idiot--i'm going to not tell you my wish, but you should know that my lantern floated highest in the sky as it went off into the distance.

My heart felt full and calm. We headed the next day off to the north--out 60 km north of Chaing Mai to somewhere up a tree. Seriously.
More pictures of that and a top ten list in the next post :)