Thailand is beautiful, and I miss America

After spending 4 days in Bangkok and picking up another guy from the midwest (Justin Nolan), we have made our way to Koh Tao, Thailand. Getting here was another adventure all on its own. We booked a charter bus and a ferry ticket to follow.
We all got on the bus at 1800 expecting a short ride and then a longer ferry ride. Tha wasn't quite the case. The bus ride went from 1800 to 0300 at which point we were dropped on in the middle of a parking lot to wait for the ferry to arrive at 0700.

It wouldn't be that bad if we had slept on the bus, but that wasn't the case. The bus we took was a double decker bus full of people. Being on the top of a double decker bus is an experience by itself, let alone when you're being driven by a man who has no fear of passing a semi while going up a hill and making a nice curve around a turn. I suppose these are the things I shall not forget.

The island is beautiful and blah blah blah. We can all just look at the pictures for those comments. I can't really do it any justice.

Tomorrow morning will be the 10th and I am counting down the days until I come home. Leave Singapore on the 20th, and then leave Saigon on the 21st. I'm enjoying my time here, but I miss America and everything I know much more. Being gone 2 months has taken a toll on me in more than one way, and I can't imagine how military families go 16 months sometimes without seeing their loved ones, all the while worrying about that person being killed.

I always *knew* I had it good in the states. I always knew that I could be anything that I wanted to be, but it was easy for me to fall into a slump and just tell myself that there will always be time and that I'll get arund to it eventually. The opportunity will always be there. That certainly is not the case. Carpe diem as the Marines say.

It was easy to take a lot of things for granted when I think about it. Get injured on the playground? No worries, the state of the art hospital is just 15 minutes away, you can even have transportation via ambulance. Get seiously injured in Koh Rang, Cambodia, and you have a 16 hour ride to Bangkok.

Thinking about browsing the net in Nha Trang, Vietnam on a Thursday afternoon? Better double check that you have electricity that day as it is shut off every other day throughout the whole city.

It's one thing to hear about these things, but it was certainly another to experience them. It has certainly given me a new appreciation for what we all have
in the USA. I thought I'd seen poor people befoe but then I spent some time talking to a Vietnamese woman who had a good job managing a hotel and only mad $60 a month.

As I always suspected, we got it good.


More pictures:
Ko Chang -> Koh Tao