Monkeys & Birthdays!

This past Friday morning was quite the adventure...I had been anticipating it all week. We went to visit this monkey town! (Tanya you would have peed your pants with excitement!). Even as we were approaching upon the town...you could see these little furry creatures running around....EVERYWHERE! I asked our lady....how could this be? Is this really the only town around that has monkeys everywhere? WHY!?!? She said that the town used to be a jungle...and once it was taken over and civilization moved in....the monkey didn't budge! They just stayed! You could buy little bags of corn to feed to the monkeys...but I was smart and didn't buy one...for fear that those little fur balls would be able to smell it on me and then attack me! They weren't huge monkeys. Maybe the biggest were about 2 feet tall? Not sure. But there were little baby ones too that were adorable! It was out of this world...I mean there were seriously hundreds of monkeys running around! I was just playing it cool....watching everyone else feed them, minding my own business...when all of a sudden I felt one on my back! Thankgoodness I did the right thing and didn't panick or scream...I was mostly just frozen with fear! Also fortunately I didn't get bit like a girl the previous week who had to go to the hospital for

a week and a half!  

Onto more exciting things....birthdays! After we had our fix of monkeys, we had some lunch and came back to the ecohouse, where we had some mini-busses waiting for us, to take us to Koh Samed, an island not far off the coast. It took us about 4 hours to get there...and the last 2 hours it was POURING rain! Potentially I thought a monsoon was coming! (Our driver must be used to the weather because he kept driving at normal speed!). It was still pouring when we got to the dock to take our ferry to the island. I was quite sad at the prospect of it raining all weekend! Then as I was about to step onto the ferry boat, the native man said, watch your head. I saw what he meant as he helped me on....but, to no avail! THUD! I winced with pain as I came down onto the ferry after my "run-in!" (Chewy and Carrie, the sound was similar to the "thud" when I hit my head on that dresser a few birthdays ago!) I thought I was a coordinated person....but maybe that is slipping away in my old age!

We finally get to the island get our bags and walk through the rain to find a place to stay. We finally got a room, dried off a bit, changed clothes and went to get a bite to eat. We ate at a little place called PLOY. I guess it's the spot to be in the later evening, for live music, a fire show, fire works, and dancing. There were 17 of us total that came from the ecohouse. We got a table for all of us and enjoyed some scrumptious Thai cuisine....all the while there was a band playing cover songs....from the U.S.! It was kind of an out of body experience! I was in this foreign land, hearing a Thai band sing anything from Creedence Clearwater and John Denver, to new pop songs! After the band played for a while we got to enjoy a fireshow! This was amazing! There were probably 10 guys total (who had to have had something on their bodies to prevent them from getting burned!), who took these long rods with flames on each end or swung these ropes with balls of flames on each end, and did trick after trick...throwing them up in the air....standing on anothers shoulders...laying on the ground...behind their backs....tossing them across the beach to each other....I'm sure my mouth was dropped open the whole time! Later that night we enjoyed watching some locals show off their dance moves....(I couldn't understand how they could twist and move their body like that!). At midnight everyone wished me happy birthday! Later that night I thought that I had lost my purse on the beach....this was NOT a fun moment! I panicked. I couldn't find my purse anywhere, which had all of my money, credit cards, passport, iPod, camera....everything! I was a bit unstable for a while until I found it! It was so dark on the beach that I guess we got confused as to what table we had left it at!

The next day (my actual b-day...well, in Thailand...not quite yet back home!), we enjoyed the day out at the beach, soaking up rays and listening to the waves crash into the shore. The water and view was breath-taking. I didn't go into the water very much, because the salt content was a little too much to bear! I had some Pad Thai for lunch...it was good....but nothing compared to that lady from the boat! I need to find her again! For supper that night about 8 of us gals decided to go a bit more upscale for supper! We had heard a recommendation for a place called Summer, owned by a Scottish lady who had moved here years ago. It was a gorgeous place. We started upstairs, looking out over the ocean, with some appetizers, and then moved to the candlelit dock for our main course. I can imagine it would be even more beautiful during the day! I enjoyed some grilled salmon with potatoes and spinich.

After supper we came back to PLOY...we were just sitting there enjoying the music, when all of a sudden my friend brings me a small birthday cake and the band and people on the beach start singing happy birthday to me! it was pretty neat! I called it a night shortly after that....I think the heat just took it out of me. Sunday we did some more beach action before having to catch the ferry back to get on our bus.

It was a short night because this morning we had to get up at 5:45 to bring some food to the monks who come by every morning. I guess it is not right for the monks to make their own food...they are not supposed to cook. So the people of the town give food to them so they can eat. I think it also reflects well on the person that gives....Buddah approves! I'm definitely excited to learn more about Buddhism this week....because some things seem kind of crazy right now to me...but I think if I know the history, it will help my understanding.