After an uneventful (boring, unmemorable) holiday season in Corfu I took off on a much needed vacation. The captain had only been back a few days when we decided I should take time off after being alone on the boat on this sad little Greek island for a month. I was going bonkers for sunshine and happy people. Thursday I searched the internet for affordable flights away, but it didn’t take high level math skills to realize anywhere in Europe is pricey with the Euro. And North Africa I would need a visa. At 4:00PM Thursday I booked my flight to Bangkok, Thailand- departing 7am the following day. Airfare wasn’t much more and once I was there my money would go on forever.
I arrived in Bangkok 18 hours later (7am-again), having not slept at all on the flight because i was too excited about all the movies I could watch! I have not seen any western entertainment since I arrived in Europe. And once there I was too excited to see Debora and her husband Dewayne to waste time sleeping. I stayed awake for close to 30 hours.
It was a whirlwind trip that I had to plan along the way, having to make lots of on the spot decisions. Do I book a 4 day livaboard scuba trip? Do I commit to 3 days in the jungle? Can I trust these guys with my life? Full body massage, body scrub and a facial? How much Sum Tom can I eat before I get sick?
I spent a few days in Bangkok with Debora and Dewayne, celebrated the Chinese New Year in Chinatown. Then flew down to Phuket, where i just laid around being warm and lazy and rousing every so often to eat. Bliss. Another flight up to Chiang Mai, oh lovely Chiang Mai. So much vegetarian food, so many blessed out ex-pats. I could be happy there for a long time living on fresh squeezed juice and yoga. I did book myself into a little adventure. It was to be a day of tree top flying, a night in the jungle and followed by a few days of rock climbing. Unfortunately I ate something that did not want to stay in my tummy, so I was pulled out of the jungle and sent back to town. Luckily Thailand has affordable health care in the form of a Traditional Medicine Chinese Doctor. The exam and miracle cure was about $8 US, and I could eat again! I took advantage of the extra days in the city and had another spa day, total 4 massages in 2 weeks. And too soon after I was back in Bangkok, to spend my last day of vacation hanging with Debora, having a very satisfactory “girly day” of yoga, eating and shopping. My vacation was perfect, I was so far away physically and culturally from Greece, I had put it out of my mind. I only tried to speak Greek a few times, usually when asking for water.
Back to reality and work. It is cold and rainy in Corfu, but the days are lasting a bit longer. Only 7 weeks until we move onto Croatia and the busy summer begins, I am actually looking forward to being too busy to think. I can see the signs of spring here. The resort hotels are starting to repair after a winter of being boarded up; restaurants are sprucing up and will soon be serving many of the items listed on the menu, not just mousaka.
But a new layer of snow has arrived on the mountains across the channel; we are still far away from warm weather.
6 years ago
