I have returned from my vacation with my mom to Thailand, where we visited my sister for about two weeks.

It was a grace-filled adventure! Based on the G’s advice, I tried to treat the vacation as a spiritual retreat, and I asked God to help me do that. Well, he answered. When you ask God to help you grow spiritually, he will, though perhaps in unexpected ways, as he did for me.

The biggest external victory from the vacation: Zero arguments with my sister!.

We got close a few times, but God answered prayers and kept us from them, mostly by making me eat my pride and shut my mouth.

We arrived in Bangkok after about 24 hours of flying on airplanes, which was tiresome to say the least. I told my mom I haven’t made any progress on my matter teleportation device, unfortunately, so we were stuck doing it this old-fashioned way (for now). We met my sister, and then took a bus to our hotel room. One thing about Thailand: You typically cannot flush the toilet paper down the toilet. That is, IF you even have toilet paper, as many toilets do not. I began to understand finally why you are never supposed to use your left hand when interacting with other people in the country…

My mom and sister at our hotel in Bangkok

My sister and me in Bangkok

The next day, we traveled around Bangkok, checking out the local markets and we walked around the outer court of a Buddhist temple. You see lots of Buddhist monks walking around the city, dressed in an orangish robe that I am sure you have seen before.

That evening, we began our travel to a small island in southern Thailand called Ko Phangan. We began by taking the taxi to the train station. Drivers and traffic in Thailand are even crazier than in Italy. You do NOT want to drive here if you are a person like me who expects traffic laws to be followed. If they have any traffic laws in Thailand, they are not enforced much.

We got on the overnight train to the South, and it was air-conditioned, which was nice at first. BUT the air-conditioning in Thailand, where available, does not appear to be regulated by the normal thermometer-control systems we have in this country. Instead, the AC just blows continously. So at night the train got REALLY cold, and the only thing you had was a thin blanket.

My mom tried to stay warm in the train.

The train ride was 14 hours, and we were happy when we reached our destination (Surrat Thani). From there, we got on a bus to take us to the ferry boat. The bus ride was about an hour and a half, and when they turned on the TV in the bus, the comedy began. They were showing music videos with popular western musicians’ music, but the songs were being covered by some other band and all the music videos were with this same set of about 8 actors trying to kind of act in plays that made sense with the song.

After a few of these videos, they had some local talent, a woman with a guitar, singing a song that was just so ridiculous that my sister couldn’t stop laughing. It was kind of a jab at a stupid westerner named Johnny. (I just searched on the internet, and this song actually appears to be by Don Henley! So it was a cover, too. “Johnny Can’t Read” I think is the name–ugh, what a bad song).

We finished the bus ride, and then boarded the car ferry to take us to Ko Phangan, which is a very small island. The car ferry trip took about 3 hours.

My mom on the car ferry looking back at the mainland.

Lance Armstrong fever has even made it to Thailand, though it seems like the bracelets are likely forgeries, and the people who wear them don’t know what they are for. Nonetheless, the dock worker was living strong!

Livestrong Thailand!

When we arrived on the island, we needed to make our way to the particular beach we were staying at (Thanh Seddet), so we then got in a truck of the man whose bungalows we were staying at. Forty five minutes later, over some rough roads, we made it to the bungalows.

The beach view from my bungalow–nice!

At this point, my mom and I both simultaneously got heat exhaustion from our traveling. We were still tired and jet-lagged from the day before, as Thailand is exactly 12 hours different from U.S. Central time zone, and after another 20+ hours of traveling by car, truck, train, boat, and bus, we had had it. Unfortunately, the bungalows we stayed at didn’t have any AC, so we were in a bad way. I thought that I might pass out, so I was praying God would send a breeze to cool us (the humidity was probably 80% and the temperature in the 90s). Thanks be to God, we didn’t get heat stroke, and both my mom and I recovered.

The mosquitoes were on us quickly, and we were given “Sketolene”, a citronella-smelling spray that keeps mosquitoes away like nothing I have ever seen, and makes you smell like a citronella candle. Over the next four days, we came to know and love the smell of this stuff and be constantly coated in it. At night, we had mosquito nets covering our beds to keep them away. Here was my bungalow, with some local critters keeping me company:

I contemplated killing this monstrous spider that was in my room, but didn’t know if my shoe would take it out in one swing, in which case it might get a chance for hitting me back, which I didn’t want to risk.

The snails over there are really big and grosss

The gecko lizards making a croaking sound that supposedly sounds like “Geck-o”.

My bed with mosquito net–make sure you tuck it in around the mattress so mosquitoes or king cobras don’t make there way in there! (not joking)

One day while at these bungalows, I went down to the beach and my sister’s friend Martin and I decided we were going to meet my mom and sister on the other beach around the big rocks from the beach we were on. The swim was probably only 400 meters, but for me, that is a goodly distance. I was wary of there being jellyfish or sharks in the water, so I prayed fervently that my angel would protect me while I swam. I told God, “Look, Lord. I’ll do my part, okay? If I see a huge dorsal fin coming toward me like on Jaws, I will swim ashore as quickly as possible, but you have to do your part and keep me safe from things I can’t see.”

We made the swim without incident, though I was winded at the end of it. I seem to have only one swimming speed–fast–and that isn’t the best thing for keeping a pace for a long swim. Was God watching over me? You betcha: Later on that same night one of the guys on the beach came to our bungalow and told us how he got stung bad from a jellyfish earlier that day, swimming on the same beach I was. He showed me his leg, and it looked painful. He said he was in agony for hours. The way I was swimming, without a snorkel and goggles, I had to shut my eyes the entire swim and couldn’t see anything in the water. A jellyfish easily could have stung me in my face or anywhere else! I thanked God and my angel for protecting me!

Alright, I’m tired of typing. The second half of the trip will be left for tomorrow.