23 December 2007

The Night before the Night before Christmas

It's December 23rd and I am in Bangkok.

Since I last posted, I traveled Cambodia for 10 days, finished my last day of work in Bangkok, attended the office Christmas party, and went to Chiang Mai and back. As I write this, I am in in bed in the Bangkok condo. Tomorrow I take the bus back to Pattaya for Christmas with friends. On Boxing Day I fly to Phuket, where I will board a boat for a 4 day scuba excursion in the Similan Islands. From the 30th until January 9th, 2008, when I fly home, my schedule is wide open. Somewhere in Thailand.

All of which is Very Exciting. But I am homesick. Very much so. This will be my first Christmas away from home, and I find that notion very, very hard. To all my friends and family, I miss you terribly. I miss the comfort and familiarity of home, wearing sweaters, hugs, opening Christmas stockings, the wind, rain, and snow, curling up with a good book in front of the fire, catching up in coffee shops, making phone calls easily, feeling cold - all of it. I travelled halfway across the globe to discover how much I love home. A good thing, methinks.

I've had lots of adventures here and met great people and even some Very Intrepid Explorers. All of which I'll have to write about another time. Meanwhile, here is a small selection of photos of my most recent travels (unfortunately, blogger will only allow me to upload a few).

Have yourselves a merry little christmas, everyone. See you soon.

Love,

Dea


Getting my Open Water Diver certification in Pattaya.
Beside me is Tom, one of my instructors.

Family photo.
Some of the best people in Thailand: Aquanauts.




Muay Thai Kickboxing at Lumphini Stadium.
Tom from the UK, the Champ (all 135 lbs of him), and me.



Taking in sunset at Angkor Wat.


With Gary and Adam from the UK.
Founding members of Very Intrepid Explorers (VIE) - "We find shit."
at Beng Mealay, a remote temple in a recently cleared minefield some hours away from Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Steps to Doi Suthep, 14th century Buddhist wat atop a mountain in northern Thailand.

Monks enjoying the view from the top.


4 comments:

Rachel SQF said...

Big hugs back from snowy, drafty but snuggly Whistler. Enjoy where you are now (geographically and psychologically) and know that all your family and friends (furry ones included) are here for you when you return :-D
mwuah! rachie

Anonymous said...

Hiya Dea, nice photo of you and Tom! Good to see you're already putting your PADI certification to use! Siilans! Wow, great stuff.

Merry Christmas and hope to see you on the boat again!

Bill of the Birds said...

Dear Dea:

Your adventures sound incredible. Please blog more! Wishing you a peaceful journey into the new year.

Dea said...

Ah, bt3: I am home in cold Canada now and my adventures seem very far away... I am also having to catch up on 5 big bad law courses and once more become a diligent student ("once more" is a bit misleading - I never was that diligent). So I'm not sure if I will continue this blog.

In the abstract, I would like to, but practically speaking I don't know if I should... I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist and so would take way too long agonizing over creating perfect posts. And eventually I would run out of travel stories - then what? I admire that you and Julie let us into your lives so intimately with your blogs. Not sure if I'm brave enough to do the same.

I'll let you know if I pick this up again. Thanks for your interest!

dea