THEN: Mom said in a recent email that the world seems reluctant to be saved. I can think of few better examples of this than smoking, but maybe that’s because I’ve been saturated by it for the last few days. It seems that everyone abroad smokes, local and foreigner alike - except those from California, but we are few here. Until just now I was sitting in a tour office in Surat Thani.

Now I’ve been packed into yet another minibus, switched over halfway from Bangkok where I boarded a really nice bus. I don’t know if this is what people expect or whether everyone feels as duped as I do.

Enough complaining. It could be worse. At least we have aircon. Thailand has been pretty nice, you just gotta learn to roll with it, just like everywhere else in S.E. Asia.

60B Brunch (sandwich + sprite) 100B Transportation to beach 300B 1 night at Merit Hill Bungalows 62B Internet @ 1B/min 100B Transfer photos from camera to CD 165B Lunch (red curry pork + banana shake) 2100B Various cloth for gifts 140B Dinner 145B Snacks

NOW: So bitter. As I said I’m happier now. I just didn’t follow my rule of ‘don’t expect much’ that I learned from my first trip to Malaysia. It’s much better when you can actually follow that. And, to the credit of this bus company, this minibus wasn’t as bad as the other one.