Same, same...

...but different.

That's a saying you'll encounter almost daily here in Thailand. Oh, you like this apple? Have this banana instead - same, same (but different). You're never totally sure what you're going to get, which is incredibly aggravating but if you take it in stride and force yourself to smile, you'll find yourself laughing.

While waiting for the ferry in Phuket a few weeks ago, my new friend Julie wandered off for a few minutes and came back with a delicious, ice-cold coconut. I asked her where she got it, and she pointed me in the direction of a little food stall, where an older woman was selling drinks and snacks. She told me she paid 40 baht for it (which is a lot for a coconut, but we were in a ferry terminal, there weren't many options). I pushed my way up to the front of the line and politely asked the woman for a coconut, only to be told that the price of coconuts had risen to 50 baht in the last 60 seconds. Same request for a coconut, same women...but different prices. I couldn't bring myself to submit to this tumultuous coconut stock market and so I walked away, rejected and without a coconut.

I think about instances like this and I laugh out loud. When I first moved into my current apartment, I met God. He's been really helpful and keeps an eye out for everyone in the building. He plays his violin late at night in the lobby and comes to the rescue with roach-spray every time I find a cockroach in my bathroom (ugh).

Yes, God is actually his name. He's a middle-aged Thai man, with a quiet demeanor and limited English skills. If ever I ask him a question, he stares at me for several awkward seconds, and then slowly responds. One evening I came home and God was watching Fox News in the lobby (ha), in an attempt to be the friendly neighbor I asked him what channel number it was. He stared at me for a long, painful thirty seconds and then responded, "Twenty-four." I thanked him and went up to my room. I had barely set my bag down when there was a knock at my door. God was standing there, "Did you find it?" he asked.

"No..."

"I will help." And so I invited him in, turned on the TV and handed him the remote. He flipped through the channels, past twenty-four, twenty-five...forty-three...fifty-seven...sixty-six! He smiled at me and walked out. Twenty-four, sixty-six; same, same, but different.

This attitude is everywhere. Thais don't want to disappoint you or, lose face. If you ask someone for something and they don't have the answer, they'll simply make something up because they don't want to let you down. I've waited entirely too long for a dish at restaurant, realizing after a while that they sent someone out to get ingredients for the stir fry. When I first arrived, I got lost everywhere I went because if people don't know where you want to go, they'll make something up so they have an answer for you. It's very sweet, but I've stopped asking directions.

North vs. South

I'm experiencing a lot of firsts over here. First time in Asia, first time truly living in a foreign country, first Christmas away from my family, first New Years Eve outside of Seattle...I spent Christmas Eve and Day dodging my way through Bangkok in the Santa Hat that Julia gave me (because she knew how sad I was to not be with my family, what a friend!). Bangkok is big, muggy and expensive and I hope to spend as little time there as possible over the next year. After Christmas Brunch we hopped on a train to head down to Prachuap Khiri Khan, on the East Coast where my friends C'pher and Parker live. Our train journey led me to conclude that I should learn how to say "First class, air conditioning" in Thai. But we made it.

Prachuap is a beautiful little fishing town on the beach. There's a lovely long boardwalk down which Julia and I went for a Boxing Day run. There are very few farang (non-Asian foreigners) in the town and it's got a very slow vibe to it, which I enjoyed. Parker and C'pher have an amazing house literally on the beach with a great balcony overlooking the water. I'm convinced it's the nicest place I'm going to stay in for the next year.

Boxing Day evening we went out to a delicious seafood dinner, returned

to the house to pack and then the five of us (Julia, Parker, C'pher and his friend Danny) took an overnight bus to Krabi, a southern jump-off point for the islands. From Krabi, we went up the West Coast of Thailand, stopping in the Khao Lumpi-Hat National Park. The beach was amazing. For as far as the naked eye could see, we were the only living souls in existence. Sky blue water and calm waves, not a cloud in the sky. A few days later we ventured back down to Krabi and got on a ferry that took us to Koh Phi Phi.

I have mixed feelings about Phi Phi, which by the way is famous for being the place where The Beach was filmed. Immediately upon arrival the insanity of the island hits you. Everywhere you look there are drunken, hungover and half-naked farang, carrying beer or, more notably, "buckets". Buckets are a southern phenomenon. When empty, one might mistake them for an innocent child's sandcastle-building tool, but on Phi Phi they exist to hold copious amounts of liquor, soda and Red Bull (a Thai product, I learned). Each bucket has several straws shoved in it, because clearly this form of drinking needs to be a more social activity. Upon stepping off the ferry, each traveler is required to pay a 20 baht "Phi Phi Island Clean-Up Fee" to which almost everyone protests (myself included). However, after a few hours on the island, I am quite convinced this fee should be significantly larger or paid upon departure, in which case many people would be compelled simply by guilt to donate in more gracious amounts. One baht per straw, five baht per cigarette butt, ten baht per bodily fluid expelled in the ocean...sorry, but I had to say it.

But I'm being too hard on Phi Phi. It's actually beautiful. People flock there for a reason. The picture to the left is from the view point, which was a little bit of a trek up, plus you had to dodge wild monkeys. It's a small island, but because there are no cars or roads each separate shore and bay is quite isolated from the next. On Phi Phi we met up with Jessie and her two friends, Ariel and Julie, and all eight of us stayed in some bungalows up in the hills. It was shady and quiet up there. Each day, we ventured down to the beach to walk around or hire on a longtail boat to explore some more secluded places. Watching the NYE fireworks on the island was incredible because they were being lit right in from of us. Yes, I came close to being burned a handful of times by rogue fireworks and open the flames of makeshift kerosene lamps randomly decorating the sand, but I managed to leave the beach unscathed.

I spent New Years Day in paradise with the girls, laying on the beach in the softest, whitest sand I've ever seen. We could barely drag ourselves off the shore, but eventually, after sunset, we hired a longtail boat to taxi us back to the main beach.

I returned to Chiang Mai on Sunday evening and while the south of Thailand is picture-perfect and a lot of fun (mark my words, I will go back!), I'm so happy to be back in the north where the hills are green, the air is cool and the people are just really laid back.