Smoggy Skies

Gregg bought about 15 t-shirts on Sunday. We had to go drop some off at the hotel because his backpack was getting too heavy. We went on a minor shopping spree even though Gregg was already worried about our baggage being overweight. It's hard to know when to stop, but when you get back home, you always wish you'd bought more.

We were walking down the street when suddenly someone shouted our names. The next thing we knew, we were settled in at a table having another slow boat reunion. We were once again reunited with English Sarah and Dutch Tim. Then along came English Martin who brought news of seeing English Will. Small little tourist world. I imagine I shall run into some of them again one day.

As we tried to finish up shopping on Khao San Road, it began to rain. It wasn't the light rains or even heavy rains that the prairies get. This was a torrential downpour, a minor monsoon. It didn't let up for a long time. The gutters couldn't keep up with the water and soon the street was flooded and the water was creeping up over the curb. To cross the street, we had to wade through 18 inches of water. I was glad Gregg got to see what real rain is, but was saddened by the loss of shopping time. Everyone was packing up and plastering everything with plastic. I made a few quick purchases and then we ran through the flooded streets to the safety of the Baan Sabai. Gregg's flip flops kept falling off.

We arose at 3:30 to be at the airport by 5 for our seven o'clock flight. Our bags were pretty much exactly the allowable limit. I acheived this feat by throwing away almost all the clothes that I had began the trip with. Other than being late and the bus to Kaohsiung being slow, our travel back to Taiwan was painless.

It's interesting to compare the written scripts of the languages we encountered on our trip. Lao and Thai alphabets are full of "u"s, "n"s, and round lines and circles. The written words have a strange beauty. Chinese has its characters. What I found interesting was Vietnamese. It is tonal like Chinese, except it has 6 tones instead of four. But written Vietnamese uses a Latin alphabet.

Gregg's in Hong Kong now, seeing the sights solo. I'm in Taiwan wrapping up the loose ends of my life and saying my final goodbyes. It really hasn't hit me that I'm leaving this smoggy and surprisingly beautiful island for good. It has been my home for nearly two years.

Gregg is helping me to move home in many ways. He is transporting some of my stuff. But just being around him and talking about family and things back home has helped my heart and emotions to move back to North America. I guess I'm finally ready to go home. I'll keep you posted on how it goes. Any advice for re-culturization, Katrina?