Number 46

Yesterday I gathered all my things together and tried to figure out how to get them all home. I think I'm taking back about the same bulk and weight that I came with but somehow it seems like more. The Thai's are off for a few days but they all stopped by at different times to say goodbye and actually most of them are coming back today to say goodbye again.

I'm trying hard to "live within the moment" and squeeze every last drop out of this adventure, but I've crossed over from coming here, to being here, to leaving here. It's been a lot of fun, a truly great adventure and in many ways a life affirming journey. When all is said and done, it's been a good run and now the curtain is coming down. And it feels like it's time to come home.

One last Thailand bizarreness to report on. As many of you may have heard there was a terrible fire in an upscale nightclub in Bangkok on New Year's Eve. Fifty-nine people died and over 130 were hospitalized. A lot of the dead and injured were unidentified. On the news yesterday they showed the families of the victims trying to find if their loved ones had died or were in the hospital. The way the police did it was to take the morgue photos of everyone who was unidentified and post them on a board outside the police station so people would come by and try to identify photos of badly charred faces. I suppose it's practical but all of us Westerners who were watching the news couldn't imagine it happening back home.

Last night we had my going away party. We called Chai, of Chai's Blues House to see if the band was actually going to play and we were assured they would. We decided to also eat dinner there. Even though it's a small menu, the food is really good. It's Thai-American fusion food. Chai spent 10 years in the US and his "chef" is an ex-pat who knows what he's doing. When we walked in Chai gave me his big smile, big handshake and took care of us like we were his family. He personally served us and brought things we didn't order just to see if we would like them. There were 12 of us. Some old, some new (2 women from Argentina who are staying for a few days and a woman from Cambodia/Montana who is also passing through), some of the Thai's (even though they're off), Ronnie and the rest of my housemates. We ate and drank and Chai played two killer sets. Most of the people in our group had never heard blues before and they loved it. Chai is really a top notch blues guitarist and seeing him in his little club just tearing it up was really a nice send off for me. He came over after the last set and walked us out. There were too many of us to go in the car (several had come in a red truck) so he offered to drive half the people home. I can't imagine that happening anywhere in the US. The owner and band leader of a club offering to drive people home. I'm going to miss that part of this journey.

The "new" people and a few of the "old" wanted to go dancing so they went to a club called Spicy. It was almost 1 and I wasn't up for pounding dance music so I dropped a carload off at the club and headed back to the house with Thip and Ei Ei. We had some tea and talked and laughed awhile and then around 2 everyone came back from Spicy and the party fired up again. After a lot of laughing and stories everyone was tired and we all went to sleep around 3:30.

I leave here for Bangkok tonight at 9, arriving around 10. I have to sit in the airport in Bangkok until 6 am. Then a 6 hour flight to Tokyo, a 2 hour layover and an 11 hour flight home. I know it's not quite over but to quote the Grateful Dead; "what a long strange trip it's been...."

I'll have one more entry when I get back. I'm looking forward to seeing all of you in Minnesota when I get back and communicating with the rest of you by phone or email. I hope you've enjoyed reading this blog as much as I've enjoyed sitting down and sharing with all of you. When I get home I'll go through all the photos (over 800 now) and fine tune them.

"See" you all on the other side of my flights home.