Feels like a holiday

Well, I've been in Thailand for almost a week. It's been a fairly luxurious start so far! I met up with some relatives from Norway in a resort town called Hua Hin. It's supposedly the resort town for older Europeans - a place that's easy on the Thai! While we stayed in a beautiful house, in a "European" neighbourhood (aka, people with money), Hua Hin itself was a bit of a dive. Dirty, lots of wild dogs and okay food.

But I did have a lovely visit with Roger and Sonja for a few days and then went off on a 7 hour bus ride to Pattaya to meet up with their son, Stian, and his wife Noy (who is Thai) and their new baby Camilla.

We stayed in a quiet part of the city in a new hotel called Nova Gold. Open for only 2 months so far, they still have some kinks to work out i.e. how to keep the water in the shower and not flood the entire bathroom (and this is a high-end hotel!). But they have free internet and computers in every room... that was convenient.

While I've been eating fairly conservatively to slowly adapt to the food here, Noy, her friend, Gong (pronouced Goon) and I went out for Thai Noodle soup at a roadside food stand. It was sooo delicious and better yet my stomach didn't go crazy!!! Noy's friend was really sweet and offered for me to stay with her if I wanted to stay in Pattaya for a few more days. However I declined so i can get to Vietnam! So much for being spontaneous - haha!

I'm now back in Bangkok sorting out my Visa, Airplane and hotel for Hanoi. I'm so excited to go there. I will be in Vietnam for Tet - the lunar new year! Should very cool to see all of the celebrations.

I still feel like I'm on holiday. It hasn't sunk in that I will be away for so long! And winding down has been a challenge too... trying not to think about what I'm going to do when I get home.... ugh I wish I could turn that part of my brain off! Hopefully when I really start to explore new places I will start to enjoy the moment!!

More soon...

xoxo

PS. I'll post pictures soon! Once I figure out charging my computer.... mrrrrr.

FYI - Monica, I'm staying at the Asia Hotel. I was up on the roof top remember how I wanted to get every last bit of sun before we left for home! Haha.