100 Days in Thailand :: Day 3 (Part 1)

• Woke up feeling like someone tried to beat me to death in my sleep. My back and hips ache! This bed is not doing good things to me (even though last night we added our thermarests under the sheets to make it more bearable.) 

• I forgot that with another country comes unfamiliar animals and animal sounds. The past two mornings I’ve heard some very different sounding birds out my window! Just another part of traveling.

• I like having my talking alarm clock back! Since I’m using my cell phone from Africa (with a Thai sim card) it’s my alarm clock too. And I have the option for it to ring, beep, or SPEAK to me. So, every morning a nice lady tells me in a British or South African accent (can’t tell which one), “The time is now 9 o’clock. It’s time to get up.” So much better than a blaring alarm! I wish we had these in America!

• Every time I walk into a bathroom I PRAY that there will be a regular toilet inside. Squatty potties are common here (and they were in the Tokyo airport bathroom too) and I am not ready to try those yet! I've done a "Long Drop" in Africa, but that's pretty much like an outhouse. A squatty potty is a hole in the floor, and you have to squat all the way down to use one. Sounds like a disastrous idea to me!

• I braved my first COLD shower today....I have never taken such a fast shower in my LIFE! Yes, it's warmer here, but it's not sweltering hot (especially not inside) and the shower is inside in the shade. I wanted to scream it was so cold, but Thai people are very quiet and I didn't want to upset the whole house. So, I shivered and shook and prayed for it to be OVER! I survived...but I would love to know how these girls shave their legs when they have goosebumps everywhere!? I'll definitely be wearing pants today!

• After our shower I almost blew up my hair dryer. Lord help me! Thai plugs are not being good to my appliances! Luckily I was watching carefully and the second it started looking like a firework inside the dryer I shut it off. Praise the Lord I was able to change the voltage to 250 (if you ever wondered what that little switch was on your hairdryer now you know!) and saved my pretty pink travel hair dryer!

Here's the verdict on the groceries we bought yesterday:

1. Cheesy rice crackers = BAD. They taste like a rice cake only harder, flater, and covered in cheese powder. BLAH! Those quickly got "donated" to the community food table.
2. Coconut cookies = GOOD! These are little vanilla cookies with a hint of a coconut flavor. YUM!
3. Coconut yogurt = Umm...somewhere in the middle. First of all I was right - it WAS coconut! And the flavor was yummy, but the little chunks of coconut in it were...um...not coconut. Coconut is not clear or gummy. BLAH!
4. Fried Seaweed = DISGUSTING! It tasted like a fried pork rind mixed with grass. BLAH!