Look closely and you might be able to see that this is a picture of a torrential downpore! Somehow the people here just know when it's going to rain (as opposed to our odds of being right about 50% of the time). As we were eating breakfast all of the shop owners started pulling out their awnings - a sure sign it was coming. We paid and quickly walked to our hotel as it was getting misty, and then were able to watch from the open-air lobby as the wall of rain moved toward us. It was amzing - I could actually see where the rain started as it moved toward us! It is so different from typical northwest rain.
On days like this, we are not able to be outside much, though we did just jet over to lunch during a break in the downpour. We watched a version of "Kung Fu Panda" that was clearly recorded by someone sitting in the theater, then copied. There were English subtitles (though the movie was in English...) and so many words were misspelled, and often if there was a lot of talking, only the first bits would be on the screen, then it would just leave off for a while till the next charcter started talking. It was odd - but the sub titles are helpful because often you can't hear all of the words due to the poor sound quality.
While we wish it was bright and sunny every day in paradise, we're ultimately just hoping tomorrow will be nicer since it's our last full day here before we head for the mayhem of Bangkok. It will take about 20 hours and a taxi, boat, bus, and train to get there - could it get any more complicated? The up side is it's only costing us about $50 each, rather than $150 or so for the plane ticket. And it's overnight so we save $20-30 on a room.
Sounds strange to be skimping over such small amounts of money, but not only are things more expensive than the last time we were here, the US dollar is worthless over here. We meet people from all different countries, and when the topic comes up, they pretty much feel sorry for us. I have been asked a few times if it will be better when we get a new president...what do I say? I hope so! It's always interesting talking to people from other countries and hearing their perspectives on America, the presidential election, and how it all compares to other places.
We're doing quite a lot of reading - Lewis is on his third Stephen King book, and I'm struggling to find books that I haven't read yet, that are also not complete garbage. Needless to say, I've read a fair bit of garbage. The quality books are just so much more expensive than even at home. The e-mails we get make for much better reading - thanks to everyone who is writing to us, we love to hear from you!
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