Back in the Swing of Things

I am back in Thailand, and we are back in the swing of things over here. About two weeks ago Jeff received his new assignment here, which meant that I got the green light to fly back out. We are really excited to get to spend some more time in Thailand, as we have really fallen in love with this country! We will miss our families at the holidays, but it looks like we will be staying in Pattaya until the end of January.

I had been out of Thailand for six weeks, and for the most part everything is the same as I left it. However, in the week I've been back I have noticed a few changes. First off, the weather is completely different. When I left it was rainy season. Every day was exactly the same; the morning was sunny, and every afternoon like clockwork the skies would open up to drench us. Since I returned, its been cloudy a few times, but no rain! The absence of rain has been great, but even better has been the drop in humidity! All summer long it was ridiculously humid here. You couldn't walk outside without getting sweaty. Now, I can be outside all day and not break a sweat. It's such a HUGE difference! Case in point: in my difficult daily schedule (note the sarcasm) I try to squeeze in some pool time every day. Before I left, after 15-20 minutes in the sun I would be dripping in sweat and would have to jump in the pool to cool down. All last week I laid at the pool for hours on end without even breaking a sweat! The nights are so much cooler here and all in all the weather's just a lot more pleasant.

Another huge difference is the composition of tourists. Summer is the low season here, so most tourists we encountered fit into one of two categories: 1. Australian families/couples; or 2. Older single white men from the west (US, Germany, Russia mostly). The Australians were on a cheap winter getaway. The single men were taking advantage of what put this town on the map. November to March is high season here, and there is a whole new crowd walking the streets. Everywhere we look there are TONS of older couples on holiday. There are still the single old men, but there are also a lot of single younger men now, and they tend to come in large groups. They do the same things the old single men did, but there's just a lot more of them!

The last difference is probably my favorite. Since it was low season, the hotel here was under construction. Every day we lived with constant pounding, hammering, and drilling. Now that high season is here, the construction is over!!! This is so fantastic considering that Jeff worka night shift and had to try and sleep through the noise!

We have a lot of blog posts to catch up on, so stay tuned!!!