I have but one thing to say just now...

...

WooHoo!!!! I'm in Thailand. WooHoo!!!!

The forecast was for snow in UB as I flew away from it yesterday. But now I am sitting in an open air cafe run by a Thai guesthouse having just had a great breakfast and orange juice.

My plane landed at 12:10 last night and I made my way directly to Taewez Guesthouse, a place I had heard puts a lot of Peace Corps Thailand volunteers up. As I arrived I found a table of them at the bar.

I dropped my stuff in my room and we all trekked off to Khao San Road where we sat on a carpet outside a store and drank beer with other people. I had my first ride in a Tuk Tuk...the little golf-cart type thingies they have all over the place.

We got back to the guesthouse around 3:30....what was professed to be an early night for some of the soon-to-be-finished Peace Corps volunteers here. The guesthouse is nice...I have a private room with a fan. The volunteers are all friendly and helpful. Some have already offered to host me at their sites if I want to visit.

The overwhelming response to my admission that I am a PC Mongolia volunteer was this:

"What??"

Then...once I tell people I have no fruit or vegetables for the most part:

"How do you live?"

Some of them were surprised to hear me praise the selection at the local 7-eleven as bountiful.

There is a volunteer here recently medevaced from Turkmenistan...he seems to have some idea what it's all about as he also subsists on meat and potatoes. But as some of the local volunteers ambled down the street with fresh Pad Thai in their hands I had to be a little jealous.

All is well...I love my little subzero corner of the world and I can gorge myself on fruit for the next two weeks while I'm on vacation.

More later from Paradise!!