Steak and Berries all of the meat. none of the fat.

This is crazy. And I mean that in the way someone does when she can’t walk straight down a sidewalk because there’s too much to look at and when she finally reaches the intersection, she looks up and says, “This is crazy.” Also in the way that a lo-budget youngster means when she is rooted to a beach chair eating crab and glass noodles from a mini-wok over coals and for that brief pause in her spirited consumption, she looks up to see the ocean and says, “This is crazy.” And not excluding the way an aspiring gardener sifts through compost and, upon finding a grub the size of one of her kidneys, looks closer and says, “This is crazy.”

You pickin’ up what I’m puttin’ down here?

We landed in Bangkok almost two weeks ago, on October 2nd. After much time spent unsuccessfully trying to figure out how we would leave LA on September 30 at 3:15 in the afternoon and arrive in Bangkok at 1:15 in the morning on October 1st (we are 14 hours ahead of California here), we were a bit confused when we finally got to our hotel at 4something am on October 2nd. But, alas, we made it. And it’s fascinating. We explored Bangkok for a few days – eating delicious street food (not always knowing what it was… this requires a lot of pointing), visiting a couple of glittering Buddhas and even falling for the famous 10Baht tuktuk tour that we were warned about time and time again (bery bery sneaky). Everyone told us to skip out of Bangkok as quickly as possible but, honestly, I’m glad we didn’t because it’s one of the more interesting cities I’ve been in. We stayed in a quiet guest house near the Chao Phraya river and spent much of our time eating – the food is cheap and delicious which is (as my dear, future sister-in-law, Andrea, would say) an ‘insta-win.’ But I do understand the advice because after a few days, we were a bit overwhelmed and ready to leave.

After a couple of days waking up to exhilarating rainstorms, lounging on the small, warm beach and indulging in a delicious mini-wok crab with glass noodle dinner (probably my favorite meal so far) on an island called Koh Sichang, we made our way to Bang Phra to do some farming. This is our first WWOOF experience in SE Asia and, well, it’s been quite interesting. Not exactly what we expected but I will say this – I can feel our character building, if you know what I mean. It is exciting to see bananas growing around you and a greenhouse that’s not a house at all, just a roof to protect the little seedlings from the extreme rain here. Some of you might also like to know that the chickens here look and act exactly like the chickens at home. Just a small, seemingly insignificant reminder that the world may not be so big after all. Oh, except they have banana trees in their coop.

We love Thailand, we’re excited for what’s next. We’ve got a couple other farming opportunities in the works and upcoming plans that involve us finding people we love on this side of the world. Which is exciting. It’s all pretty exciting. But the thing I find funny is how very regular it seems at times. People are people and before you know it, you’ll fall into the flow of those around you. The flow of passing vendor frying quail eggs in what looks like a giant escargot dish, taking my shoes off to step inside a very small, liquor-store-type place or finding myself eye level with Standing Buddha’s enormous toes. If I stop to think about it, I realize that this isn’t quite regular for me but it is for a lot of people and I’m glad I get to be a part of this flow. Even when I’m dripping sweat and using strange hand motions to ask for water. It’s all part of the adventure.

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“Look at Giselle, she’s droppin’ a huge blog.” -Gavin