FYI - I'm still alive

I've been so busy! Things are going well. I went to Chiang Mai...notrthern Thailand, and watched some Muay Thai kickboxing, rode on an elephant, rafted standing on bamboo rafts, hiked to a hill tribe homes, went behind a waterfall, then came back to Bangkok. Just bought a three peice suit, two ties, an extra pair of pants, two dress shirts and a black overcoat for $250 US. Sad part is, I could have haggled for probably $180-200 but it was such a ridiculously good price that I was too happy to get that stuff so cheap. Basically, you get caught up in haggling and saving money. I negotiate when a room is like $6 or a t-shirt is $4...and then I realize that I should buy like 20 of them since that's so much cheaper than home!

Tonight I'm off on an overnight bus to Phuket Island! The buses can be a nightmare, but it was 650 baht ($16.25) for an air-conditioned VIP bus so I thought I'd try it out. So this time tomorrow, I'll be on the beach! Its about 80-90 degrees here in BK, so I'm ready for some ocean action.

On another note, I'm really falling in love with this place. The people are so friendly and happy, and no one really worries about anything. On the other hand, they will trick you into buying junk or a bad bus ride once in a while! Haha. Even the fighting matches were so unique...they had a band playing Thai music and the fighters seemed to use it for tempo, and as the fighting got more intense so did the music! They love when farang (foreigners, aka me) want to learn the language, so I've learned all kinds of useful phrases. For example:
Hello.
Where are you going?
Do you have a boyfriend?
You are very beautiful!

I think these will prove very useful for me. Anyway, last but not least, I've uploaded photos, but am not sure how for you to view them yet! It takes a long time cause these connections are slow. Worst case, I'll post them when I'm back, but hopefully when I meet up with Josh on Wednesday he can help. Take care!

Travis

PS - click on the right where it says "edit me" to see the Phuket website! That's where I'll be the rest of this week!