We just finished up a lovely 3 week vacation with our good friends from Vancouver who travelled far and wide and long and far to meet us. To the north, west and the south of Thailand we traversed, ending with 8 days Koh Phangnan. Yes, the same island that we spend a month on at the end of last year. It’s such a nice spot, we had to take them there. We couldn’t get into our favourite place, The Seaflower, so we stayed next door at some over-priced, mediocre bungalows. It was OK but a little weird as it seemed to be mostly populated with young, single, good-looking Russian moms with very fresh babies. No dads, just skinny super-model moms enjoying the beach with their sprogs. Some had other children as well – disturbingly muscular toddlers wearing speedos who liked to throw mud at each other.

You can almost see the children’s rippling muscles in the sunset.

And just down the beach were camped the British gangster families – big gruff bald men with bad tattoos, their trashy wives with badly-permed hair and screaming kids. They seemed to be headed by a heavily made-upped matriarch who smoked a lot and talked in a low raspy voice. I’m thinking if Guy Ritchie, Sexy Beast and Coronation Street had a three-way, this large, almost cliched, family would be it’s unholy offspring(s). Offsrpung? I think that they were all there for a big British gangster-style wedding. Wish I had taken some photos but I didn’t want my teeth smashed in. Or out. At least they brought fireworks for a nice display on our final night.

Scott and I “enjoying” $15 worth of beer.

We had a great time with our friends and it was sad to see them go. Departing made me miss home a bit and made me think about what I missed from home.

Kids like iced cream I found out.

So I started making a little list: “The Things I Miss From Home”, I called it for some reason.

(In no particular order)

– Cheese (Fuck, I love cheese!)
– Good beer (Getting a tad tired of the 3 beers here. They have varying degrees of bad taste)
– Shower curtains (Ahh, shower curtains. I dream of shower curtains)
– Black Dog Video (You’re still open?!)
– Friends (No, not the TV show. I hate that show. Real human friends)
– Sushi (Although there is a place here in Chiang Mai called “Sushi in the Sky with Diamonds”. I haven’t tried it yet).
– Hockey (Playing it mostly, but watching it as well. But, mostly playing)
– Not smelling raw sewage everywhere I go. (Especially unappetizing in restaurants. Go figure.)
– Clean menus (Nobody seems to be really into wiping them down. Or the tables. Or the chairs. Or…)
– Putting toilet paper in the toilet instead of the tiny trash can beside the toilet. (Gets a little gross after a few days. Especially with all the greasy noodles and thin Thai beer consumed.)
– Cooking (As much as I love eating out, I miss being at the other end of the skillet)
– My Kitchen – So I can do said cooking.
– Wine (It’s crazy expensive here and about as good as one would imagine wine in Thailand might be)
– My couch (for various reasons)
– My bed (for various reasons)
– Fried eggs (It’s almost impossible to get an egg fried properly here)
– I’d say my cat, but not really. She’s a bit of a jerk.

That’s part of the beauty of travel – missing things. It makes one appreciate what we have back at home and it makes you miss things.

But then we do have this…

Guy Incognito on the beach.

That’ll do, beach. That’ll do.