Welcome to Thailand, now speak English.

So it turns out that while niether the sun nor the whiskey probably helped my situation, niether were direct culprits. Traveler's Diarrhea, caused by any number of bacteria foreign to our sanitized American digestive systems. Man, what a pain in the ass. Get it? I was pretty much bed-ridden with no appetite for two solid days in the midst of a tropical paradise. I thought long and hard whether the deal was better or worse than a good day in the office, but remained indecisive. I'm now on a steady diet of 500 mg Ciproflaxin tablets procured from ol' Doc Li in P-Land and some rehydration powders that taste vaguely like a sweetened salt lick. I'd say, with confidence today, that I'm running at about 92% juice. I feel as though I've earned to right to carry on vacationing!

Enough of that crap... Get it? We left Ko Phuket yesterday via a taxi from Mai Khao to Bang Rong pier, then a ferry boat to Ko Yao Noi. Pretty sweet here. Rented a quite motor-scooter (it's quite masculine, honest) for about $8 for the day and stayed in a hut with electricity, bathroom, and teli. All things we didn't really need, but it doesn't cost very much.

We're quickly learning that if you don't have any idea where you're going when you get to a new place, you should probably at least be prepared to lie about it. Otherwise, you just cave under the pressure of seventy-five dudes all like "Hello, where are you going?" and jump in the back of one of their taxis. Then you just end up wherever they take you. My biggest problem so far is getting over the Hollywood notion that everyone is tryin to F us in the worst way. Most people seem decent, even though they are all trying to make a buck. You can't really blame them. Even when it seems we might be getting ripped off, it's only a difference of about 2 or 3 american dollaz.

It's absolutely amazing everywhere we go. We'll probably tool around and look like tourists for another couple of hours today before we hop a ferry to the next picturesque beach. Pictures soon maybe. I'm taking a lot, but still haven't mastered getting them uploaded to the web through an internet cafe.

Only met a couple of Americans so far. Most white people are European. We kicked it with some real cool English folk at the last place we stayed. People speak some English all over the place, but there really is a striking barrier sometimes. Usually you can get the point across. I feel like I've won a small victory, as I can now fluently say "Hello" (Sawatdee Khrap) and "Thank You" (Kawp Kun Khrap). I feel pretty foolish when I do, so usually I just rely on repetitive English at increasingly slow speeds.