No rest for the road-weary

Well, didn't take the day off yesterday as planned. Went to the waterfall instead. The fall was incredible, one of the nicest I've every seen. Huge. (the pict on left is just a little place that I swam and played around with camera shutter speeds after hiking the falls...). Today is the rest day, although I haven't been resting too much. The alarm woke me up at 8AM (oh, the humanity!) and I quickly turned on CNN to catch the VP debate. After I had about 30-40 minutes of that, I needed a break, so I went and had breakfast, and then came back for the end. The idea of Palin with her finger on the button is not only scary, but just bazaar. Shouldn't we have more safeguards than that in place? I think she probably thinks that Russian troops tried to invade Atlanta last month... I caught the clip from SNL where Tina Fey spoofs her by saying exactly the same thing (word for word) as in her Katie Curric interview. Classic. Anyway, enough of that.

After the debate, to the internet, then lunch, then walking around, then cafe. Then internet again (now), soon massage, back to room for nap (time permitting...), and then hopefully to see the evening monk prayers. Also, tonight I might sign up for a 2 day/1 night trek to hill tribe villages (starting tomorrow). We'll see what's available/interesting. The overnight should be very primitive, maybe more so than my camping was in Borneo. But 1 day should be OK.

Can't believe I'm just 1 week out from getting on a plane back to the States. Reentry is going to be strange. Please forgive me if I have forgotten who you are, who I am, what I do, how to speak English, how to drive, what side of the road to drive on, how to dress when I have more than 3 shirts to choose from, etc. Gonna take a little time I think. Am looking forward to somethings though:

• seeing friends and family (of course!)
• seeing Mocha and Zipper (of course!)
• my own bed
• Peets coffee
• cheese and good bread (although I'm getting both in Laos)
• low humidity
• Mexican food
• Mt. Biking
• Cal Football
• Leech free hikes (I broke my "no more leeches" pledge with one sucker yesterday and can expect many more if I trek tomorrow)

Things that I will miss though from SE Asia:

• Strangers that are actually friendly
• cheap, quality food
• cheap, quality massages
• cheap, quality most things
• the predictability in which unpredictable things happen
  

Probably many more for each list, but that's it for now as the massage calls. One note about massage that I meant to write before: I think I mentioned that I got a massage from a blind lady in Cambodia that was awesome. What I'm not sure if I mentioned or not was that sure was ridiculously strong and just about ripped my (very tight) hamstrings apart. I certainly like a strong, deep massage, but if someone is working your hamstrings and you can feel their fingers on the underside of your quads, they are pushing too hard.

Lastly, I've slowly been adding more pict to my site. There is now an Angkor Wat folder that is slowing getting filled. Pictures are trailing my by about a weeks I guess...

-erik