Day 9

December 16: Day 9 Emily Let me start right where I left off. Sorry, this is gonna be a long one. As you know, I consumed two boba drinks last night, both of which were caffeinated. I knew this going into it, and I prepared myself for a restless night of sleep or lack thereof. But nothing could have prepared me for what actually happened. I managed to fall asleep around 12, but it was a very light sleep. I was somehow jostled awake at 1:30, and didn’t know why. A few seconds later, a shrill, female scream tore through the alley next to our hostel, followed by three aggressive and threatening-sounding male shouts. Then, nothing. No sounds of violence, but… I didn’t know what to do. My heart was pounding from fear and caffeine. Joey was asleep, as was everyone else in Thailand it seemed. Dogs started barking and I held my knees to my chest. What was I going to do? The front desk closes at 9. I don’t speak Thai. I don’t know the number for 911. I wasn’t about to pull a Nancy Drew and venture outside to solve a mystery and put myself in danger. I tried to look out the window, but the glass was frosted. I didn’t want to be seen, so I opened it just a few inches to see down below, but there was nothing obviously wrong… except that there was nobody around. I couldn’t have been the only one to hear it. I woke Joey up to tell him, but he fell back asleep. I heard footsteps coming down the hall and a shadow passed by the crack under the door, so somebody was up – maybe they heard it, too. I went into the bathroom so I wouldn’t wake Joey up and called my parents, who told me to open the window more and look out again. I did, but I still couldn’t see anyone. The dogs had started barking again, but the sound came from beyond a building that I couldn’t see over or around. I locked the window and my parents said that there wasn’t much that I could do about the situation. I ended up talking to them for two hours, just about normal stuff, which was very comforting. Well, I fell in and out of some kind of sleep stupor for the rest of the night, woke up with a stomachache and swore off sugar for the rest of the trip. Nothing online this morning about an attack last night. Hm. Got a great breakfast with Joey (who else?). The rest of the day was a travel day. We are now at our hostel in Koh Phangan, perfectly safe. Pretty touristy, but nice people so far. Heads up, tomorrow’s blog post might be delayed because we’ll probably be up pretty late and only want to sleep when we get back to the room. Speaking of our room, it smells like fish rotting on a giant kelp plant half buried in wet sand during the hottest part of the day. See ya, Emily

Joey Joey didn’t feel like writing anything today, but he probably would have said something along the lines of: My breakfast was way too spicy, we took a cab, a plane, two minivan “limos”, a ferry, and another minivan to get from Chiang Mai to Koh Phangan. My dinner was also too spicy. But I love curry so much I can’t help myself. The beach here is pretty cool, too. There was a guy twirling these fireballs on a platform and there were sparks flying everywhere and Emily’s and my jaws dropped. It was amazing! Maybe I’ll buy a pair of shorts here. So excited for tomorrow’s adventures! -Emily

Attempted cuddles at the Chiang Mai Airport

Airplane magazine advertisement. The caption for this picture read: "The best beach club: for nice people only". Apparently nice people can be identified by their hooded swimsuits.  

Our exact expressions during our final minivan "limo" from the ferry to our hostel. We've had about enough of these full days of travel.