a tribute to pai

getting ready to leave...
almost....one more day, one more day in the pai-radise. we've met some awesome people lately and every moment with them is an absolute joy, so present and happy all the time just being with them! kat from toronto, sharing meals and humor and lazy pai days and our market/cooking night where we made food for 12 people....the argentinian couple, chino and rata, two of the most beautiful people i've ever seen with their huge smiles and emanating love, chino's great laughter makes us feel like natural comedians, we all adore na's kitchen and have shared meals there the last couple of nights....

today i sat at the pool between chino and rata, feet dangling in, looking at the blue and cloudy sky, those big towering cumulous clouds and rays of sunlight pouring out from all sides of them as they pass over the sun....three perfect songs came on, 'don't worry be happy' which seemed like an ideal anthem for my experience the past few days, then 'stand by me' which is really a sweet classic song, and then 'my girl' which my sister and i used to sing together in the living room when we were little and we even made up a little routine for the whole song in pantomime to the words....rata and i were both softly singing each song as we sat there by the water...oh, what a moment! i felt pretty much ecstatically happy all day :)

we've been deep in flight research internet land the last couple of days, trying to find good prices for our next round of flights and such. we are both listening to a CD we burned from the great music venue in town, phu-pai....it's called billie holiday, remixed and reimagined....taking billie holiday songs and adding beats and breaks and other instruments, weaving it together...SO GOOD! enjoyed our last meal at na's tonight....wow have we eaten there a lot of times, and it's so good every time! thick noodles with oyster mushrooms, egg, kaffir lime leaf, lemongrass, burned chili paste, green beans....panang curry with pumpkin, carrot, fresh baby corn, green beans, lime leaves, coconut milk....brown rice....the beloved som tam salad....coconut banana shakes...all for $6...wow.

i am really just rambling...i wanted to convey how amazing it is to meet people from other places, to sit by a pool in a place that none of you live in and sing the words to a song together...to smile and smile and smile...to hug people you met three days ago and say i love you to them because you really do, truly and simply....to travel as long as we have together and to be more in love than we ever were at the beginning of our trip...(did you know...ten years ago yesterday -the 24th- was the first day that carson and i ever laid eyes on each other at the paramount theatre in seattle at the indigo girls concert, after chatting on AOL for over four months prior!??)...to ride back to our place every night, ascending the hill, lanterns aglow in the sky, pai down below, bungalows by the river, unlocking our door, stepping on those teak floors, reading before bed...breakfast at the good life, always a pleasure, scooping wheatgrass foam off the huge green shot, drinking pu-er tea, saying hello...what a pleasure it's been to spend so much time in this place and really integrate! tonight we're going out to phu pai again to see a great band called the tonic rays (the people we had christmas dinner with)....love to everyone at home and everywhere!!
melissa