I'm BAAAAACK
So, things got hectic in Thailand. Every time I went to the internet café I had to deal with issues with the permit (which the DNP went and freaking LOST and we had to re-submit it) and finding a new roommate since my old roommate got a fellowship that took her to DC. Try finding a roommate via internet from across the planet with only sporadic email access. Not fun.

I didn’t get to run much, although I was constantly active while in the park. I did go for a few runs, trying to modify my form. One day I had the genius idea halfway through my 3 mile run to make it an 6 mile run instead. Only after mile 2 the run turned uphill and left the shade of the forest into open fields and the full heat of the sun. I don’t think I’ve felt oxygen debt like that in a long time.

One lesson I learned well is that if you want to stay more than one month you should really should buy your visa before you get there. You cannot buy a visa in the country other than the 30 day visa on arrival that you get at the airport. So I had to take a lovely bus trip across the border to Cambodia. It’s a 5+ hour ride from Bangkok, then you have to get out of Thailand, walk across the border to Cambodia ignoring all the people trying to scam you. Don’t ask for any help from anybody including people wearing official uniforms. And when you buy your visa, the price is US $20 not 1,000 Baht. (A difference of around 6 dollars). So you stand in the entry line in Cambodia, then move a few feet and stand in the exit line, then walk back to Thailand and re-enter. The whole process took a little over an hour. Then for the 5+ hour ride back to Bangkok. I got it all done in a day, but it was not fun. So when I got back to the park after that little escapade I resolved to leave the park as little as possible.

Highlights:
1) I finally observed the behavior that I was there to study.
2) And got it on video!
3) I got addicted to Spicy Fried Egg Salad and this Cashew dish. Oh, I might have to go out for Thai right now.
4) I saw a few elephants. Both times on the road, but still it was really cool!
5) I got to ride a moterbike back and forth from the house to the forest.
6) It tried to kill me by flatting out going downhill and around a bend, but it was still massively fun to ride.
7) And it belongs to a woman who hates me. Or rather she thinks that my advisor is poaching on her territory and since I was there and he wasn’t, I was caught in the middle of the pissing contest.
8) I got to name over 20 monkeys with names like Phantom, Tamora, Moby and Nob.
9) Several times I saw stupid people feeding monkeys from cars, and it made for good video as well as giving me awesome dominance info.
10) A case of beer costs $12.
11) And that’s for 12, 40oz beers.
12) A handle of rum or whisky is between $3-5.
13) Once I get a bike out there, there are some really massive hills that I can train on
14) You can squeeze the stomachs out of leeches. It’s terribly gross, but quite effective
15) I didn’t get lost out in the forest at night a single time
16) Even when I do check my email, I don’t have to answer anybody because as far as they know I’m out of contact.

Lowlights:
1) I hurt my knee early on and had to take a few days off from working
2) Monkeys have an uncanny ability to aim while defecating/urinating
3) Contact with monkey bodily fluids can give you a deadly disease….
4) that has symptoms similar to the flu
5) I caught a cold on the flight back which seriously freaked me out
6) Eating out doesn’t always agree with my stomach.
7) When you order something off the menu, don’t expect to get what you ordered.
8) The whole trip to Cambodia pretty much sucked.
9) Taxi drivers are HUGE scammers.
10) Asthma. It acted up pretty badly.
11) Bangkok.
12) The 24+ Hour trip home.
13) Arriving to find out that my ride had my arrival time off by 12 hours and I had to find a way from JFK to NJ on my own.