is it really sunny?

I just looked over my shoulder and saw that perhaps.. finally! the sun has come out! It's been a day or so since it really stopped raining, or at least was bright out. I'm in Ao Nang, a beach in the south on the Andaman coast that was just supposed to be a transit point to a place we were gonna stay in at Railay Beach... but when we trudged thru the waves to get onto a longtail boat to go over to Railay and got to the hotel there, they didn't have our reservation. Plus, it was kind of a backpacker place anyway, so mom didn't want to stay. So we trudged back thru the waves, back onto the longtail, got soaked in a rainstorm, and arrived back in Ao Nang with nowhere to stay. Thankfully, a policeman with not enough to do (I guess) helped us out.. and now we're at this sweet place a kilometer or so from the beach with amazingly comfy beds and a great view of some limestone cliffs.

Mom leaves tomorrow night, while I'm staying at this hotel for another night. Then I have to find a place for two more nights... and I'm off to Bangkok to head to the states. It's monday night there now, so I will be home in.. five and a half days. I guess I'm glad to be going home, though honestly, I'm not sick of traveling yet. Probably if I had been on my own this whole time since the nitze trip ended I'd be more tired of it, but this vacation with mom has been a great break since we've been staying in nice places and taking taxis and all that stuff I wouldn't have the money to do if I were on my own. Honestly, the most expensive part of coming to Thailand is flying here, and knowing that really makes me want to come back to this area. It's a totally different experience than traveling in Europe because you can do it so cheaply.

Something I've been thinking quite a bit about over the past few weeks is the wya that my experience of Thailand while traveling with the nitze trip was so different than my experience of it while I've been traveling as a tourist. As a tourist, I see so much more the way that an economy based on serving touists alters the Thai identity, automatically equating it with servitude. My sense of this might partially be based on the places where my mom and I have been staying for the past two weeks, where the service is really fantastic for the most part. It is the uniforms, I think, that partly give me the sense that something strange is going on here. Often, Thais who work in nice hotels have these uniforms that are long sleeved and made of silk.. the women wear long skirts... it all looks very Thai, very inspired by traditional Thai dress. And why does that make me uncomfortable? It seems that the "servant" can be identified not by a uniform of any sort, but specifically by his or her Thainess.

More on this later. I really should take advantage of the sun right now. Hope everyone is doing great back home, if anyone's still reading.