The trip that changed everything.
We landed in Bangkok at 6am, humidity hitting us like warm soup before we'd even reached passport control. Half of us had been up the whole flight watching films. The other half had actually slept, the first time the sleep PAC prototype had really earned its keep.
Three days in Bangkok, the Grand Palace, a cooking class in a rooftop kitchen near Ari, one very memorable night on Khao San Road, and then we flew south to Krabi. Took a longtail boat out to Railay Beach at low tide, waded through warm turquoise water with our bags held above our heads, and sat on the sand eating papaya salad from a polystyrene box.
"The longtail captain's name was Nong. He charged us 120 baht, told us not to come back for three hours, and went off to sleep under a palm tree. We had the whole beach to ourselves."
We went back four days later and tipped him 400 baht. He didn't remember us but seemed pleased anyway. That's Thailand, warm, funny, impossibly beautiful, and better every time.
