Blessings and Flip Flops

We got blessed on Tuesday. We visited a temple and got shown around by a monk. He took us back to his room where we prayed and then got his blessing and bracelets for good luck. The good luck had a short expiration date, however, because that night Miles and I went to another moon party (half moon this time) and we BOTH had our flipflops stolen. This time I was paranoid about keeping my footwear, so we took extra care in picking our hiding spot. We trudged off into the woods and stowed them behind a tree under some palm fronds. We had to make a mental map, remembering landmarks and such to make sure we'd be able to find our way back. Again, when light began creeping in over the horizon, we went back to our hiding spot found nothing there but scattered palm fronds. I'm beginning to lose my faith in footwear here. In fact, we both went a day and a half before we broke down and bought new sandals, because our feet were getting too raw and dirty for our liking.

Losing my shoes wasn't enough to cloud all my good memories from that night. One stands out to me of dancing with a big, bear-like man. I saw him come out of the crowd like a yeti emerging from the woods. When we saw each other, we had a sort of understanding and started dancing with all our might. I had never danced with such abandon. The crowd even stood back a little both to give us enough room and for their own safety. When we were through, we both hollered and embraced one another in bear hugs, celebrating our new brotherhood.

Miles and I are back in Bangkok now to pick John up from the airport. It's comfortable coming back to the same place twice, even if it is Bangkok.
Happy Thanksgiving, by the way.