Back in Sukhothai

I split off from the group today but I think everyone is comming down to Sukhothai later tonight. I left the group this morning, Dharma and Tyler were doing a cooking class, and Gabe, Shy, and Sarah were going to walk around the city and shop and get massages. I just felt like I needed to leave. It has actually been really nice not to talk and read my book and think about stuff. I think Sarah's going to stay with me in the cheap place I stayed at last time I was here, but the guys are going to a more upscale place that SK house in Chang Mai suggested. For all I know they could all end up coming to the place I'm at, or none of them. Tomorrow they want to see the old town and I'm going to rent a motorbike and see another ruin about 50 Km outside of town.

It has been hard for me with the guys mainly because of 1 that I had never met before this trip. It has been hard to hear stareotypes about Americans for a full month and then meet up with someone who falls into all the stareotypes. I don't like it. Everyone seems to understand how I feel exept the one, who insists he does not act like an American at all. Plus the whole girl thing is driving me crazy. I've met a lot of cool girls along the trip and have had a great time but I feel like if I acted agressive and hit them, then I wouldn't have met the coolest ones I've met.

Like I said before we will be going to the full moon party together, and they will be here tonight at some point. Even this one day away has been nice. On a more possitive note, I like Sukhothai better than I did before. It is now the slow season so there are a lot less farang and I walked around a nice night market tonight before comming here. I think I agree with the advice one traveler told me, which is you can't really feel a place out unless you spend several days there, like 5-10 days. With staying two nights and one full day you can't even get to know anyone, and after a few days people open up to you. I think I will take that advice to heart in the future.

I don't know what else to write besides some more about what I left out before. Like Sarah and I walked around Chang Mai and looked at wats. They were the coolest ones I've seen so far. It was a cool mix of new wats and really old ones write next to each other. There was also one wat with all these old signs that had cool sayings and advice. Also we went to a music place at night for food. I expected something different but it was still good and all the guys came later to eat also. The band was a cover band that played a lot of pop hits and stuff. They were good but not what I expected. I thought it would be more like Pai with lots of rock and roll, and blues with good solos and stuff, but it was still fun. Then Dharma, Richard (a Polish guy from the trek) and I went to a club just to see what it was like. It was interesting.

Last night I hung out with Nina who is the trek organizer at SK house. She actually came out to the jungle the second night because the family that takes care of the place was sick and she wanted to go. At first I thought she was a pushy sales person, who cracks a lot of jokes, but whenever it was just me and her hanging out she would talk about serious stuff and tell me her opinions about life, Thailand, and America. The guide did that also. But whenever the group was around she would just crack jokes. I like her a lot, and last night she bought all the beers and said she wanted to hang out. The day before she bought some beer for everyone, but yesterday she just did for me and I hung out all night as the guys came and went. Sarah hung out for a while also after she did internet stuff.

Well thats enough for now. I can still promise nothing about how much I can do this. Obviously when I am alone it is easier but with the group it is harder. Peace to all!