Hi Gram,
I’m enjoying another beautiful day in paradise. I was heading out to walk when I saw Jo from my classes as we were leaving the hotel. We chatted briefly about a group trip to the night market on Sunday, then she booked it to meet up with the group. That woman walks at superhuman speeds when she’s not holding back for conversation with someone. I don’t know how she maintains that speed for the whole walk. I wasn’t in any hurry because I prefer not to walk with the group. The gym charges a fee because they send trainers along to point us where to walk and make sure we don’t drop dead. The problem is that we walk the same set of paths day after day, so I don’t need their direction anymore and they idle their motorcycles alongside us, filling our stroll with noise and pollution.

Natiya decided to join me on my morning walk, so I had company instead of my usual podcasts. We decided to walk to Wat Khao Takiap, the temple at the top of the many, many stairs that I’ve talked about here before. I love walking before sunrise because the temperatures are cooler, the humidity is lower, and there’s less traffic on the road leading to the hills and stairs that we climb.

We saw a bus idling on the side of the road, lit up like many of the busses and trucks in Bali and Thailand. That lighting wouldn’t be road legal back home, but it’s entertaining to see here. Natiya and I have gone on a few strolls together before, but she’s not used to the pace of the morning walk. We laughed as she would fall behind a little, then run to catch up. I remember when I first got here, struggling to keep up with the other guys and having to jog a couple of times to catch up.

There was a nice breeze coming in off the ocean helping to keep us cool as the monkeys did their monkey shenanigans and entertained us. When we turned to corner to head towards the beach, I could see and hear the surf more active than usual. I was worried that the tide was in and the stairs would be blocked, but there was enough beach to reach them. As we started the climb, I noted that these stairs were a challenge a few weeks ago, but today I was able to climb them without stopping to catch my breath. Even better, when we reached the slope that climbs for a bit, then turns right and keeps climbing – one that would give me pause and require encouragement from David and the others before – I just kept climbing. This time, I was the one reaching behind me for Natiya’s hand, encouraging her to keep climbing. It was still quite tiring; I’m not superman or anything (yet) but I could tell that my strength and stamina have improved.

At the top of that hill, we met up with the Palapon group who had taken a different route but were aiming for the same temple. We all walked together with some light conversation. Feeling bold when we reached the 128 stairs to the temple, I started running up the stairs expecting to run out of breath and have everyone else pass me as they climbed slow and steady. I was about 2/3 or 3/4 of the way up and still running when my legs were burning enough that I slowed to a walk. That’s when Robert, a beast of a man more muscular and toned than anyone I know, shouted encouragement from behind me as he passed also running up the stairs. I wasn’t able to keep running, but I stayed at a walking pace instead of stopping to catch my breath. In that moment, I set a new goal – before I leave here, I will run to the top of these stairs without stopping! I have just over a month and a half to make that goal a reality.

Once almost everyone reached the top, we all shouted encouragement at Joe who has been making fitness strides of his own. Robert and I ran down the last 20 or 30 steps to run with him in solidarity. I walked up them at the same pace as Joe while Robert hopped with his feet together up two steps at a time shouting encouragement. His words were kind, but I don’t know how motivating it was to see someone else performing superhuman feats while Joe barely had enough breath to just put one foot in front of the other. After we all rested and got some photos at the top, we started the long walk down, stairs to hill to stairs to hill to stairs to the beach. The tide was in far enough that we ended up walking back onto the street and back to the hotel. Natiya was fading a bit but kept with me to the end. She was ready to collapse when we reached the hotel, but kept joking and jogging when needed. I grabbed a quick breakfast at the room, then went back to Palapon for TRE exercises, a set of exercises that Klaus led us through designed to reduce stress, improve breathing and sleep, reduce PTSD, and a variety of other benefits.

This was a short day, class-wise, being that it was Saturday so I headed back to the room and got some work done for a couple hours. Around lunchtime, I was getting hungry so Natiya and I decided to head to Market Village to grab lunch and do a little shopping. I’ve found – and heard from others – that when you’re traveling sometimes you just get a craving for something familiar. Today, that craving was for a sandwich. I wasn’t even looking for a specific sandwich or anything difficult or impossible, just some meat and veggies between a couple slices of bread, right? We checked out the menus at a few of the restaurants with no luck before I saw Sizzler, an American chain restaurant. Back home, I would have passed right by and looked for anything else, but I figured this might be my only option. The menu showed that they had a hamburger and they had a chicken filet, so we headed inside figuring that I could just get them to put the chicken filet on the hamburger bun. Easy enough, right? Well, here’s the problem that I did not foresee. The waiter didn’t have a button on his tablet for “put the chicken filet on the hamburger bun”, so customizing was just out the window. I asked him if there was a way that he could charge me for one or the other, then tell the chef what I wanted, but between our language barrier and his apathy, the answer was no. We decided to keep looking for somewhere else, Natiya indulging my sandwich craving, and soon found ourselves at KFC. They had a chicken sandwich on the menu, so we each ordered one. They didn’t have the option for “just the sandwich”, so we each ended up with a drink and fries as well. What did I learn from this experience? First of all, cravings are real and will take over the brain until satisfied. Well, I guess I knew that already, but I experienced it today. Second of all, American portion sizes are ridiculous and unnecessary. I knew that too, but I saw with my own eyes that a sandwich can be small without losing the flavor, and a small drink and fries are just as satisfying as the gruel bucket of potatoes and sugar water served back home. Of course, the reason they serve you food in buckets back home is so that they can charge more. The total for both of our meals – a chicken sandwich, fries, and a drink each – was around $5.60USD. Third, when you haven’t eaten a chicken sandwich, fries, and soda in a long time, your belly is not going to thank you when you reintroduce them. I ended up feeling blah and bloated the rest of the day.

After our filling little lunch and with the day ahead of us, we did a little shopping. I was looking for some fiber pills (because I’m almost 50) and had struck out at a couple of pharmacies the day before. I continued to strike out here as well, with no pharmacy or grocery store carrying them or understanding why they would. Even the powder that you mix with water was in short supply. I ended up buying a box of single serving packets only to find when I got home that the box was a six day supply. It’ll get me through the week and I’ll just have to go back and try again after class one day. Once we’d struck out there, we just wandered around some shops looking at clothes and just enjoying the day. Natiya found a couple things but there were no button down shirts that sparked my interest.

Back at the room, we dropped off our shopping bags and Natiya modeled/ tried on her outfits before we decided to walk down to Tamarind Market for some veggies and chicken. I’ve ordered from the same chicken and veggie skewer place enough times now that she remembers me and made some polite conversation as I was picking out my veggies. The place was packed with more people than I’ve seen on past visits. We had trouble finding a table, but eventually grabbed one towards the front where the band was playing. Just as we sat down, the band took a break and quieter music was piped in, giving us a chance to enjoy our meals while being able to hear one another. Tired from all the exercise and walking around the mall all day, we decided to call it a night. Back at the room, I think I was asleep just as my head was hitting the pillow.