Hi gram,
I got so lucky this morning! I headed out to go for my walk. As I stepped off the elevator, there was the faintest hint of drizzle. Now, you know I hate getting rained on so I headed back up to the room to check the weather and steel my resolve. I psyched myself up to go deal with a little drizzle, then looked out the window just as it started POURING! I was so grateful that I wasn’t a mile down the road and caught in this storm.

Still, I was feeling guilty that I wasn’t going to get my walk in, so I grabbed my jump rope and headed to the hotel gym. I got in a couple hundred rope skips then 10 minutes on the elliptical before I decided that was enough of an equivalent. I headed back to the room, dripping in sweat, to cool off and have some breakfast.

The rain had cleared away by the time I headed to the gym for Klausfit class, which made the rest of my day start alright. When I got to the gym, we had a new guy who I knew I would remember when he introduced himself. His name is also Keith. I offered him some advice on classes, that he’ll be sore for a few days, and to take full advantage of the massage services next door. Then class started and the next hour was perfectly grueling and tough.

After class, I stopped by the cafe to tell Valerie that Nattiya would be joining us for lunch and ended up having a good conversation with Jean Claude and Manny about Europe, America, guns, immigration, and a variety of other topics for a while. I excused myself from that talk to go back to the hotel and clean up, then headed back for lunch with Nattiya and the crew. It was a good ground chicken dish that reminded me of spaghetti with meat sauce, but without the spaghetti. It had the right amount of spiciness to it and satisfied our palates.

Nattiya and I headed back to the hotel for a bit, then I bopped off to yoga while she went and ran some errands. Today’s instructor was the lesser of my two favorites, but still a very good class. The heat and humidity have returned to Hua Hin this week, so we were all dripping with sweat by the end. I cleaned up my area, put my mat and blocks away, then headed back and took a second shower. I spent the rest of the afternoon doing a couple quick errands, then booked my flight home in January. I can’t believe this Asian adventure actually has an end date! It makes me a little sad, although I know that I’m lucky to have built all of these great memories and I have an action-packed few months planned when I get back.

Once that was booked, we had our leftovers from last night – pineapple fried rice that had been served in half a pineapple shell – then chatted with Google Translate for a while before it was finally bedtime.