Two weeks since my last post and now we are in the North of Thailand. The first week I was too tired to move my thumbs and last week I was waiting to have a bit more to say since I don’t have many photos for this time period.

We finished our week of May Thai kickboxing camp and the bruises are beginning to fade. It was awesome to stay in one place and to develop a routine if only for one week. The twice-daily workouts were intense, but the best way to deal with the soreness was to kickbox some more. The gym was open-air with a roof but no walls. Temperatures ranged from 80-90 degrees with humidity ranging from 90% to thunderstorms. We adapted pretty quickly and drank a ton of water to make up for sweating. The trainers spoke a mixture of Thai and English so most of the Thai phrases we have picked up are fighting words. Our names were too foreign for the coaches, and Aaron became Ironman and Valarie was shortened to ‘Dao’ which means knife and sounds vaguely like Val with a Thai accent. I’ll take it.

To get around the island and back and forth from the gym, we rented a scooter for the week. Aaron drove confidently on those crazy roads and I did my best not to flinch every time I sensed impending danger. People are terrible drivers around here, but he managed well.

We got caught in two rainstorms. The first time we were sitting on the beach when the wind changed and the entire beach collectively sensed an incoming storm. We hurried to the scooter to beat the rain, but it caught us with half a mile to go. Within minutes of the gust there was a down pour and we got drenched. The second storm caught us at the gym. When the wind changed and the thunder clapped, we knew we couldn’t make it home in time so we decided to wait out the storm. Three hours later it was still raining when the gym closed for the night and they kicked us out. We made it home fine but it wasn’t ideal.

Our last day in Phuket was my 30th birthday. We splurged for a beach umbrella and lounge chairs, and the $6 were well spent to hide me from the sun while enjoying a book on the beautiful Karon beach. I am so blessed to celebrate this milestone in such a lovely place.