It's Not Nepal, But I'll Take It!

We spent this last with Sarah Hendrickson, a friend of mine from High School. She joined us for a week of relaxation after trekking in Nepal and doing research on tuberculosis in Velore, India for 9 months.

We had quite a time getting her reeled in. I drove to the bus station early Monday morning and when the bus stopped, I could see her sitting in the top level (double decker) as the bus drove off again. Unsure whether or not she had spotted me, I ran back to the car and followed the bus until it let someone else off. I ran and spoke with the bus driver, telling him that my friend was on the bus and that he needed to let her off. He pointed ahead and I assumed he'd pull over up the road, but he just drove on and I followed him right out of town. As we rounded the final curve out of the mountain pass, I saw what he was pointing at: another identical orange bus ahead of him, the one that Sarah was on. And it was flying. I went back to the center to wait for her call.

Meanwhile, Sarah HAD spotted me at the station, but the bus only stopped for a moment and when she had gotten to the lower level, the driver's assistant refused to let her off until they reached the "downtown" area, where she did, in fact, get off. I must have passed her driving through the area after the bus that she wasn't on in the first place. She waited to see if I'd catch up and then took a taxi back to the station to wait. The taxi driver didn't know where the station was (it's not that big of a town) and dropped her off past it. She insisted on being let off and a lady on a motorcycle offered to take her the rest of the way there. Sarah waited at the bus station for two hours for me to return, while I waited by the phone for her to call. Finally, she got a taxi to drop her at Step Ahead (which he miraculously recognized) in the middle of my class, and we finally got her to her room.

This week, Sarah and I lounged at the beach, had many Nutella Rotis, snacked on popcorn and M&Ms while watching Supernatural and The Big Bang Theory and got massages. We made several runs to Thai Totes and shopping trips downtown. We found gorgeous shells at our private Shell Beach and sipped on Derek's mango shakes. I watched her pull the exoskeleton off of jumbo prawns and pull leeches off her toes. We had fun with a fancy camera and enjoyed cocktails at Chong Fah Resort and visited the beached police boat from the tsunami. We looked at her pictures from Nepal and listened to her hum the official song of the World Cup. It was an excellent week.