Hi. I have a bazillion photos from a hike I took yesterday. I love taking hiking pictures because there's nobody around to be annoyed with tourist-like behaviour. Though I did cave this evening and take a photo of what almost appeared to be a furry convention... lots of disney-like (but NOT) characters dancing in a macarena-like line. It's in honour of the king's 60th year of rule. Festivities everywhere. Including furries. My hike was great. I went with a colleague of mine who's been here for some time. Walked up the lower part of a mountain, up a bunch of slippery trials and waterfallish things, to a beautiful Buddhist temple. Lots of great trails around. My hiking buddy wanted to meditate, so I continued and found some great bugs and fungus. It's not something you can easily suggest to someone you just met- "Hey, let's go look at bugs and fungus!" What I especially liked were all of these neat little words to live by discreetly posted on trees all around. I'll try to get the rest of the photos (and the furries!) up soon. After the hike, I met up with some other friends at the Sunday Walking Street Market. It's a market that is held every Sunday evening. I was convinced that it would rain, as it seems to be averaging. I got some Thai herb juice and they served it in that cute bamboo cup pictured above. I think I will use it to hold pencils. There were alot of tourists in the market. I passed an American couple regarding little handmade wicker animals. I thought they were nice, but the girl thought they were "like soooo weird." I wish these people would stick to Disneyworld for their annual vacation. It's making the rest of us look bad. Today it was back to work. I made some amazing flowcharts. It's too bad I can't post them. After work I met up with a friend from public health school's friend and her friend (got it?) for dinner. It was great. Always fun to meet up with interesting, somewhat random people when on the other side of the world. After that I bought a cheap lonely planet at a used bookstore and now feel like I'm complete again. I was longing for maps... people keep talking about all these places and I felt somewhat uneducated, not at all like someone who'd passed Map of the Modern world (this reference is only relevant to some and too extensive and dorky to get into for the rest of you).