A letter from Dad.

I guess I forgot to mention my father lives in Thailand and part of this trip will be to visit my family. I have not seen my father in 4 years. I've also not seen my step-mother and grandmother in 10 years. I've never met my half brother or half sister. This bit excites me and I'm even more motivated to go.

I received a welcoming letter from my father earlier today:

25.4.2006
Eddy
Sound good to me about the trip
Cheing Mai trip will be no problem I will set up a place to stay free of charge for you.
And Pataya your auntie Jessie has a place you can stay free. Use that as your base camp to travel one day trip or so.
In Bangkok, all of you can stay in my condo free too, but bring your sleeping bags.
All you need is plane and food money . In Thailand if you can survive on noddle and fried rice, I say $5 /day is what you will be spending. And all your relatives will like to have you and your friends to stay with them. Your uncle, my elder brother, who has a daughter staying with aunt Jessies back East, is always asking about you.
So I will be see you
Love,
dad

I didn't even know I had a female cousin... I didn't even know Dad had an older brother?

Looks like this trip is highly feasible. 5 bucks a day works out to be $70 each--or 2660 Baht. That's a lot of baht! I doubt we'll really spend that much on food since we'll be staying with relatives some of the time and if we decide to eat cheaper than cheap, we can hit street vendors that charge about a dollar a plate. Thai people put Mexican street vendors to shame. A full meal and an orange Fanta will cost a buck or less! I fucking LOVE orange Fanta.

I digress.

I had a good conversation with Danielle tonight. She's quite jazzed about the trip and has been learning Thai in bits and pieces. I try to help however much I can over the internet. It's quite challenging though since you need to learn the tones that go along with the word. I figure I'll keep eating Thai food and have her order in Thai. It'll be the easiest way to learn... though not quite the cheapest hehe.

Alright, I've gotten so excited, I stayed past my bedtime. So long, goodnight.