Stupid Tourist Tricks

Well, for a day that was supposed to be completely uneventful and full of rest, today turned out to have a little bit of drama.  It was actually quite funny, even in the midst of it, though.  The weather here has been pretty close to perfect...a few hottish days, but the evenings have cooled down nicely, and nothing has been unbearable.  In fact, I don't remember even having any rain...until today, that is.

This morning was like most of our days.  Noi and I got up early and went to breakfast.  Then, Noi went back to her house for awhile to do laundry and have lunch with an old friend before coming back.  Therefore, Caleb and I were on our own for lunch.  I spent the morning by the pool, reading, planning my future, and sending out a few emails before taking a swim and coming back to the room to clean up.  I woke Caleb up on my way back to the room and then after he showered and got ready, we walked down the pier to see what we could find for lunch.  Surat has a lot of places to eat, but Caleb is still nervous about eating at the roadside stands and even some of the restaurants...understandable, as most of the menus are in Thai, and the majority of people in Surat speak little to no English (even in the hotel we are staying in).  We found a 7 to Eleven and got a few things that looked palatable and were on our way back to the hotel when the drama hit.

Let me back up a little bit.  Earlier, sitting by the pool, I commented to myself...I said, "Self"... "It's going to rain today."  It didn't rain prior to Caleb and I leaving for lunch.  However, I also commented to Caleb about the clouds, saying, "Caleb, it's going to rain sometime today."  About 100 feet later, Caleb said "I think I felt a rain drop."  We went on, not really thinking any more about it.  Well, while we were in 7 to Eleven, the sky opened up...and it REALLY opened up.  It was raining so hard that within 5 seconds we were drenched to the bone. 

After the first few seconds, Caleb said, "We are already as wet as we are going to get, so we might as well keep going." (as opposed to waiting it out under the cover of a shop, as most of the locals were doing).  We walked for another couple minutes, looking for another 7 to Eleven (because Caleb wanted to buy more ham and cheese sandwiches) and then Caleb again pointed out that we were about as wet as we were going to get (never mind that we were about 10 times wetter than the last time he said that).  Finally, I just took the lead and made a B-line back to the hotel.  I knew that there was more water coming our way, and I was tired of being into it and having the locals looking at us and smiling with that "Stupid toursist!" look.

When we got back to the hotel, the people in the hotel glared at us as if we were the stupidest people in the world because we hadn't taken cover...better yet, grabbed the umbrella when we knew that the skies were getting dark.  Soooooo...with the drama over, I came back into my room, took my 3rd shower of the day to wash the mud off from the rain shower, and settled in to check email and post a few pictures on facebook.  As I was chatting with a friend, I noticed that the rain was back with a vengeance...It was way cool...now that I was under cover and could watch it as a spectator rather than as a stupid tourist contestant whose task was to fight the raging storm with little more than a shopping bag full of food that was getting soaked. 

Okay, so the saying must be here in Thailand..."When in Thailand, carry an umbrella, and NEVER leave the hotel without it when the skies are even slightly dark gray."  Yeah, I know...people probably don't say that, but they sure were thinking it when they looked at Caleb and me walking down the street.  Oh, the drama of our lives...hehe.