no slave labour

we moved into chiva's shack on the beach yesterday, after spending half the day at the hotel pool (where i really hurt my foot tripping on a metal slat on the floor, took out a chunk under my foot trying to get at a wicked bat hanging under an umbrella - thank god for that tetanus shot). it's much nicer to be directly on the beach, as well as not having to walk dark streets with scary dogs or having to wake people up to get back into our hotel (all hotels shut their gates at like 10-11 pm in indochina. crazy!).

i was skeptical about "free"accommodation because nothing in life is really free. so when katy asked me if i'd mind handing out flyers for the party here tonight i thought, well, they're putting us at work. but no! mama "paid" us with an extravagant seafood platter for lunch, the biggest i have ever seen filled with fish, shrimps and calamari. yum! and all we had to do for it is walk around the beach and hand out flyers, pray that people show up. pretty sweet deal!

the rooms here are basic but fine, and you get to fall asleep and wake up to the sound of the waves crashing... life is so tough here! i might never want to leave... really, i swear. and katy keeps telling me that there's no beach like this in thailand, so chill and quiet... empty at times, aside from children selling bracelets and the manicure ladies.

today i had a little girl (who has been following us around everywhere, trying to get us to buy anything, but she's really sweet) show me how to do lotus flowers in origami. priceless moments like this, they're hard to come by.