Hello friends and family,
I’m in Bangkok at the moment, and I need to announce a sort of radical shift in direction. I am currently on a trip to Malaysia with the rest of my co-workers which I had already been confirmed for, but when I return, I will not be returning to the jungles of Phu Khieo. I’ve spoken with several of you on the phone about this already, but I’ll reiterate for clarity and those in the dark.
Basically, my job in the jungle was god awful. It was not what I wanted to do now, in the near future, or ever. It may have seeped into my writings before, but I I’ll say it clearly now: I hated observing those monkeys. I realized that if I wasn’t going to love it, or even like it, a year of it was a bit beyond optimistic. It was dellusion! I came to Thailand to gain future experience, gain life experience outside of my usual haunts, and see a bit of the world. I was very little of any of these things in the Wildlife Sanctuary. The animals were wonderful, and the Thai people were wonderful, but I saw more of Thailand from the hospital. A big factor was my discovery that in a years time I would get a single vacation of 7 days. By the time I finish with the project and have unlimited time for travel, I know I will be extremely homesick. I’ll end up returning immidiatly, negating the bonuses of a paid for ticket.
So I’ve made my choice. Rather than waste the next 6 months hating my job and growing bitter, I’m going to leave with smiles and handshakes, and find my fortunes elswhere. My thai ticket will not be wasted. For the next 4 days I will be in Penang, a small Island in Malaysia where I will update my travel Visa with unlimited re-entry, and then back to Bangkok. From there I will chart out a course, which I suspect will begin with the ruins of Ayuthaya, the city of Ketchaburi, and the “Bridge over the river Kwai.” I am very open to suggestions as well. I plan on going to Cambodia to see Ankor Wat, Myanmar to see who knows, and possibly Singapore just for the hell of it.
I guess you should know that I don’t regret this decision, even in the slightest sense. My boss even agrees. Wrong place, wrong time, wrong position. I can help my future along soon enough, I’ve helped it along for many many years up to this point 
If you have any questions, I’ll do my best to answer them when I get back from Malaysia. Until then, stay tuned, these letters are about to get more interesting.
PS: Tonight, on cousin Joey’s advice, I’m going to splurge a bit and go see The Transformers film on Imax at the Siam Paragon (The biggest mall I have ever seen)…. I’m excited!
