Shaving and Bangkok

Firstly, if you have been following international news, you may have heard of the protests against the government happening in Bangkok. We wanted to let everyone know that we are keeping an eye on the situation and our current plan does not involve going into the city of Bangkok - so don't worry everyone! We will be flying out of Bangkok to come home, but the airport is well out of the downtown city area where the protests are happening.

On a much lighter note, we wanted to share the story of Travis trying to shave last night. It began with a fantastic climbing session on the nearby Diamond Cave cliffs. We were scaling the cliff face as the sun was setting a brilliant pink and it could not have been prettier. But it was still very hot, despite being about 7pm. So Travis decided it was finally time to break out the beard trimmer and shorten his facial hair. We knew the trimmer would not work when it was plugged in because it requires a 150 volt current and the one here runs between 200 and 250. But Travis hoped the battery that charges as you use it still had some juice from the last shave in CT (although that was about 5 weeks ago). He knew he had to go fast, so he turned on the trimmer and ran it all over his face as quickly as possible...but it died part way through. So he was left with patches of longer beard all around and the rest of his face was smooth. Basically it looked like he had been attacked by a frantic child with a razor.

After a minute of despair, I suggested he let me shave him with my disposable razor and soap. He panicked and said, "no way!" Very afraid that I would cut open his face. Travis pleaded with me to go around to the different rooms or restaurants and ask people for either a beard trimmer or shaving cream. I finally convinced him to just let me try with the razor and soap and that if it hurt I would go look for something else. So I got out razor and soap, turned on the faucet to wet his face and.... there was no water, just air bubbles and a loud gurgling sound.

So we got out the bottled water and pack towel, wet and lathered his face, and started shaving. Surprisingly to Travis, he had to concede that my method worked ok. The shaving done, and still no water to rinse off with, he went to the front desk to find out what was going on - face still covered in soap and hair. They said, "no water right now, maybe soon." So he jumped in the pool still covered in beard hair and soap!

Ah, the adventures you never guess you'll have!

This morning we rented a sea kayak and snorkel masks and spent 2 1/2 hours paddling around. It is just so beautiful! Besides the phenomenal cliffs and sparkling turquoise waters, we saw some really cool multicolored crabs, an incredible bright blue bird (Leslie we tried to take a picture, but it didn't work too well), and schools of shiny fish that jump out of the water in groups, it's like a Planet Earth documentary here. We tried to snorkel, but nothing too great right around here...we're going to try another spot in about a week.