Splitting up and Leaving Thailand.

It was a sad farewell for me after spending the last 4 years travelling in such a tightly knit cabal with Ammon. He has been an amazing leader and we are for the first time on our own again. Leaving Ammon in paradise was certainly not easy either hahaha, as we drove off in the back of a pickup truck heading to the ferry. Our journey to Duessldorf was long long long but by no means one of our longest. We left around 5pm on a 4 hour ferry ride in very choppy whitecap water. Brandon was having a thrilling time on the bow of the little boat getting drenched with every giant wave, and with the water being 30C this was no hardship. I just watched all the other passengers getting sick over the side of the boat. I did also find the ride quite exciting with only a little worry of sinking, even though to get off the dock in the first place was a huge fiasco. I was sure the drivers had never done it before with all the crashing into the dock and severly marring our boat. The wind was too strong and we finally had to get a tow out into the sea in the direction we wanted to go. Thank goodness we were not very full of passengers (or stomach). Upon arrival in Chumporn we got onto a beautiful big coach bus and headed to Bangkok, (after the worst meal we had eaten in all of SEA) arriving there early at 4am. It was a comfy ride but I still am not able to sleep in any kind of moving vehicle gggrrrr (so annoying). After little hassle we got an honest taxi driver using a meter and off to the airport we zoomed (the only way taxis know how to drive). This time we were early and had some time to kill before checking into our flight. Next we boarded the airbus at 10:30am and off to Duesseldorf we flew in an extremely smooth plane. I really enjoyed this flight because we flew over everywhere that I had driven 3 years before, incredable to see it all from the air knowing exactly what it feels and looks like on the ground. We had a spectacular view of the Himilayas and so many of the Stans (Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan...) that I had traveled though. The flight was 12 hours and we had a 5 hour time change, so it was somewhere around 11pm Thailand time and 6pm German time when we arrived. Kees and Savannah picked us up, I never thought that this is where we would meet again but it was fun to see Savannah and Kees after 6 months. They both look great and they say we do too with our dark Thailand tans. Jumping into Kees' car we drove the 3 hours to Alkmaar, Holland where we are thoroughly enjoying the gorgeous countryside and small towns. I could live here and I can't say that about many places that I have been. BUT we are FREEZING...... take me back to the tropics!!!
Maggie
Oh... Ammon will be having a great time Scuba diving everyday for the next few months. But since internet is totally unresonably priced he probably won't write very often. I will tell you about Holland soon and put up photos of Thailand and The Netherlands in a week or so once I get back home to Vancouver so don't give up on us and our journeys yet, there really will be more to come.