Counting Down

By saying I am counting down the days left in Thailand, makes it seem as though I want it to end.  I don’t.  I am counting down the days because my days are numbered, and it’s scaring me.  

I only have a little over two months left before my flight back to New York, and I already have plans for seven of those weeks!

A friend of mine recently asked me what I will miss about Thailand, and I just started listing.  Between my friends, the foods, my motorbike, my hose, the lake, the beaches, the mountains, the way everything is so cheap, I could go on and on, but I’m going to miss it all.  

Next, he asked me what I won’t miss about Thailand.  Once again, I just started listing.  I could go on and on.  But here is number one on my list: Immigration.

I have spent countless hours, every 90 days or so, waiting to have paperwork completed at this office.  When I first moved here it was one tiny office with awkward, small windows, and no air circulation whatsoever.  If you were lucky you could sit on the chairs in the corridor, but if not, you were stuck in the sun.

In the past two years, the immigration office has come a long way.  The office is large, the chairs are padded, and everyone can sit in the air conditioning.  Now, you take a number, and people actually follow the order!  While the improvements are pretty impressive, I still won’t miss this place.  I look forward to living in a place where I don’t have to “check in” every 90 days.  I look forward to living in a place where I don’t have to pay for a special permit to “check out” before I leave the country.  I look forward to living in my own country.