Smog-tinted Glasses, Maybe

I'm bizouncing on Monday, to start my much-needed and hotly anticipated vacation, and I've started getting all nostalgic already. It's not like I'm leaving Thailand- I'll be here for at least another 6 weeks. But I am leaving Rayong and I don't foresee a return anytime. . .well, ever. And because I am completely and totally a girl about these things, everywhere I've gone the last few days suddenly has a lovely memory attached to it. Which is weird, because although this town has been welcoming and fascinating, lovely and Rayong don't usually find themselves in the same sentence, unless said sentence also contains the phrase "is the opposite of."

This is primarily an industrial town, which means it isn't the cleanest or the richest, and anything that might deserve the title of pretty is located farther away than I usually feel like going. But walking down Radbumrung tonight, it was all transformed by the knowledge that I wouldn't see it again. The barbeque restaurant where you can grill your own seafood at your table. . . .the funky little clothing shop called Angel X-Corner where everything is 19 sizes too small for me, but really cute. . . .the motorbike taxi stand where grown men of dubious hygeine smoke weed all day and greet me with unrestrained delight. . . .even the guy who sells deep-fried insects from a pushcart kind of touched my heart today. I've eaten at every restaurant on this stretch of road, and from every food stall (except the deep-fried insect one, natch). I've pet every stray dog and carried on an elaborate hand-signal conversation with nearly every vendor. I've walked the quarter-mile to "Dragon Net" a hundred times. And, after Monday, I probably won't see this stretch of road ever again. For the rest of my life. Until the end of time.

That's a weird thought.

(Quick aside; the usual caretaker of "Dragon Net" is a chubby guy about my age who looks vaguely Chinese, as opposed to Thai, and I think that must be why I always think of him as "the Asian guy." It's ridiculous, everyone I know is Asian, including all the other employees at Dragon Net, but I can't shake it. He's "the Asian guy" to me, and he always will be.)

So, farewell Rayong. You're like that dorky study partner I had when I took Statistics in college- not the best looking, and you should really investigate the miracle of soap, but you've taught me a hell of a lot.