i can shop for hours

i really really can. and at the same stores, too. i think i can actually be pretty annoying to shop with, because i like to think for a really long time about a product before i purchase it. i'd prefer to pick it up, inspect it, really debate my needs vs. my wants, think about how much money i have, think about what i want to spend my money on that weekend, think about what i want to spend my money on in life, think about what i want to do in life...you get it. i like to put a lot of thought into most of my purchases, especially when they're for myself (i have no problem spending money on other people. i have no idea why). but when i shop with other people, i try to limit this because 1) i don't wanna be that crazy annoying friend and 2) it's not a form of shopping that's particularly conducive to hanging out with friends. 

but luckily, this weekend in amphuwa was all about my semi-neurotic form of shopping. the plan was to get to amphuwa on saturday in the early afternoon, shop in the market for a few hours, go see some other stuff, come back to the market to shop/eat stuff, go sleep, come back to the market to shop/eat stuff. 

perrrrrrrrfect. we probably spent seven hours in this mile-long (ish) market, and i was lovin' it. the atmosphere was laid back, there were snacks everywhere, coffee was abound, and there was SO much girly stuff (as in shirts and jewelry and decorations, not tampons and bras, as a friend guessed). 

in that other "see stuff" time, we took a boat ride to see some fireflies--my first time ever to see the bugs with the light-up butts. ally and tessa were shocked that maddy and i had never seen'em. only in disneyland (55). anyway, they were excellent. by the time we got on the boat, we were exhausted from hours of shopping, so the relaxation of the boat tooling along the river probably added to the goodness of the experience. actually, in retrospect, though i rave about the shopping, that boat ride was probably my favorite part of the weekend. 

WAIT. the monkey. the monkey was a really great part of the weekend. so we stayed at this guesthouse place about a 10-minute drive away from the market, so it was a little bit away from the hustle and bustle of everything. we were surrounded by houses, so while we were wasting some time on saturday, we went next door, which was just some lady's house. (or maybe she was actually the owner of the guesthouses, and i just never knew. someone who was on the trip, please correct me.) she and her family said they had a pet monkey, but it wasn't around when we came over. after a tour of the house, lo and behold, the monkey came out. he noticed he was the center of attention and maaaaaaaaaaan did he take advantage. he started swinging from tree branches, doing flips, flopping on the ground, playing with/pulling on the pet dogs, kicking it with the talking bird, and generally proving the point that monkeys would make awesome pets. he would even take breaks to go hug his thai family.

our goal is to get back to amphuwa just to stay at the monkey house and befriend the monkey.