Let me catch you guys up on where I am at. Right now I am on island in S. thailand called Ko samui. It pretty cool place and yes Thailand is a cheap place to travel. Semi-expensive rooms are around $10 night and that your own place and cheaper place are anything from 3ish to 5 dollars. Food can be around 50cents to good meal 3or 5 bucks. Round trip bus and ferrie cost about $50 and it's long way.
My birthday was nice, but I was very tired from the long bus trip and the day of travel the day before. So I did not go out big or anything. but I did get to enjoy sitting at thatch roof bar on the rocks of the beach watching the sun go down and enjoying the sound of ocean as i sipped on some suds. It was nice be able to spend it with Kim meeker a freind that has known me for a while.

Oh few stories:
Right now there is a monsoon off the coast making the S. coastal water quite wavy. So the ferry to the island was a bumpy ride with swells of 2 to 3 meters or 6 to 9 feet. People were puking all over the place; not exactly what we all thought it be like. It so brutal out there that the boat breaking a twisting on the waves broke quite a few of the ferries windows. Little adventure; I guess. No, I was not one of the people puking, but I know from experience I have good sea legs and I still did not feel that great.

Also, Kim and I drove motorcycles/more like a scooter all yesterday. So much fun! and cheap. With rental and gas it cost 200bat or 6ish dollars. Got to love it for 12hrs of fun.

Hope everyone has great x-mas!