Back from the deep south (of Thailand, that is...)

I got back from Phattalung, Kiat's hometown, yesterday evening! It was a pretty good trip..except for the bus ride (especially the one going to Phattalung). About 2 hours into the ride I threw up-3 times-all over myself and the seat. Yeah...it was great. I didn't even have time to warn Kiat and he ended up cleaning up my mess with his clothes (which his mom washed for him when we got to Phattalung). I felt really bad, but he insisted it wasn't a problem...
Anyway...despite that we arrived in Phattalung safely and when we got there, Kiat's uncle had this Christmas Eve kareoke session going on, so there was a lot of people there. I was pretty tired though and went to be pretty early.
I didn't do that much there really..but it's sabai sabai (relaxing) and I ate A LOT of food. Neighbors and extended family kept on coming over and giving me food, fruit, etc. One day we went to a waterfall with his sister, Jiap, and her husband. We ate at the waterfall and went swimming. None of the ATMs in Phattalung worked for me...or at least in the vicinity of the area we were staying in...so we had to drive maybe 30 minutes to get to an ATM that actually worked. I ate a lot of interesting things as well...pig intestine, more pig innards, etc. There is also this fruit or something called Maat (sp?) which looks like an orange on the outside and has this brown seed on the inside which apparently makes you stoned like marijuana. I did not try it...but everyone else seemed to like it...haha....
It is very slow paced there...very different. But it was nice and it's a really beautiful place. Everyone there seems to work mostly in the morning and night time (on the rubber farms) and then in the daytime lay around and eat ALL the time. Oh-and kiat's family's house is across from a wat (temple) and so every morning at 5 am I woke up to them chanting and then they had someone on a loudspeaker tell everyone the news going on in Phattalung for about one hour. You can tell people there get up by 5 am usually...
The ride back on the bus to Phuket was much better and I did not throw up...but it's an at least 6 hour bus ride there...but it's very cheap-only 520 baht for 2 people (about $13 I think??) Tonight is New Years Eve...and I will probably go and watch the fireworks or something (they have a great fireworks show on New Years Eve). It should be fun. And then I leave on January 2nd (2 days) to go to KL to start my internship. It'll be an interesting change...
Anyway, I promise I will put up some pictures once I am in KL. Happy New Year's everyone!