Down The Rabbit Hole

We spent the first half of the day exploring the rocky area near the beach (not the same place where I got my cut).

The view was really great from there. Though the rocks were really slippery without flip flops on. We hung around the beach for awhile, then at noon, we checked out of our hotel and grabbed a taxi to Ao Phai, which is further up north. Initially we wanted to go further south than we were due to rumours that the southern parts of the beaches were more beautiful than the ones up north, but after finding out that they also got rockier…we changed our minds. We were headed for Haat Sai Kaew when we saw Ao Phai and decided to stay there instead. Haat Sai Kaew, the “happening” stretch, was only a 5-10 minute walk away anyway.

That’s not us, although we did laze around on the beach for the rest of the day.

When night fell (at 6pm?!?!Wtf. Seriously) and the stars came out, we left to eat dinner and to sample the nightlife on the beach. That was how we met N.

N was the owner of the quiet little bar we went to. A native Thai who speaks decent English, he chatted to us about various things, such as how he used to teach kickboxing on the island before he became the owner of the bar.

“So what you plan to do on Samet?” he asked while we were in the middle of our drinks.

“Oh, maybe we’ll go check out the fire show after this,” Travis explained.

“Good, good,” he smiled. Then he looked at the three of us in turn and pointed to Ee and Travis. “You two go together,” he said, pointing at me,”leave her with me?”

Uhh. Oh kayy.

We left the bar shortly afterwards, with Ee and Travis poking fun at me about leaving me with N. Har har, very funny. NOT.

I’m not quite sure how to rate the fire show on the beach. While it was quite exciting to look at, the guys doing it did drop the torches a couple of times. Then again playing with fire is probably not easy. The night ended with another Singha beer, and a shisha, before we left for bed.

– End Day 5 –

Shortly before the minibus to Koh Samet arrived Ee decided that she couldn’t stand her hunger and went to get pad thai at a nearby street stall. Five minutes later she came back, pad thai-less and informed me not to look behind her as some guy was throwing up in the back alley. Apparently he wanted to buy some pad thai at the same stall and insisted on smelling the pork first. Raw pork.

“I want to smell your pork,” he insisted. The lady didn’t agree.

“I want to smell your pork,” he insisted again. Turning to Ee, he said, “You need to check how clean it is first, y’know?” Uhm, here’s a tip that every Southeast Asian knows: if you want to eat clean food, don’t even bother with roadside stalls.

The lady eventually gave up and held up the plate of pork. The guy bent down to take a whiff. That was when by accident or by design the lady shoved the plate of raw pork up his nose. And that was how he ended up in the back alley – with raw pork smeared all over his nose. Meanwhile, Ee decided she didn’t want to eat pork that had been shoved up someone’s nose, so she came back to us.

The minibus arrived shortly afterwards, taking us on a four hour long terror ride to Ban Phe, where we took a ferry to the island.

Yay for not being seasick! Though I am now severely averse to boat-hopping and would like to avoid that activity of jumping from boat to boat to get to the boat you’re supposed to be on unless I really need to, especially when it involves hopping from the boat to the dock when the dock seems too far away to actually jump to and NOT fall off into the water.

Once we got on the island we took a taxi (a small-ish truck with seats at the back and room for bags) to Ao Wai, a small, quiet and pristine stretch of beach.

We stayed in a cute little boathouse right by the beach. First thing we did after we ditched our bags in the room was to don our swim wear and run into the ocean. The section near our boathouse caused us a lot of pain because we kept stepping on rocks every now and then. Only later when we came out for dinner and the tide had receded did we notice that the entire section we were in was full of ROCKS. It was practically a seabed covered with rocks…which definitely more than explained how I ended up with a big gash from stepping over it earlier in the day. It actually still hurt a couple of days after I arrived home, though I bet soaking it in seawater for three consecutive days did wonders to keep it from getting infected.

This was also when I floated on my back for the very first time in my life. While I’ve had swimming lessons in the past, I could never figure out how to float on my back. My past attempts usually end up with me sinking straight into the water. Since ocean water is salty and therefore easier to float on, I thought I’d try my luck and I actually did it! Was really proud of myself until I realized that I couldn’t figure out a way of getting out of the water. The episode ended with me sinking, getting salt water into my eyes, ears, nose and throat.

“Are you ok?” Ee swims over and asks me.

“*cough* *gasp* *sputter* Yeah I am,” I manage to say. “I just need to figure out a more elegant way of getting out from the water than THAT.”

– End Day 4 –

We moved our accomodations over to Khao San first thing in the morning. My first impression of it was of a cross between the Jalan Telawis in Bangsar and Petaling Street, in a place seemingly located in a American/European country but strangely has Thai people selling their wares on the street. I pretty much fell in love with it instantly.

Khao San by day.

Khao San by night.

We left for the pier on a tuk-tuk to get a boat tour around the snake farm and floating market. We nearly got conned again as the tuk-tuk took us to a deserted pier before telling us that the boat ride would cost us 600 baht (RM60) a person for an hour ride, where we won’t even get to disembark at the floating market. WTF. After unsuccessfully trying to haggle with both the tuk-tuk driver and the boatperson, we decided that even if we did get a better price we probably shouldn’t trust them anyway and left to find another pier, with a hopefully more reputable boat tour. The tuk-tuk driver ran after us no less than seven times trying to change our minds! It was REALLY creepy. Anyway, we got our boat ride.

The snake farm was our first stop. Everything here somehow seems very familiar, as if I’ve seen it before somewhere else. Then again I think Malaysia has something similar. The snake show was something I’ve never seen before though. It was pretty freaky, although admittedly not as freaky as a tiger show.

After the snake farm we stopped by the floating market. I’m not sure if it was just the time of the day (2pm – the floating market is only until 3pm), or just that there is nothing much at the floating market, because it was rather small. I think we got back on the boat a lot earlier than the stipulated time we had, and continued our journey back on the Menam Chao Phraya.

“My friend feels this spiritual connection to Menam Chao Phraya,” Ee mentions to us. “He wants to be cremated and have his ashes poured into this river when he dies.” But honestly, looking at Chao Phraya, we don’t see the attraction. I don’t even want to touch the water, with all the garbage floating around in it. Eeeeee.

Menam Chao Phraya near sunset…sans garbage floating around in the water.

The rest of our day was spent planning our trip to Koh Samet (we initially wanted to go to Koh Phangan for the full moon party, but it seems like the internet got the dates wrong. Damn), a dip in the hotel pool and a relaxing Thai massage. Later on in the night we went to a bar on a rooftop that reputedly had a very good live band, and it was REALLY good! Although I was majorly distracted by the antics of the four-top sitting in front of us. The poor Thai girl looked like she was about to throw up and second, yet the guy she was with kept urging her to drink, while their companions were discussing something over beer. Thankfully she didn’t throw up (to those who don’t know, I can NOT stand seeing/smelling puke. I will end up puking too). Poor thing.

We also tried our very first beef sticks tonight. Was so good we bought it at every opportunity, eventually causing us to all have to go to the bathroom on the day we got back to Khao San.

– End Day 3 –

I woke up groggily from a not-so-restful sleep on my rubber dorm mattress to see a guy dressed only in tighty-whities at the foot of the next bed. Thankfully I can’t see shit without my contacts so I didn’t get overly blinded.

After we all got up and dressed, we headed to our first destination of the day: Chatuchak market. All of my friends who have been to Bangkok have been raving to me about this place, and even then I felt completely overwhelmed when I finally got there. Chatuchak is HUGE.

This is just a fraction of what you see at Chatuchak. The whole place is HUMONGOUS.

After spending about half a day there, we left to the Central area to have lunch.

After which we decided to go walk around Chinatown. After dinner we decided to go back to the hotel out of exhaustion. The rest of the night was spent drinking beer on the rooftop and reading. When I finally decided it was late enough to sleep, I went into our dorm room….only to find that some guy was sawing logs REALLY loudly so I couldn’t sleep anyway. Thankfully he stopped halfway through so I took advantage of that to fall asleep.

– End Day 2 –

Ee and I arrived in Bangkok 10 mins ahead of our arrival time. We took an express bus from Suvarnabhumi airport to our hotel in Sukhumvit, near Soi Thong Lo. The airport isn’t so different from KLIA in the sense that it’s bloody far away from the city. By the time we arrived at the hotel and met up with Ee’s friend, Travis, an hour had passed. After eating lunch around the neighbourhood, we spent the afternoon sleeping as we were all tired out from lack of sleep the previous night – me from working and packing, Ee from her exams and packing, and Travis from partying (he arrived 2 days ahead of us). When we woke up later in the evening, we decided on the events for the rest of the day: dinner, and a tiger show.

We took the Skytrain down to Patpong and had dinner at a beer garden. That was when we popped open our first bottle of Singha beer. I was surprised that I liked it. We shared some spring rolls. Had more Singha beer. After we had our fill, we went to check out the tiger shows.

Yup…that’s an actual sign in Patpong.

The only time we really got ripped off really badly in Bangkok happened to be this instance. The guy promoting the place told us the show was free, and a beer was 100 baht – it turns out the second beer was 100 baht. The first cost a bomb, and the girls kept asking us to buy them Cokes (which also cost a lot more than they should have) and giving us massages….which of course had its own charges, too, which they don’t reveal to you till it’s over and too late to say no. I gave up and paid one of them off, and she gave me a kiss on the cheek. Which is kinda sweet, except since I got ripped off anyway…so it’s not?

The Tiger show itself was jaw-dropping. Watching women shoot ping pong balls out of their vaginas, sucking in what looked like water from one bottle with their vagina and then squirting it out into another bottle looking more like Coke, and pulling razor blades out of the vagina and cutting pieces of paper with it…let’s just say it was an unique experience. One of the girls brought around the drink she just “expelled” out into the bottle and asked us to buy it for 100 baht, which of course we refused because WE DO NOT WANT TO DRINK SOMETHING THAT JUST CAME OUT OF A VAGINA LIKE THAT. (EDIT: According to Ee she was just asking for tips. But come on, if someone shows up at your table with a drink in a bucket and a sign that says 100 baht, wouldn’t you think they were trying to sell it to you? LOL)

We left rather quickly from our bad experience to a slightly more “reputable”-looking go-go bar, where we spent our time drinking more Singha beer. Both Ee and I were ended up quite high and feeling a bit sick when we left back for our hotel. First thing we did when we walked in was to run upstairs so we could lie down while poor Travis went to 7-eleven to get some water for us. I heard voices mumbling downstairs as we went up, which I couldn’t be bothered about because all I wanted to do at the time was to lie down. Next morning we found out from Travis that the hotel receptionist was flipping through his book in a panic and trying to stop him from letting us in. After some explanation of sorts, he exclaimed, “Oh, the Malaysian girls! I thought you bring two tiger girls home.”

It dawned on us then that he thought we looked Thai. Asian girls hanging out with Caucasian boy? Two words: paid company (the sight of a white guy with a Thai girl around his arm is as common as the sight of trash on the streets of KL. So common, in fact, that by the second day we ended up playing Spot-the-Whore). Still, I’m really thankful that Travis was traveling around with us. I seriously can’t imagine both Ee and I walking around Patpong by ourselves if we get mistaken for Thai girls. Shudder.

– End Day 1 –

I came home from Bangkok to find this cute little plushie sitting in a bag on top of my desk:

Apparently my brother bought it from Japan for me. I thought it was just a ridiculously cute hamster-ish looking thing until a bit of research told me it’s called a capybara.

Trust Japan to cutesify everything XD

Hey everybody, I’m back! The trip was tiring, but really fun. Everything hurts though (including my wallet). And my camera is still with Ee, so I can’t really write anything about it till she comes home and passes me the pics, so this is it for now…

When I ordered my two FF Tactics figurines from Play Asia, I was keeping my fingers crossed for Ramza. So when Ramza wasn’t one of the two, and Play Asia still had those figurines in stock, I suffered from a massive case of Itchy Fingers. I finally caved in and decided to order just ONE more box to try my luck.

Well, the box took forever to arrive but ZOMFG it’s Ramza squeeeeee~ XD

A definite sign that I am aging is that I can no longer stay awake till 5am in the morning almost every night and not be punished by either waking up extremely late for work, or being extremely sleepy at work, or being completely lethargic over the weekends. A fact that I have already known and repeated for quite awhile, which I will repeat here anyway because I am growing old and that’s what old people do right? Mumble on and on about stories that people have heard a million and one times… but thankfully I’m not here to tell that story again for now, as today’s story is something new I’ve recently uncovered about myself. I am not only suffering from lack of sleep, I am actually starting to sleep-dial people.

I blame it all on my alarm clock, which happens to be my phone. Every morning I wake up and attempt to press the snooze or off button on my phone so I can get a few minutes more of sleep before I have to head for work. I never noticed anything unusual until one day I checked my call list and realized that I miss-called the first person on my list….at 8am. Which was the time I set my alarm clock for. Which was really embarrassing since I haven’t spoken to said guy in YEARS. Whoops?

You would think that I would be smart enough after that to get a separate alarm clock. Sadly, the story does not end there. I dismissed it as something I would never repeat again. But as they say, history repeats itself. One morning I woke up in a sleep-induced state and realized that my phone was in my hand, I was listening to a tone going “…please leave a message after the beep…”, looked at my phone and realized that horrors of horrors, I just sleep-dialed my ex (We aren’t on talking terms, but hey, it’s not my fault).

I was completely mortified. What the hell did I just do??!?! Thankfully (or not, since I felt bad and wanted to say sorry, then thought better of it), he didn’t call back. I’m not sure if he was confused, or whether he’d be amused if I called to tell him I called him in my sleep. When I told Significant Other about it he couldn’t stop laughing and told me I should try drunk-dialing him next time. Bastard.

Then today, while scribbling down phone numbers on my computer so I have a backup copy in case I ever lose my phone, I realized that while asleep, I’ve also somehow managed to delete the top few phone numbers on my list… I think it’s about time I really start contemplating that alarm clock -__-

It’s hard to believe I’m leaving for Thailand in a couple of days. I’m so excited! …And panicky, because I have a million and one things to do before I leave. Already December is here, and I’ll be meeting my new senior designer tomorrow. Feels like only yesterday when he said he could only join us in December, which was… 3 months away? Time sure flys by, though I’m pretty sure I was slogging it through instead of having fun these last couple of months :/

Hopefully Thailand will be fun enough for me to de-stress… along with the addition of the new guy, I suppose I should have nothing to worry about. Wheeeeeee XD