Thursday, January 25, 2007

Thailand -Koh Phi Phi

I apologize for not blogging for the longest time. I've just been incredibly lazy. I've been back from my trip to Thailand for 2 weeks now. All in all the trip was awesome.

So after we finally got from Bangkok to Krabi. We were in a bit of a jam. The last boat that leaves for Phi Phi Island had already left. We were late for the boat because of the 2 hr long delay. Air Asia our chartered flight that was supposed to leave from Bangkok at 1 ended up leaving at 3pm.. which was when the last boat left the dock at Krabi. The cab driver took us to this nice tour agency and so our option was to take a longtail boat to Phi phi island or the speedboat.. the difference in price was astounding.. altho the price was moderate in comparison to back home, it was way out of our budget. We opted for the longtail boat which meant that it was going to take us an hour. That hour felt LIKE FOREVER. Both Linds and I managed to doze while sitting on planks of wood freezing our asses off. Despite the warm weather in Thailand, when you're on the waters, and going pretty fast without any wind shelter, you freeze. I was tired enough to sleep sitting up. I'm pretty impressed with myself.
When we got to the dock at Phi Phi, we found out that our resort was AT THE VERY END OF THE BEACH! We lugged our suitcases all the way there and finally managed to crash.
I got my second wind of the night right about then. After we all showered we went into town to grab a bite and found this wicked place. It was called carpe diem. With the outdoorsie feel and Bob Marley in the background, this place made you feel like you were sitting atop a tree with absolutely no worries in the world.

After dinner we toured a bit of the stands outside. The merchandise (especially clothing wise) was so diverse in comparison to what's sold in Korea. The stores unfortunately closed around 10 and we headed back to our place feeling completely re-energized with nothing to do. LOL.. Always a bad combo with the us ladies. We ended up taking a dozen silly pictures that I cannot post. The night ended with numerous giggling fits.

Our next day was supposed to be our only FULL day on the island and unfortunately the weather was not the greatest. It was raining and ruined our plans of a day out on the beach oxidizing our melanin. Instead we settled for a daylight tour of the village and submitted ourselves to the mercy of the local Thai masseuse. Sigh... just the thought of it now is enough to make my knees weak. It was soo good. and the women there were soo friendly.

That evenning, we spent another night at Carpe Diem, soaking in the mellow ambience. This time we allowed ourselves a cocktail while watching firedancers do their magic. It seemed as if all the locals knew how to play with fire. I left the ladies to their flirting with the guys atop (one of whom had given Tash a rose made of a drinking straw) and headed closer to the fire dancers. I don't know if it was the alcohol or just the setting, but I felt so mesmerized by the fire and the music. Soon after Linds and Tash joined me Tash had to use the bathroom. She came back almost immediately and wanted to use the bathroom back in the hotel instead. As I was feeling quite drunk and tired (I was still sick) I opted to head back with them. Once there however, I was too relaxed to head back out.

The day we were supposed to leave the island was of course.. GORGEOUS.. the sun was out and it was INCREDIBLE. Our check out time was noon so after we had breakfast then packed. We left our luggage with the concierge and headed straight for the water. It was INCREDIBLE.. I love swimming in the ocean and had never swam in the calm waters of the ocean. There weren't many waves like Costa Rica and as I swam I could feel the sun coloring in my skin. I love the feel of salt water because the salt increases the buoyancy and so it feels like you have to do very little work to stay afloat. After a period of time out there just drifting away, I started to notice sporadic pinches here and there. We had by this time, chatted up a few lawyers from England. The dude was so cute cause he had lathered on the sunblock but probably didn't wait for it to settle into his skin before hitting the water. At first we couldn't figure out what the pinches were and where they were coming from. I figured that they were jelly fish stings, though I couldn't be certain at the time.

At around 1 we headed out of the water and gathered our stuff. We went for thai pancake for lunch which is ABSOLUTELY DELICOUS and CHEAP! As we waited for our pancakes we met up with the dudes from Carpe diem that Linds and Tash had partied it up with the night before. They were still as stoned as they were the night before and we sat down with them while eating our brunch. They really were a cute bunch (tho not physically). There was one dude that had his heart set on Tash. Their boat was leaving the island earlier than ours. So after lunch we headed back to pick up our luggage and it was there that we discovered that we didn't have to trek back all the way thru the village to get to the Pier. The hotel had a longtail boat shuttle service that took us there. We arrived to find the Local boy that was in love with Tash. He treated us to water at some cafe near the pier and even helped us with our luggage as we boarded the ship. As I left the Island I promised myself that I had to return again.

Sunday, January 14, 2007

My nights as the Terminal woman.

Jan 5

I arrived at the airport around 2:00am. I've got to wait until Lindsay and Natasha arrive at 11pm. I just figured that I'd try to pull an all nighter in the airport.

If you were to ask me for the one word that would describe my experience in the airport. It would be: BRUTAL (that's right. capitalized)
A number of factors made it unbearable.
1. I was still sick
2. It was 2:00 am in the morning
3. I was already so tired from Nem's visit and all the things we had to do i.e. Christmas party, New years party etc etc

I don't know what made me think I could brave it out for the night. Because even if I could have lasted the night. There was the entire DAY the next day as well.
I sat on the airport seats and tried to lie down and get comfortable like I saw how the other people were doing it. The problem was that because it was such a foreign place to me. I couldn't shake off my uneasiness. I had my bags on me and I was afraid to fall asleep then have them stolen from me.

So 3:00 am hits and I caved. I walked up to the hotel reservation kiosk and booked me a room for the night. Took the cab down and the image of the bed was so welcoming, I almost just crashed. but not before looking around for bugs. The idea of bugs crawling on me while I sleep creeps the hell out of me. After my bug check I conked out and woke up at 7 am. I stayed in bed up until around 11 watching TV.. I was not looking forward to going back to the airport. but as I was getting dressed. I looked back towards the bed and started to notice movements. I thought at first it was just the air conditioning blowing dust particles around. I WAS SOO WRONG! Sitting down on the bed I took a closer look and realized that there were at least a dozen tiny ants or some sort of critters crawling around the bed!!! I jumped up and suddenly felt all itchy. It was sooo gross!

I could not have gotten out of the hotel room fast enough.

Made it back to the airport around 12:00pm. the 11 hr wait was brutal. I got to know the airport really well. I discovered the little nooks that I could sit down and eat by myself. I people-watched. It was brutal. For some reason I started to get the idea that I was only waiting until Lindsay and Natasha came. By the time they arrived I realized that I still had to wait until our flight to krabi the NEXT day at 1:00pm. I WANTED TO SCREAM!! We stayed overnight and got some rest tho we kept waking up cause it was FREEZING and UNCOMFORTABLE. I had to pull out layers of clothes and wear them so that I wouldn't freeze to death. For some reason I kept having to pee every 5 minutes. So sleep basically was impossible.

Somehow we managed to pass the time until our flight, which ended up getting delayed for an hour and half.

Thailand trip to be continued...

six weirdest things about me

I'm writing this blog because Jamie tagged me and I'm supposed to tag 6 other people but I only tagged 3. I tagged Steph L, Nemanja (even though he hasn't really written in his blog forever, and Asuka.

1. I love putting my face against someone else's cold bicep. It's the feeling of cold skin that I love and I can do it forever except that my face eventually warms it up.

2. When watching a movie or reading a book. I find that in my mind I become one of the main character. It gets to a point where if the book is sad, I find myself a little depressed. Books and movies have a huge influence on my mood.

3. Whenever I have a bad dream, I find that I would wake up abruptly to end the dream then go back to bed to change the ending of the same dream.

4. I hate doing the dishes so much that sometimes I find myself gagging as I'm doing them. I hate a dirty sink more.

5. I have this little bump on my left ear. When I was younger I used to think it was my psychic intuition antenna. I thought I was psychic cause I had so many deja-vu feelings and I swear I had dreams of the events happening. I still believe it sometimes.

6. Sometimes I get this itch on my nose and I would rub it like a maniac. I've rubbed it until my nose started bleeding before. Nem stops me when he catches me doing it. but its a high-powered rub that's insatiable.