Where unforgettable and unfortunate things happen ;)

Day 1

I met up with Tao, my Thai friend, at the bus terminal where the free shuttle bus service from the airport dropped me off. I had my first authentic pad thai from the streets (yummy!) and I got my drinking water by dipping the cup into the jug. That's how they do it because there's no faucet attached to the jug, so I just immitated them. Hehe! I've never seen people doing that back home though (but there probably are), so I was kind of fascinated by it. Haha! Glad that my tummy didn't get sick though. :) I spent the night at Tao's place near her school, 20 minutes away from Suvarnabhumi Airport, where we also spent hours talking until I fell asleep - how rude of me! But I was really beat after all that traveling. Well, as you go on reading this blog you'd find out that this is just the start of the hardcore traveling episodes. hehehe!

Day 2

Tao walked me to the minibus/van terminal to get to the city. Well, you know what's weird? In Thailand, the atmosphere isn't any different from the Philippines and it's easy to get yourself familiar with anything - especially with the traffic jam on Mondays! Haha! The only problem is that, language barrier exists in some cases which is kind of sad...because it's a little hard for myself to be understood. So unlike in Kuala Lumpur where I only pull out my map from the bag in less populated places, I had to in Bangkok - every now and again. Hehe! Or else, I'd get lost. Oh well, I only ask for directions only when I have to. ..I just love to explore a new surrounding on my own. :) New found love: WALKING. :) As if I didn't get enough in KL. haha! So the whole morning, I did nothing but to aimlessly walk around with my backpack sans my laptop (I left it with Tao :)) But then my feet eventually got tired and I decided to rest and eat at Marina HK (I loved the Congee thingy. I ordered two servings!) and it's situated along the shops around Siam Square.

Still not knowing where to go, I decided to give Francois (aka Belette), my Couchsurfing friend, a call using the Thai sim card Tao gave me (aww, sweet!) but found out that my phone was actually locked. Damn Globe! So I went to MBK to have it unlocked, did a few rounds in the mall looking for cellphone repair shops and took time explaining what I wanted them to do with it. I paid 200 baht for the labor from the 400 baht they initially asked and got a 300 baht worth of call card to top it up. Got Belette on the phone because he was expecting me to call as soon as I arrive. He wanted me to come to Pattaya but I was just too lazy and told him that I might make it tomorrow - I headed to Khaosarn Road instead and started looking for a place to stay. Not long after stumbling into few hostels apparently dominated by either Japanese and Korean blokes, the rain started pouring and I couldn't believe my luck, really! I knew it was going to rain! It always rains wherever I go, I told you. And Belette just told me that the weather would be great and it hasn't rained (not a drop) in months - but when I came, the heavens suddenly released its sentiments on me. hahaha! So while I was talking with him on the phone again when I finally found a hostel, we were laughing with each other and he finally affirmed that I was cursed! But I wasn't the only that was cursed...

Later this day, I met the one who claims to be ill-fated, idiotic, senseless and ultra-mega-alcoholic (all of which I later on came to believe as a fact.j/k!haha!)...Wayne, my first proper travel buddy that I've been talking with on TB for ages! :) While I was lying on the bed that smelled of napthalene balls, I sent Wayne a message telling him that I was staying somewhere in Khaosarn and if he's anywhere near, we could meet up. I got a reply after 1.5 hours and he just woke up! Then after a while he sent me another message saying, "Sarah! Where are you?! I can't find you along Khaosarn! Meet me at the pub under the huge Shamrock sign. Hurry though, your beer is getting warm."  Aha! Very specific! Hahaha! I didn't have a hard time looking for him because he was very distinguishable seating with two large beers in front of him. So we finally met and like he said, meeting each other for the first time wasn't as weird as we both thought...but that didn't change the fact that we are both weird. Haha! After a few rounds of beers, we agreed to meet later so I went off and wandered about until past 9, talked with an Australian guy which was really boring me and the other Italian guy with topics on business management. So I excused myself and took a nap instead. ehehe :)

Groggily woke up around 10pm and went downstairs to grab something to eat then I had to find where Wayne was at past 11. I went looking for the Guilliver's Tavern and didn't notice the number 2 after the name in Wayne's message so I ended up at the wrong bar where two Thai guys walked me to. Boo! So I was supposed to look for Guilliver's Tavern 2. Well, I found the place...I mean, I found Wayne scouring the streets looking for me because I told him I was lost! Haha! He was with this Thai girl named Nice and Nice was nice. :) They played pool and I just sat down drinking, ordering more drinks, talking, drinking. After that, there's the Gazebo rooftop bar, shisha, beer, cocktails, whiskey and pretty much everything. Got too caught up in talking until we noticed its already past 4 am. Haha!

Day 3

Wayne might have completely forgotten that we were supposed to go to Kanchanaburi today, honestly! hahaha! But I think it's also partly because we're waiting for Bondy's reply if he could get some time off work to come to Asia and meet us in place of Craigo (please refer to Wayneollerenshaw's blog). And I didn't really think Wayne could wake up before 9am anyway. So I walked around the city by myself instead which was actually a good thing because you get to meet a lot of "randoms". Haha! Then I went back to my hostel and took a nap for a couple of minutes before I went to get something to just fill my aching tummy. I did get the worst omelet ever and after shoving a few spoonfulls of rice into my mouth I suddenly sniffed off something "anomalous" with the rice so I stopped eating it. I skipped breakfast and ate so little last night and I thought maybe that's the reason why I began to feel really sick. My head was spinning like crazy forming psychedelic patterns of images and I swear I couldn't last a minute longer. I actually thought I was dying! ...of suspected food poisoning! Well, if the last thing you did was shove a distasteful omelet meal into your mouth and that's the first time you've ever been sick as that, you would think of all the craziest possibilities! I called up my parents and Wayne, told them I was really feeling bad. I was trying to scream EMERGENCY but I couldn't even hear myself. Haha! My Mom almost went hysterical with anxiety and worry. I wouldn't really want to call them, but if I was going to die any moment, I'd go ringing everyone...not really, just my parents! Haha! So they could just spread the word that Sarj died of an undiagnosed illness in some foreign land!  Anyway, thanks to this guy Chris from UK who came to my rescue when he saw me limping on one of the tables in the restaurant. He got me water and coke - plus he ran to his hotel to get me some medicines. Bless him! :P Well, I started feeling better a few minutes after Wayne got there. 

Then it signaled the start of a very unfortunate day. Oh, darn.:) While we were wandering around the malls in the afternoon, my left eye started ballooning up! Apparently it's because of some allergic reaction from food or medicines I took. I never really knew or even had any allergies before except for this one time when I took 3 aspirins in one go to cure my hangover. Haha! So I really think it was the painkillers I took earlier along with the medicine Chris gave me! hahaha! So we went to the pharmacist and got the medicines they prescribed - downed it and ran off to look for cheap sunglasses! hahaha! Yeah, had to wear sunglasses at night to hide my ugly puffy eyes! Though in reality, I seem to attract more attention with having sunglasses on! So nix it! I ditched the sunglasses! I don't care anyway! And like Wayne said, "Come on, it's okay. You've got no one to impress." I agree! And I was not out there to please anyone either. :P Well anyway, since we decided to leave for Laos the next day, I checked out from my hostel and found a nicer one just for the night. Ended up paying so much more for it but who cares?! I just needed to get a shower now! :P So then we went to one of the street bars along Khaosarn. Moments later, police came and we were all ordered to stand up by some domineering American guy. hahaha! Clustered along the sidewalk and me laughing like crazy, the chaos went on for a while and we had to stand up twice until midnight came and we went off to RCA (the locals' party stop) with a couple we picked up from the streets. Haha! Rob from Wales and Lek from there.:P They're funny together! Maybe because the guy's being cruel to the girl and the girl doesn't seem to mind. hehe! At RCA now, Wayne kept apologizing for bringing us there because to him, we looked bored. But it's all cool actually. It's just that Rob was drunk and trying not to fall asleep. Lek only talks when I talk to her and I was outside the bar because the smoke inside was smothering me. And you know me, if I could party, I would. Haha! I was just STILL feeling sick. I was secretly glad that the next bar we went to was already closing in 5 minutes so I could rest my puffy eyes. hehe! :P I sank into my bed and hoped that tomorrow I'd feel better. :)

Day 4

Off to more temples in the morning! :) Walked from Khaosarn to the Grand Palace, Wat Pho, etc. Yes, I walked. Haha! And why do people look at me in disbelief as if it was something incredible?! Haha! I had nothing to do and I've got some time to kill so... Oh on my way to the temples, two Japanese guys came behind me which almost made me jump. Well, they thought I was Thai and asked me nicely, "Excuse me, do you speak English?" and I said, "yes, better than you do. " jokingly though. Hehe! :P Then one started showing me a map with landmarks labeled in Japanese and asked if I know how to get to this hotel. Well, since I wasn't from Bangkok and I couldn't read Japanese characters, I said I couldn't help them with it. Anyway, we've had a little chit chat and when I found some food stalls, I told them to go ahead and I'd be okay. :) They've been in Bangkok for 4 weeks and haven't gone to the beaches yet! I couldn't believe it! I bet they're just getting smashed everyday. hahha! So I sat eating breakfast with some locals and they turn to me sometimes when they speak and say something like a kind of joke which I couldn't understand. I just knew that I had to laugh at the end of every story because they seem to expect you to. ..because (again), they thought I was a Thai girl. Same same, as some would say. Haha! It was funny though!

At the hostel after taking a shower and a nap when I got back, I figured that Wayne must have already checked out because someone's already cleaning his room so I might as well do the same. We're leaving for Nong Khai tonight on a train so I found him at the net cafe downstairs checking timetables so we won't miss the trip this time. We went to MBK first with our bags to get a travel notepad/diary like Wayne's 'cause alright, Igot jealous of his diary(hahaha!) and then to Nice's place to drop off Craig's bag. We got the last trip 20:45 because that's the only one which have available seats.

Bloopers of the night:

We got onto wrong bunks in the wrong "car" so we got to move our asses. Then while drinking our beers on the upper bunk (my bunk), some guy came out of nowhere and slapped Wayne's leg and asked him to go back to his bunk and closed up our curtains. What the hell?! Haha!  No choice, we have to continue talking with a distance of a meter or so. It had been a long night and we had the longest conversation ever...in 4 days.hahaha! Because surely, that's not really the longest. lol! It was nice to know that I could tell him anything - online or offline. So I thought, alright, I could travel with this guy. I can now trust him with my life. hahaha! So now he would be responsible if I drown in Namsong river and be eaten alive by crocs! haha! Laos, here we come! :P

*to be continued*