Twenty years from now you will be more dissapointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover

Thursday, April 29, 2010

who's in the house?

Be prepared for a good laugh... The consequences of anesthetics... could be fun, no?

special delivery.

One week ago today a special delivery arrived in Hong Kong.... BONNIE! I walk into the airport and we run towards eachother with open arms like idiots out of a movie,
I'm sure all of the asians though they were on candid camera or something. The next couple of days consisted of everything from daily workouts together, to Bonnie's first night out in LKF (including absinthe, ridiculous fruit crackers, and a night at the Cosmopolitan Hong Kong), a trip to the Peninsula for some overly-pretentious, over-priced "high tea", to some crazy shopping binges at the ladies market, as well as temple street. Highlights of her visit so far are as follows:

-Bonnie requesting a booze stop only hours after arriving, this was at 10am. We then proceed to the campus grocery store where we pick up mini bottles of wine that we drink on the bus and MTR on our way to the ladies market. so classy.

-Sitting on the step of a closed store in Mong Kok, drinking beers from 7eleven, Bonnie struggling so hard to open hers that she broke the tab off and proceeded to drink it through a straw. amateur.

-The two of us saying "riiiighhhht?" at the end of every sentence to the point that people around us were probably feeling sick to their stomachs.

-Getting dressed up for high tea, but getting so impatient waiting in the long line that the girls went and got Starbucks.
If this doesnt seem weird to you, imagine waiting in line somewhere comparable to the Fort Garry, but nicer, for the most pretentious tea party in allll of Hong Kong, while sipping out of a paper starbucks cup, and chowing down on a "Croc Monsiour" fresh from the microwave. Once again, my friends are ALL class.

-Bonnie and I busting a move in one of the shopping stalls along temple street as soon as good music came on, the girls in the shops around us start screaming and laughing and joining in. epic.

-The two of us getting taken upstairs into some secret room in a building bordering the ladies market. BLACKMARKET.COM. A large room, every wall equipped with shelves piled alll the way to the ceiling with purses of every brand you can imagine. And in the middle of the room, a huge table covered in watches, wallets, and shoes. We were pretty sure we might have died and gone to heaven. We wanted a picture, but pictures weren't allowed, for obvious reasons lol.

-Bonnie being the biggest pimp in the city and attracting gentlemen to pay for her tabs everywhere she goes, without even trying. Thank YOU!

All in all, the visit seems to havve been a success so far, and she still has three more weeks to go. We'll see how long her black runners last lol.

arctic glacier. from a showerhead.

I come home from an epic shopping experience at Hang Hau and make the decision that a shower is most definately in order (I had a massage and was oily.com) before heading to unibar. I jump in the shower after a longer than encessary facebook sesh, and proceed to latehr up, and get my canadian-imported conditioner alll over my head when the worst possible thing happens... The once-hot water goes cold. At this point I'm freezing and have no shame, so butt naked I go from stall to stall testing the temperature only to find that they are all as icy as the first. effffff my life. I retreat to stall 3 (2 is out of order), and try and rinse my hair without the watter touching my body, epic fail. I then start laughing since I can't believe that this is actually my life right now, standing in a hong kong shower, where it's usually humid beyond my wildest dreams, but freezing to death and wanting a cup of tea, like a fricken granny.

I then spent the next 3 hours sitting in my chair on my computer, wearing only my towel. Needless to say, I didn't end up making it to unibar, which is probably for the best as it usually results in an all out darts-war and copious amounts of peanut consumption. maybe next time.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

awkward? never.

Saturday marked the day I would take a major risk by getting my hair cut in Hong Kong. I must've googled for hair salons catering to westerners for hours before finally waving the white flag and realizing that there was no hope for me. A couple of exchangers had previously gone to "Salon Esprit" to get their hair cut, so I decided that was going to have to suffice as background information, and headed on down.

The first lady I tried talking to had to go get another employee who could speak english... At this point, any rational human being woulc've turned and walked out the door, but of course not me, I had to try and tough this one out... What an idiot. Turns out that my stylist can in fact speak english, I send up a thank you to the gods. I proceed to tell him how much I want cut off, at which point he talks me into getting a package that includes this moisturizing treatment as well as a pedicure, why the hell not right? WRONG. It turns out that this "pedicure" came with a bunch of strings, they asked me if for 100hk I wanted my calluses removed (which arent even bad by the way), ummm $13CDN for that, no thanks you sheister. Can't escapoe these people, really.

So after telling the stylist multiple times to stop cutting he finally listened, and sent me off with a young-ish asian boy wearing nail polish to get my hair washed. BEST 10 MINTUES OF MY LIFE; full sclap MASSAGE that I honestly could've endured forever, it was magical. If I was mega rich I would fly this emo asian kid across the ocean to wash my hair on the daily, no joke.

I leave the salon, $130CDN later with my moiturized, cropped hair, and my pink sparkly pedicure, ready to rip up the black and white affair also known as Tania and Laura's bday boat ride that night.

I had 30 mins to get ready, and to what will be great surprise from those who know me back home, I made it with time to spare, and even managed to shove a sandwich down my throat before boarding the boat for a night of sugarfree redbulls and vodka, and total debauchery.

Surprisingly enough, I survived the ridiculously unsteady boat ride in my 6 inch heels without falling even once, ohhh the things those sf red bulls will do for ya. The night eded up at Azure as usual, and after an $80hk drink, it was on to complete dance floor destruction. I think I even got kicked off of a table at one point, awkward? Never.

you rack disaprine. angry asians.

So it has been a few days, my apologies... Things have been a little hectic.

Friday: Went to Kowloon Tong mall to try and get people to fill out survey's for our marketing project, BAD idea. I've never felt uneasy about approaching people, but I had a strange incling that people here wouldn't be too responsive. Boy was I right.

The first guy Kim approached actually answered the whole survey, so we thought we were in lcuk...
All downhill from there, no joke. Kim practically got into a yelling match with some lady who was being really difficult, Tania ended up surveying a guy wearing a pink backpack and orange glasses, and a 21 year old american exchange student (our target was 45 year old professional family men lol), and I kept getting repeatedly shut down by angry asian jerks. I hate rejection.

The day ended on a brighter note with a nice meal at our oh-so-classy favorite asian restaurant, Mos Burger; as well as a moneyyyy purchase at Fortress of a wireless keyboard and mouse for my stupid laptops, which have both failed me. My regular laptop has a malfunctioning keyboard that continues to have more keys that don't work, as well as a garb.com touchpad that keeps crapping out on me and
a screen that won't turn on half of the time; while the keyboard on my netbook has also recently stopped working, kill me now. The kicker, is that the only keyboards I could get have chinese characters all voer them in addition to the regular letters, I asked if they had any plain keyboards, but the asian salespeople just laughed at me, seems to be a common occurence here. No mercy for the tall white girl.

Friday, April 16, 2010

the glucophage debocle.

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Wan Chai - balcony barfing.

This past Tuesday I made my "Hong Kong to-do List", consisting of things around the city that I want to get done before I come home. The list consisted of many things, among them were: go for tea at the Peninsula hotel, see the skyline light show at night, hike in Sai Kung, and "Visit Wan Chai - get fucked up". This last little tidbit following Wan Chai was only added for some comical relief, but ended up getting checked off, not even on purpose. The story goes:

I had decided earlier on in the day that for the first time ever, I was going to join the crew that night in Wan Chai. Around 10pm we all met up in Ramin's room for the pre-game. Since I had previously stated that I was not going to drink and instructed the boys to not let me do so, I showed up with 2 sugar free redbulls in hand. Upon arriving at the bar just before midnight I decided to get a vodka water from the bar (since it was ladies night and girls get in and drink for free).

1 drink later and I was destroying the dance floor.

1 more after that and I was sitting on the patio/balcony barfing like it was my job.

Disturbing, I know. I have no idea what the heck happened, those of you who knew me in my drinking prime know that 3 drinks wouldn't even get me warmed up, apparently I have become a lightweight, I never thought this day would come.

The guys were sure that I was sick because I was low on sugar, and proceeded to run across the street to 7 11 to buy me ice cream and sat there feeding it to me like a little baby, while I proceeded to spit it out, telling them I didn't want it (first and only time that I will EVER turn down ice cream, guaranteed).

Not only did I get strangely drunk off of a ridiculously small amount of alcohol (maybe I shouldn't have asked the bartender for more vodka?), I somehow managed to lose my ocotopus card, as well as my driver's license (that I brought along for ID). Thankfully I didn't bring my credit card, mom and dad would prrrrobably have made me join some form of chinese AA... "My name is Kendall and I have a problem. That problem being that your shitty bottom of the barrel vodka and crappy bartenders have now ruined my life. Thanks for nothing."

I managed to get home in one piece with team india and boonie. They later told me that they got to enjoy the smell of my vomit the entire cab ride home... Sorry guys.

This story is bothering on so many levels. I had previously help up my end of the bargain I had with myself... To not puke in Hong Kong. Had it been necessary that I break this promise, I would have preferred it be in a toilet, and in private, not on a balcony at a crowded bar, with my head between my legs. Classy as ever. NAT.

Sidenote: not that it makes it any better whatsoever, but I would like to note that there were 3 other girlfriends of mine, and one male friend that joined the puking symphony that night. One of them barfing on a friend's lap on the cab ride home. Suckkkkka.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

40 days. the countdown is on.

It's official, I'm coming home. Not now of course, but the night we got back from Thailand I booked my return flight home. It feels so much more real now that I actually have a date to look forward to. The Magic date is May 24th, and the countdown is on. Not that I'm not having the time of my life over here, because I definately am, but I definately miss home. It's not even the finer things, or the many amenities that home provides, that I miss the most. I can deal with my tiny bed, my hot room, and my frizzy hair. I just want to get back to movie nights in, hugs from friends, and maybe the odd grilled chicken breast lol, no bones, no skin, and not swimming in questionable asian sauce.

Sidenote: I am proud to say that for the first time EVER (while booking my flight home on Sunday night), I was asked to turn my music down by someone in my hall lol. I was playing some serious Carrie Underwood while browsing for flights (at a decent volume level because my roomate had not yet returned from spring break). Also, if you judge the choice of Carrie as my nighttime serenade, then suck it and stop reading. I heard what sounded like a knock at the door, but ignored it as, of course, as I was way too caught up in "Inside your Heaven". A couple minutes later I heard it again and said "come in", this asian girl appears in my doorway, dressed in what must have been her little sisters pajamas, and said "can you turn that down please?", for those of you who remember back to the time when another girl in my hall asked me to stop skyping in the hallway because I was being "annoying", know that this asian girl is way more polite, nice, and cute. So I waved the white flag, admitted defeat, and shut Carrie up for the night. Being nice pays off.

Interesting story, I decided I was going to have a little cheat yesterday and ate a chocolate bar around mid-afternoon. Usually if I do this I have to go to the gym immediately after so that my BS stays under control, but of course I was lazy and decided to leave the sweating for later. An hour and a half later I checked my BS (I had taken no insulin), and it was (drumroll please) NORMAL. What the heck is going on here?! Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe my ridiculous amounts of time in the gym are leading to total diabetes destruction... Lets hope.

Last night I decided that I was going to try on my dress pants and skirt that I brought from home since I have some presentations coming up. Badddd idea. Apparently my efforts to beef up my bum have paid off. Bigtime. I also assume that the fact I went shopping for these items at the peak of my diabetic ridiculousness, and therefore the time when I was the thinnest EVER, may add to the problem. The problem being that the damn pants won't fit over my ass, damn you stairmaster, damn you. Looks like I'm going to have to step up the diet in order to keep the booty under control, the worst.

Monday, April 12, 2010

they DO love us.

Even most of my closest friends don't know this, but if I'm a sucker for anything, it's a good book fair. I started experiencing irregular heart palpitations as I approached the concourse on floor 1 and saw tables and tables piled high with every type of book imaginable. I held it together and walked right on by, reason being that I am currently in the process of reading 3 different books; buying another one just wouldn't make sense... Or would it? I kept thinking about this ridiculous book orgy all day and after dinner at the cafe, decided to just "take a look". Well this worked about as well as letting a fat kid just "take a look" at a room filled with the biggest, baddest chocolate cakes of all time. Before I knew it I had 3 books in hand, and was still looking. Thankfully Tania was there with me and had decided to buy one called "The 5 people you meet in heaven", which made me feel as though I should only buy one as well (I mean, nobody wants to be the girl getting the large fries when everyone else is having a salad right?). I stood there trying to decide between a fictional story about the holocaust, and a how-to book about starting up a business, but finally decided on "Why Men Love Bitches". A few of my (male) friends relentlessly tried to explain to me that men do NOT love bitches, but I think the book has a point in explaining that men do not like a doormat either... Nottttt that I started to read it or anything lol. I'll keep you posted on the reading progress, my room is starting to look like Barnes & Noble, bring on the starbucks.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

i am mogli.

Lying sprawled across 4 seats in the Bangkok airport I am going to attempt to recount my last crazy week in Thailand. At the same time I am going to try and not make it a length that it novel-worthy so that you don’t want to kill me by the time it’s done…

After my first ever ride on a night train -or any train for that matter; which included a delicious Thai meal (although microwaved), as well as a bathroom that was home to an extremely large window (passers-by for sure saw me taking care of my biz), and an extremely irritable attendant (wore a mask and grunted most of the time), we arrived in the pride and joy of northern Thailand known as Chiang Mai.
Although the train was an hour late, our guide stood at the “meeting point” holding a sign with Liz Beast’s name on it. The two of us, along with a new friend we had made on the train by the name of Carmen (from Idaho), headed with the guide (alias “Bang”) to Buddy Tours to prepare for what may have been the most intense, eye-opening three days of my life.

We were given a small sack in which we had to pack everything we would need for the ass-kicking that was about to begin, and told that we had ten minutes before we needed to leave. After picking up the rest of the crew (Mike and Chris, from Vancouver and England respectively), we stopped at a market to pick up some last minute must-haves: bug spray, sunscreen, water, and booze. The truck then took us to a temple (this is where the ass-kicking began with 5 minutes worth or stair-climbing to reach the top), and to a waterfall where we swam and ate lunch. At this point I was loving this “jungle trek”, getting driven from point A to point B, and still taking in Chiang Mai and all of its beauty, I was clearly living the life. It would be about 10 minutes after getting into the truck after that last waterfall that I would really eat my words.

The truck stops and we are instructed to grab our stuff and get out, a small trail is visible to the right, and I begin to think that maybe this wasn’t such a great idea after all… But it’s too late now, turning back was literally not an option. Off we go on about an hour hike until we reach our first waterfall (sidenote: pretty much every stop on this trek was a waterfall), which came as a nice surprise as we all needed a cool down. It was only when we started changing into our bathing suits that I realized that God really does hate me; mother nature had decided to pay me a special visit, almost two weeks early, in the middle of the jungle. Shoot me now. Clearly I wasn’t prepared for this and almost started to cry, I was NOT about to live like my ancestors, no fricken way. Luckily, our new found friend Carmen WAS prepared, my guardian angel, I’m sure of it.

The rest of the day’s events consisted of hiking, sweating, being sure that I was going to die, sending up prayers to the god that I had previously cursed, and after surviving what I would have previously considered hell- being convinced that I was now the queen of the jungle. We had stopped every one or two hours to swim and eat, but other than that it was physical exertion 101.

We spent the night in a “camp”. This camp had no electricity, no running water, and was run by some thai guys that used a cell phone in a tin cup for music. We slept in a bamboo hut, with a roof made of banana leaves; no mattress, no legit pillow, just a mosquito net and an itchy blanket. This place made the camp that played home on our second night seem like a 5 star Hilton, mostly because we had a mattress, AND a roof… This place had it all.

Sidenote: I bet aloud that Carmen would have to break out her first aid kit in the first hour of the trek. Surprise surprise, Kendall falls and gashes her knee within the first ten minutes. Damn my betting ways.

I almost admitted defeat on the second day. At one point we climbed literally straight up for about 300m, and I once again almost started to cry. This was probably the complaining high point of the trek, during which Liz Beast was trying her very best to motivate me by telling me “mind over matter”, and “one step at a time”; while I was silently telling her to shut up and just let me die here, it would be far less painful.

Somehow I managed to make it to the top, and I think every part of my body imaginable was sweatier than anything I had ever thought possible. It was at this point that I started counting down the hours until we would be back on solid, paved ground in Chiang Mai. I figured it to be about 30. Fml.

The second day also played host to the day when both Liz and I would bail, hard. I was actually pretty impressed that these were the only major falls we took, as there were at least 20 instances when I almost died, I’m convinced that had it not been for the past month and a half of core training, I would be a mangled mess somewhere in the jungle, still.

Our camp on the second night seemed like a 5 star resort when we arrived (as mentioned above), it had a shower (shower head attached to the side of a tree), an actual toilet (that flushed), and a place where you could get massages (2 ladies from the camp that chatted in Thai the whole time and hugged us like it was their job at the end). I am convinced that the “pillows” at this place were full of sand, as I have never woken up in so much pain, I would describe the pain as someone repeatedly stabbing an oversized steak knife into the base of my scull, resulting in sharrrrrp pains shooting every which way down my neck and shoulders… But hey, at least the place had a roof.

I would also like to sidenote that both of our tourguides got relatively/extremely inebriated off of moonshined rice whiskey both the first and second night. Based on the way I was handling the “trekking” without any alcohol in my system, drinking even the tiniest amount of alcohol did not even register as an option. The small bottle of Sangsom rum that was weighing down my pack stayed full the entire time. Mom will be proud.

The third day felt like a fricken vacation after the previous two. We hiked only for a total of an hour with our first destination being a waterfall, at which some annoying European child couldn’t wait 5 seconds for me to finish climbing up from the river before barreling down the rocks and making me slip and scrape up my leg. I then decided to remark loud enough so that the stupid kid’s mom could definitely hear “I don’t understand why people can’t just WAIT until we’re at the top, WHERE are this kid’s parent’s?!”. At this point in the trip I was a force to be reckoned with, I was dirty, in pain, and at my wit’s end; today was NOT the day for this little punk to cross me.

The elephant riding was neat, getting repeatedly sneezed on by the large dirty mammal was not. It was hot, and we were sweating to the point that by the time we got off the elephant it looked like I had been sitting in a puddle of water, sick but true. Bamboo rafting was the best possible way to end our trip. We sat on a raft in our bathing suits while a guy paddled us down the river. This happened to be right before the water festival was about to take place, so people splashed us while yelling ‘happy new year’ the entire ride. At first I was bitter about the splashing and was like “okay, we’re good, thanks” (those of you who know me well can more than likely properly imagine me saying this), but eventually got into it and started splashing everyone (especially little kids) before they even splashed me, suckerrrrrrs. I felt kind of bad splashing some of the kids, like I was at the neighborhood pool and their parents were going to come yell at me asking me what the hell my problem was, but the opposite turned out to be true, the parents laughed and smiled and splashed them too. I started to really like this place. I was in the jungle, and I was home.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

red shirts. suck it.

So I survived the jungle trek, and a few days in bangkok. Don't worry, i will fill you in on every single detail once I return to Hong Kong, if I even make it there... For those of you who haven't heard, Thailand is in a state of emergency right now as there are huge riots of protestors who are anti-government and want the prime minister to step down... Needless to say the city is a mess. We decided to not even leave our hotel tonight, less than a couple kilometers away from Kaosan Road (where we, as well as almost every backpacker in the world it seems, are staying) over 500 people have been injured and sent to hospital, with 5 dead. I can't adequately describe the madness that is Bangkok right now so check the links below for more info. I guess I won't be making it to the ping pong show, ah well.

ps. also had my first encounter with tear gas today, stupid red shirts.

http://arabnews.com/world/article41436.ece
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/
http://www.bangkokpost.com/

Sunday, April 4, 2010

KFC. 12 hour trains. and thai prostitutes.

computer battery is running extremely low so this is going to be short and sweet. sitting in a kfc inside the train station trying to stay cool... eating a piece of chicken that I got for buying wifi access, listening to my new fave beyonce and r kelly song, gay I know. I've decided to get back on the postcard train and bought a bunch taht will get written on our 12 hour train ride to Chiang Mai. Thankfully it's a sleeper train and we have a bunk together. Tomorrow will bring a 3 day, 2 night jungle trek... Including hiking, bamboo rafting, rubber boating (whatever that is), and elephant riding. NBD. I would also like to let everyone know that it IS true that you get what you pay for; my $20USD backpack from the ladies market now has 2 broken zippers. Damn that thing. Needless to say it will be going in the garbage when we return to hk. Definately worth investing ina good backpack, as many of my friends from home had previously advised me.

I'm hoping nobody smokes on this train, or smells bad for that matter. I also hope there is plenty of tp, as places around here must assume that people just happen to carry some around in their back pocket, annoying. I bought a book about thai prostitution which should make the ride a little less boring... Or disturbing, one or the other.

Of course we had our routine starbucks stop when we arrived at the BKK airport this morning... Annnnd sat their on our laptops for a couple of hours, kind of humiliating. Battery life is now at 14% which is getting kind of risky, signing off for now, and might (more than likely) not have wifi in the middle of the jungle, so this will probably be the last post for a few days, but don't worry about me... I will be exploring the jungle to the max-man vs wild styles. For those of you who can't imagine me travelling without a suitcase and a curling iron, you mighhhht not recognize me when I return home haha, let's hope thats not the case. peace be with you, and you! haha aurevoir =)

Saturday, April 3, 2010

thailand part one. madness.

As I sit here on the ferry from Koh Tao to Koh Samui, documenting my last 5 crazy days in this country, I sip a cold Thai beer (Singha to be specific), looking out at the water, I have come to realize everything that is wrong with big city life… Too many honking cars, hair straighteners, and concerns. This is where I need to be, bigtime.

Its official, I survived the full moon party. Some of you may have doubted my abilities to control myself on a beach with upwards of 20,000 people decorated in fluorescent paint, consuming copious amounts of alcohol out of little buckets; and in fact you would be fairly accurate.

Our first night on Koh Panghan began with a nice dinner on the beach followed by some artistic efforts on our part (body painting), and some drinks at the resort bar (appropriately named ‘Heaven’. We got in a taxi and headed off to the party around 11pm. I don’t know exactly what it was that I expected, but this wasn’t it. Groups of people decked out in neon and beach attire crowded the street as we approached the beach, and there were tables full of mini buckets containing a small bottle of alcohol and a can of pop as far as the eye could see. We hopped off of the taxi and began what was perhaps one of the most epic nights of my life.

Before I knew it I had a Sangsom (thai rum) and diet coke bucket in hand and was headed for the beach. We were lucky because 2 schoolmates of mine from Winnipeg were on the island at the time (their family owns the resort we were staying at) and took us to the party.
The entire beach was packkkkked with people partying like it was their job. Most of the people were sporting fluorescent paint like ours, pretty much a highlighter party lol. Before I knew it was had run into at least 15 other people from HKUST and were dancing on tables along the beach, which of course I managed to fall off of (so typical).
On that note, I should probably share that I also managed to slightly bail down a set of extremely steep stairs in “Drop in Bar”, but some lifesaving gentleman that was at the bottom caught me and broke my fall (typical once again). I honestly don’t even know where the night went because before I knew it it was 4:30am and I was eating the most delicious crepe of my life with Manelle and Pascale, and getting a taxi back to the resort.

I should probably add the sidenote that both Liz and I discovered the true quality of our stupid ladies market sandals at the full moon party, considering one of each of ours BROKE while on the beach…. Perfect. A friend of the twins somehow got Elizabeth a pair of white Havianas from some place on the beach which she realized in the morning were too big. Me, on the other hand, took the very classy road of going home with no shoes at all lol. This meant good things for me however, since she gave me the sandals in the morning, scorrrrre.com. Not all of our friends had as good of a time as us... We found both Hakon and Anders passed out on the beach at some point, and anders again on the concrete somewhere on Haad Rin. I also need to thank Manelle and Pascale for talking me out of getting a tattoo on the beach, which for some reason I was convinced was a good idea lol.


Upon arriving back at the resort I stormed into Jorgen’s room convinced that he had somehow misplaced our room key, I’m pretty sure I yelled at him for a good ten minutes before going back to where we stashed the key, and finding it exactly where we had left it lol. I guess that’s what 2 buckets will do to ya.

I woke the next morning (afternoon actually) in an extremely sandy queen sized bed, realizing that I had apparently opted out of a much needed shower the night before. Upon finally dragging my butt out of bed I noticed a huge gash down the right side of my stomach, a huge gash on my foot, some scrapes and bruises and my leg, and a weird pain in my right knee. Needless to say, the full moon party definitely meant total bodily destruction on my part. The worst.

The day was spent recovering (inside and in the restaurant since it wasn’t the best weather), and having an unreal steak dinner on the beach after sunset. Of course, everyone decided they wanted to go back to Haad Rin to party. I made the executive decision not to consume any alcohol and stuck by it the whole night. Good thing, because it turned out to be the most drama filled evening since I’ve been in Asia. None of it involving me for once, but being the only sober one of the group, I definitely paid the biggest price. After convincing everyone at around 4am that we should head back, we jumped in a taxi, Jorgen and Anders decided they were going to hang onto the back and ride on the bumper… I’m pretty sure I almost had a heart attack because I was SURE they were going to fall off. At one point Elizabeth, drunk and emotional, decided that she was going to storm off of the taxi and into some random place to use the washroom. Anders jumped off and went to go get her. He walked into the building, not removing his shoes, and was immediately grabbed by these 3 thai guys who had him in a choke hold and started kicking him in the back and pushing him… At this point I practically peed my pants because I was so scared for him, and bothered that either of them had gone into this building in the first place. Finally Elizabeth came out, Anders shut his mouth, and we continued on back to the hotel. Sidenote: there was this one girl at the beach party that couldn't have been older than 14, and she was practically seizuring on the dance floor (her take on dance moves I guess), I personally saw her make out with 3 different guys, and this was in a matter of an hour. My guess was either lady-boy, or hooker, never did quite figure it out.

Unlike anyone else, I was feeling great the next morning. Manelle and Pascale’s mom (the resort owner) had to come knocking on our door to wake us up for our taxi the next morning. We got all packed up, and caught the taxi to the ferry.
We arrived on the ferry in Koh Tao in the afternoon and got to our beautiful resort (Bans Diving) just in time to catch a couple of hours of sun. After dinner we ventured over to Lotus Bar, where there were tonnnns of young backpackers like us. Sidenote: a ridiculous amount of Scandinavians here, all pretty goodlooking if I say so myself. At this point we had met up with another group of 4 from UST staying at our resort… a couple of the girls and I bought some jewelry on the beach and headed back pretty early.

I decided to leave the door to our room unlocked since Elizabeth didn’t have a key, and when I got woken from my sleep at about 2 am I was greeted by none other than Hakon and not Elizabeth. Apparently Jorgen wasn’t back yet and Hakon had no key and wanted to know if he could sleep in our room till Jorgen returned. This guy was being bombedcity.com at this point, which royally annoyed me, but I said yes. He then asked me if I had a cigarette (again, annoyed), I said no. He then told me he was really sandy, so I told him he had to shower before getting anywhere near our bed. Apparently he needed a full hose down, since we still ended up with a small beach of sand in the bed. The shenanigans just continued for the next 20 minutes filled with drunk rambling and him asking me for a hug and if I was wearing a thong lmao. It was at this moment that I took him pillow and literally put it on the opposite edge of the bed and told him to lie there and not move. Elizabeth returned minutes later (thank god) and I told Hakon that he had to go, he got really angry but anyone who knows me knows not to mess with my sleep lol. The next day he felt bad and said he was going to buy me flowers to make up for it, but I said I’d prefer he just promise never to do it again and that I was going to warn every room to keep their door locked from now on.

Yesterday we took a taxi boat with Tania, Boonie, and Laura and went to Koh Ngan Yuang for the day. It’s comprised of a couple tiny islands connected by a strip of sand and is only about ten minutes from Koh Tao. We wanted to get our tan on, and boy did we everrrr. Let’s just say that even though I religiously put sunscreen on every 45 minutes, many parts of my body still fried. Weird parts too, like the inside of my thighs, and the tops of my hands. Booooo. By 5oclock we were more than ready to head back to Koh Tao, I was sitting on the pier trying to cover up as much as possible with my towel for what seemed like forever; our boat driver was in no rush apparently. To make this story even better, our boat broke down about 10 times on the way back to the island. And any boats that approached us to help, he just waved away. I actually started to cry for about ten seconds, before it turned to laughter. I had just wanted so bad to get back to the resort and slather my body in aloe that it was almost comical we were stuck in between the two islands with a bum motor.

Upon arriving back on the island (finallllly) 4 of us decided we were going to get Aloe Vera massages. Oh My God. Cold aloe vera being slathered allll over my body actually felt like heaven on earth. And then they did some strange Thai stretch things with us… Tania couldn’t stop laughing, but I was just worried she was going to snap my neck lol. I then proceeded directly to the little convenience store and bought a bottle of cooling aloe gel that I have used half of haha. Last night I was literally applying it every half hour, I just want this sun burn so go awayyyyy. Last night I put it in the fridge and was again in heacen as I slathered it all over my body this morning, although the burn already looks sooooo much better and it’s really only the back of my neck that’s really red. I do not need to be fricken burnt for the jungle… that would be the worst evverrr.

Today the strangest thing happened. I was sitting using the computer in this little internet cafĂ© type thing along the street and saw 2 girls I knew from Winnipeg walk by on the street. I went to go outside, but by the time I got there they were nowhere to be found, small small world. So that brings everyone up to speed on what is happening in my life right now. I refuse to leave this place without having a traditional Thai massage, so that’s my mission for tonight haha. I am now done my beer and am going to take a nap like every other person on this ferry. TaTa for nowww =)