I miss Thailand. What an amazing country. Its azure blue waters, ideal vacation climate, abundance in the best fruits, cheap massages, and the most carefree colourful fishes. Its kind people. Its colourful expats and backpackers. Its never-ending parties. Its good prices for hotels/hostels, food, and sightseeing.
It is 6:43am right now in Vancouver. It’s 9:43pm in Thailand. The parties have started. I can hear the club music on the beachside of Phi Phi Island. I can see them setting up the kerosene soaked Sunset Beach sign to be lit up later in the night. The fire shows, the jumping ropes, the limbo games. Night after night it’s the same. Thailand is Neverland.
How I wish to be there for the rest of my life. Live carefree and stay young. Never grow old. Party, dance, snorkel, dive, surf, play pool, meet new people, drink fruit shakes, eat Thai curry, hang at the beaches.
I don’t want to think about growing old. But there are lots of old expats in Thailand too. That’s somewhat comforting.
Will I be able to live there long term? What would that be like?
I wake up in the morning to sunshine and warm breeze. I have a beach view. I eat a simple breakfast on my patio, do some work on my laptop to continue to make loads of money, and do some workout / surfing on the beach. I have amazing curry lunch and a fruit shake with my friends who also live there. In the afternoon, we head to the party area to hangout with the travellers and/or expats. We snorkel, play pool, dive, or just chat. In the evening, we eat, dance, party. I usually get to meet a cute guy, and at night we have amazing sex.
Actually, is that realistic? Meeting gorgeous guys to sleep with every couple of days is my dream-come-true, my definition of paradise…but I don’t think it’ll be that easy, being solo. People travel in groups. To meet guys, it’ll be easier to travel with two or three girl friends. I guess I can always hang out with girl friends who also live there. Ok, that’s doable.
The next question is, how long can I enjoy this for? I’m already 34, turning 35 in a month. Soon I’ll be a 40 yo trying to hang out with the 20 somethings. Sigh. I wish I was 10 years younger. 23, 24 is perfect.
So what do I want? I want to get rich and get location dependent. I want to systemize and delegate. I want to hang out with people like me. I want to have amazing sex with hot guys.
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Day 1 Phuket (Feb 12th)
We landed! After 22 hours of travel, we arrived at midnight in Phuket. We were greeted with warm air. We were so tired but so excited!
On the way to the hotel, the cab driver took us to a tourism office and we booked a 1 day trip to Phi Phi Island. Not the smartest thing to do because we ended up staying for 3 days there.
The driver also stopped at a fruit stand so we can buy some mangosteens. They weren’t cheap. We spend $350b on them. Turned out mangosteens just aren’t cheap, no matter where you are.
We arrived at MeRoom, the hotel I booked ahead of time. It was exactly like the photos online, but actually nicer. The owner Tum was a young photographer and he designed this boutique hotel himself.
The bathroom is in a glass-enclosed space in the room. We didn’t have a curtain, so while one showers or uses the toilet, the other can see everything. It was kind of hilarious. A fast way to get comfortable with each other.
At 3 am, we headed out and found the market, getting ready early in the morning. We had some market snacks, and watched the vendors torch pork hocks, drag large pig carcasses off trucks, and make coconut flakes.
Day 2 Patong (Feb 13th)
We got up in the morning with no real jet lag. Tum gave us detailed info about the city and even helped us picked our next hotel. He was very friendly, patient, and worldly. He was interested in Knot Theory too. Very likeable guy.
The name “Meroom” was a bit odd. I joked that it meant, “Me! Room! Now!” Later we learned that Tum named the hotel “MeRoom” because it’s like going home – you always have your room in this place. The idea is good. The English is funny.
We took a bus to Patong. The buses here are basically a truck with benches at the back. They are breezy and I don’t mind them.
It took us at least an hour of walking to find our hotel. It was a pretty boring one. We walked to Patong beach. It was crowded and not particularly pretty. The waters were the same colour as Vancouver.
There were parasailers at the beach. That interested me. Cyndi got me a deal, from $1500b to $1000b. I felt bad, but later I learned to appreciate her bargaining skills.
Parasailing was fun! No adrenalin rush but it was scenic.
We met some American boys. Monty and three other guys. They were ok. We planned on meeting up at the Ragae club the next night, after our 1 day Phi Phi tour.
I got a Thai massage and Cyn got a foot massage. They were pretty good. We strolled around the market and called it a night.
Day 3 Phi Phi (Feb 14th)
We were picked up early in the morning to go to Phi Phi Island. We went by a speed boat, which took at least an hour. The tour guide Neena was said to not go on the boat if you are pregnant. That was for real. I was bounced a foot into the air when the boat went fast. I definitely was going to fly off the boat if I didn’t hang on tight. It was pretty intense.
We finally got to Maya Bay. We snorkelled and saw fish! I was so excited. When they gave us bananas to feed to the fish, it was even more amazing. Fish came to me in a feeding frenzy. It was fun and a little scary (for the banana). We saw parrot fish for the first time and it blew my mind. They are like avatar fish. Later we’d see far more amazing fish (and learn that parrot fish are everywhere) and have far more amazing snorkelling experience. This was just a quick sampler.
We then stopped at Money Beach. There were monkeys! But we didn’t get to go off the boat. Lame. Other tourists got to. We threw bananas from the boat. We hit a tourist’s ass. Later, I’d get to play with monkeys for real.
We got the Phi Phi Island. We decided to stay. Cyndi found a potential hotel, and we Terry-Foxed the island to get to it. It was painful. I overpacked for sure. I packed gym clothes even! The laptop was heavy and unnecessary. I bet next time I just need 6kg.
After trekking to one side of the long line of resorts, the hotel was fully booked. We trekked to the other side, and stayed at Bamboo Hill. We got a bungalow. It was really cute on the outside, but really noisy. A generator was near us. It was hard to sleep that night.
After settling into our hut, we ventured into town. It was a 20 minute walk. We found that all the hostels were there. That’s what we should do next time.
The beaches here are quite beautiful. Bars lined the beach. We ordered some Thai curry and sat down at the tables and floor cushion chairs in front of the bar/restaurant.
Cyndi chatted up the guys sitting next to us. James and Twan were our age, and from the US. Twan is a professional frisbee / ultimate player. James is in software. They weren’t cute, but they were fairly easy to talk to.
We talked until it got dark, then the party began on the beach, as it does every night. There were fire shows, limbo, skipping ropes, and an inflated climbing mountain.
There was also a mechanical bull that was ignored. For $100b. I got on it, and I was really quite good at it! I’m always willing to try new things even though they scare me a bit. I push myself to do them. I was glad I tried it! I had to take my wig off for it, but immediately after, a guy came to hug me, and more guys were interested in me. Also there was a line up for the bull. It was cool that way.
Hair wasn’t a big issue. I had it off for a while, and a guy came to tell me how good I looked. He was from Victoria though. It seems that guys from B.C. are the most ok with it.
At the end of the night, I was a bit bored of James and Twan. James was interested in me I think. He wasn’t bad but really wasn’t my type. It was still good to know that hair didn’t matter.
After we parted ways, the dancing had begun on the beach. Cyn and I went for a while. Two Italians came to us. They had seen us from earlier when I was on the bull. The cuter one Cyn thought was the cutest guy we’ve seen all night. He looked like Ricky Martin….not really my type. He seemed really innocent though, not sleazy. In that sense he was cute. Cyn kept saying that he was cute and I kinda wish I did make out with him, but oh well.
Day 4 Phi Phi (Feb 15th)
We got up after a night at the noisiest bungalow, and went into town.
We signed up for diving. Cyn was brave enough to say, how about this afternoon? I was impressed. I am a little bit scared of diving still, and so was she. But she is quick at signing up for things.
It turned out well because we had the most AMAZING dive! We had a refresher with Amily from Sweden. She was great. Dani from Brazil was the diving assistant. He was a bit cute but he didn’t seem interested at all.
While we were taking the refresher, Cyn didn’t know what an alternate was. She didn’t know anything. It was scary. But once we got into the water, she was quite alright. She did take longer to get buoyancy working, during which time I looked around in awe. So many beautiful fish!
We had the best dive ever! It was not surpassed for the rest of the trip. During the two dives, we saw an octopus, a turtle, a seahorse, a large school of barracudas, and tons of colourful fish! MIND. BLOWN. Even Amily thought it was a great dive.
At night, we went out. I commented on Cyndi’s good makeup that night. It was an extremely weird night for me. People ignored the hell out of me. Both guys and girls. They went straight to Cyndi. It was painful for me.
On the way to Banana Bar, a good-looking shirtless guy from Brazil stopped her and kissed her on the spot. Man, that’s further than I got for the entire trip. He was sleazy though. He didn’t speak much English, and asked his friend to asked Cyndi if she’d be interested to go to his room.
Throughout the rest of the night, at least 4 guys hit on Cyn. No one hit on me. She was thrilled. She said that never happened to her. I didn’t mind that she got hit on, but I hated being ignored. I still don’t know what went wrong that night. I hope that never happens again. Though they do say that as we get older, we become invisible. Sigh.
Before going to bed, I tried to become more in-sync with the land, and prayed to the God that tomorrow will be a better day.
Day 5 Phi Phi (Feb 16th)
Cyn felt that it was her sheer plaid top that did the trick for her last night, so today she set out to find more sheer plaid tops. She bought 3 dresses instead.
We meant to have lunch at a restaurant, and two cute German boys followed us. One of them was ridiculously hot. I really wanted to hang out with them. But their English wasn’t good, and they were so shy it came across as unfriendly. When the restaurant had trouble producing our order in time, we left. As I walked by the cute guy, I had eye contact with him and felt a wave of sadness. I think we were both hoping to get to know each other. Maybe next life.
We tried out Doctor Fish. We stuck our feet into the tanks full of fish, and they ate our dead skins. It was super ticklish. It was fun, but not very useful. Our feet were clean afterwards though, because they scrubbed us 3 times before entering the tank.
At night, we set out to watch The Beach at Banana Bar. It’s a Phi Phi Island cult film with Leonardo Dicaprio. People who love the island so much would get Phi Phi lines – a three-lined tattoo.
For tonight, Cyndi wore the same plaid shirt, hoping to duplicate last night. I didn’t wear a wig, and wore my red dress, hoping to not duplicate last night. I got a lot of attention this time. Not sexual, but at least a lot of people wanted to talk to me. I felt better.
We met this girl Emma from Sweden. She is 23, super outgoing. She reminded me of Sherry. She had lots of crazy stories, such as dating the head of an Italian mafia while in Italy. She now lives and works on Phi Phi, and got the Phi Phi lines. She has delayed her flight twice now, and will likely fly back to Sweden shortly. She introduced us to a lot of people. No one really interesting, but it was cool of her to do it.
She wanted us to go to Dojo’s later, but Cyndi really wanted to go back to Banana Bar, because she got asked out so much there. So we went. Nothing happened.
I think her makeup was really good the night before. That was what did it.
For myself, I was grateful of a lovelier day.
Day 6 Phi Phi, Ao Nang (Feb 17th)
After checking out, we went on a Phi phi view point hike. It was ok.
We did some more shopping in the market. This time Cyndi bought some collagen drinks, because she felt old the day before. She is very predictable that way. The drink called “Hang Foreplay” was funny.
We took a boat to Ao Nang in the afternoon. We swam by the pier and ate mangosteens. Easy life.
We arrived at dinner time, and ate a very non-spectacular but cheap curry buffet. We checked into our first hostel, Glur. Glur means friends in Thai.
The hostel was really nice. $1200b nice (for two ppl). The bunks have curtains, the premise was so modern and zen, like a resort. Wi-fi was great.
As we walked into our room, I saw a really cute blond guy sitting on the top bunk. I was excited. Turned out we’ll never meet him…oh well.
We explored around to hunt for our next hostel. We found one that was a tourism office, called Guitar. It has hostel rooms behind some giant tourism promo posters. The posters were sliding doors to the room. It was pretty funny.
We saw three American guys there as we were checking out the space and consulting a girl about tours. We recommended that they go to Phi Phi. The girl, Am, was a Thai girl, touring Ao Nang. She said she lost her wallet and her phone was water-damaged, and no one helped her, so she was working there for a few days before she can go home. Her story sounded so tragic.
Day 7 Ao Nang (Feb 18th)
We took a kayak trip to explore some caves. It was cool. Not super awesome, but cool. Our guide Eak was a long-hair Thai guy. He seemed like a cool, worldly guy.
We checked into Guitar hostel. Our first, real, ghetto hostel. Not like Glur which has blinds and shit. This is a tiny room with 7 beds. It’s the real deal.
Right away, we met a cool girl who is staying in the room. Ida, from Norway. Her and another Ida, from Sweden, were gonna go hang at the beach. We decided to meet up with them there, since Ida Sweden had a motorbike.
We went to the beach but didn’t see them. Instead, we saw monkeys!! OMG! I had been annoyed that we didn’t get to step off the boat at Monkey Beach, but here we are, monkeys for free!
These were little pissed animals. Intelligent but soul-less. We stowed our stuff away and observed them with caution. At one point, a small monkey decided to check out my bag. Well, grab it actually. In seconds, 3 more monkeys came and were hanging off me. It was incredible and scary at the same time. I was so thrilled!!!
We got back to the hostel, and the 3 Americans had got back from Phi Phi. Andy, Danny, and Chris were from California. They were about 25, 26 years old. Andy was rather cute. 6’4″ though.
The Idas, the American boys, and us, decided to go clubbing. I think it was the funnest night for me. I got ready, put on a wig, and got everyone curious. I explained my story, and the Idas were so great about it. I loved that.
The first club had good music. Old but danceable. I had a lot of fun dancing. Danny and Cyn were hitting it off, so they kept talking. But Cyn said she wasn’t interested. Andy eventually came up to me to dance, which was nice, because he was the best looking one, and I was attracted. We ended up grinding. I really enjoyed it when he went down really low and looked up at me. I danced in a very sexy way to him and he grabbed my ass as he came up.
I kinda wish we got to go further, but I was ok without it. Danny didn’t get anywhere with Cyn, so he came over to form a sandwich with me and Andy. That kinda killed the mood. He did take a picture of me and Andy at Andy’s request though.
We exited the club, and on the way out, a guy tried to dance up with Andy. Andy just played along. He was cute that way.
I would’ve loved to stay longer, but someone suggested going to Longhorn. It was a bar with a live band. We sat there for a little while. A lady came over to try to sell us some bracelets. They all said the dirtiest things: Lick cunt, I was raped by ladyboys, etc. Most weren’t funny. They just made people wince. But I got one that was funny. It said: Up Bum No Baby. Cyn thought it was hilarious, and the boys gave me high fives.
The live band started performing and we went to dance. The boys at this point disappeared to upstairs, the strip bar. Too bad.
Ida Sweden requested Green Day’s Basket Case, and the band did such a great job! I was so impressed. And we danced super hard. It was so much fun!
Then the band sang The Killers by Mr. Brightside. A woman around 70 years old came up and danced hard with us. She was wild! I have never seen this before. She was cool.
After that, we played pool with the Idas. We sucked, but I loved it! I’m starting to love pool. I really liked both Idas.
Before leaving I gave the band some tip, and gave the old lady two thumbs up. She gave me a “point and wink”. She was cool.
We got back to the hostel by Ida Sweden’s bike. The American boys got back by tuk tuk soon after us. I think Andy would’ve liked spending more time with me, but his friends didn’t want him to. Chris was a weird one. He made up stuff. He was saying how Andy had to strip. Andy was like, What are you talking about? Ida Sweden started playing stripper music anyway, and Andy danced to it, haha. Ida Norway asked him to take clothes off and he was like, I don’t see any money. Ida Norway said, Well I am making it rain (it was raining that day). She was quick.
That night, I thought Andy would want to makeout, but he didn’t do anything. So instead, I masturbated in my bed above him. I wasn’t shaking the bed very much, but I woke him up, lol.
I kind of wish that we got to say goodbye to the boys, but we didn’t.
Day 8 Koh Phangan (Feb 19th)
We got only 3 hours of sleep. Had to get up at 5am to go to Koh Phangan. We took a bus then a boat. Got there at around 11am or noon.
We checked into a bungalow on this rather nice resort, the Beach View Village. Its hostel was full otherwise it would’ve been our preferred choice.
The resort had a nice pool, and a club. The club was closed during our stay though.
We went shopping at the Big C supermarket. Cyn bought some tamarind. They didn’t taste spectacular, and they looked like poo. We went to the pool to try to offer them to strangers. A bunch of German girls turned us down and ignored us. Three American boys walked by and one tried it, but they were going to dinner so they left.
We finally decided to go into town somewhere. We went to find a way to hire a cab, and started talking to 4 Singaporean boys, Sam, Reuben, Canon, and Ocean. They were East Indian and Cyn actually thought they were local at first. They were not super fun but Cyn thought so. She loved them.
They came over to our resort because of the club, but the club was closed. So they offered to take us to Haad Rin, where they were staying, by motorbike. It was a scary ride. So steep and windy. We survived.
Haad Rin was a lot like the party side of Phi Phi, but more toned down. Same market, fire show, etc. We had really yummy Thai dinner, and we went up to the Mushroom Mountain to have some mushroom shake. None of us got high.
We then went to a light house party. It was filled with people. Having had so little sleep, I was exhausted by 2:30am. Cyn for some strange reason was still super energetic and having fun. At some point she talked to a Greek guy Arris. He owned a watersport company in Greece. In slow season, he’d spend six months in Koh Phangan. He offered to teach us wind surfing the next day.
Day 9 Koh Phangan (Feb 20th)
We got up rather late. We went on a bike tour in the afternoon because Cyn wanted to. It was quite boring and I got hurt.
I was wearing a bikini, but that was not good for biking nor going to the temple, so they gave me a t-shirt and some long shorts to wear. I was like a gangsta rapper.
The tour guide Yut was nice. We biked with owner Soren/Mark’s parents, who were also very nice. But the tour was long…at least 3 hours. We saw a pile of coconuts, learned that there’s a monkey school that trains monkeys to pick coconuts, saw some trees (bananas, pineapple, rubber), some elephants (and a gigantic elephant boner), and went to a temple.I hadn’t biked for 10 years, and fell twice over some sand. I scraped myself up really bad. It’s now Feb 28th and I’m still hurting.
We got back and now Cyn is super tired. I was ok. I chatted with the German boys living next to us, Marvin and Jan/Yon. They were 23. One of them was quite cute. They had just finished a mushroom shake and were friendlier than before. Germans are shy I think.
Cyn for some reason just hated them, and didn’t participate in the conversations. They were funny and nice. They had girlfriends though.
I think because I told Cyndi that I thought one of them was cute, she felt uncomfortable being with them. I made sure to not say anything after that.
We went to the market for dinner, and the boys tried crickets! We walked around and Cyn kept disappearing. It was annoying. She can be so weird.
The boys wanted to go for a massage after, but most of them were closed already. Finally we came across one, but they only had room for 2. Cyndi said, you guys go ahead. We went on to some bar.
No one came to talk to us at the bar. I plucked up the courage and said hi to a guy walking by. He ignored me. We laughed. Later on Cyndi accidentally stepped on him and said sorry, he ignored her too.
There were people playing pool, and they were really good. So I watched. I was intrigued. I went up to ask one of them, Dave, why he aimed for one ball but not the other, easier one. He said it’s good that it’s there blocking that hole. Ahh.
There was a really really drunk Thai girl playing against Dave. She was so drunk she was falling over. I stood near her in case I needed to catch her. Then she made a shot – and nailed it! She proceeded to win the game, beating Dave, who had won 15 games prior! Ahahhaha. It was unreal!
Dave is 38. His friend Jake is a grey hair guy with a youngish face. He looked our age. Cyn thought he was the most beautiful man. Turned out he was 26. She said her elephant boner shrank when he said that.
They were going to a waterfall and then an herbal sauna the next day. So we decided to join them.
Day 10 Koh Phangan (Feb 21)
Today we really R’d the day.
In the morning, we went to Cookies Beach to meet with Arris the Greek guy. Just before leaving, we met an American black girl Deaweh, so we invited her to join us.
Arris was so patient with us. In two hours, we learned to wind surf! Sorta. I was able to wind surf really close to the shore. Deaweh too. Cyndi got blown off far away and she stayed on! It was impressive. She had to pull herself back to shore though. It took a while.
We paid for 1 hour use of two surf boards and got two hours of free instructions. So nice of him. He was thrilled to be around us young people though. He was probably around 60 years old. We joked about being Arris’ angels. White, black, Asian.
Today was the only day we didn’t put on sunscreen. I got 50 shades darker and Cyn got sun burnt. (Maybe that’s why she was such a bitch the next day.)
I loved being darker. Though I did get too dark too fast. Didn’t see that coming. When I looked at my pics later on, it was cool to see how I started out with fair skin, glasses, and a Lu Lu Lemon jacket, and by the end of the trip I was tanned, wearing a turtle necklace, bikini top, and a sheer elephant sarong.
We then took a cab to Haad Son Resort, where a British chef told us to go. Tom said there were tons of parrot fish there. We eventually found it, and indeed! There were so many it was incredible. There were these people that kept jumping off the cliff into the swarms of fish though. They paid no attention to the fish, just wanting to take selfies with their go-pros.
We met these two people, Michelle from California and Chez from the UK. Michelle was really nice. I would love to get to know her more. I lent them my mask and they were grateful.
We then trotted off to The Shanti, an herbal sauna, to meet with Dave and Jake. It was a bit awkward as no one was interested in anyone. I dunno if it’s because I was bald and makeup-less that day, and Jake was too young for Cyn. In any case. the only chemistry was Deaweh towards Jake. And Jake didn’t seem interested.
But the sauna was fab. So was the peanut ball snack. So was the coffee scrub. And the garden with fruits and a buffalo near by.
We had some good conversations about dreams, but the day ended with no sparks.
We then went back to Beach View Village Resort, checked out, and checked into the hostel that Michelle was staying / working at. It’s called Ringside.
It looked like such a happening place. Tons of people playing beer pong and other games outside. One of them hollered at me and. In more of a friendly way than a sexual way. Still I appreciated it. I looked pretty good.
We got to our bunks, met a Toronto girl Chelsea, and got ready to go out. But after Cyndi finally put her face on, it was midnight and everyone had left. We ended the night with nothing. But it had been a full day. Windsurfing, snorkelling, and herbal sauna. We carpe’d the heck out of the diem.
Day 11 Koh Tao (Feb 22)
Today is the worst day of the trip. We left the hostel which had so much potential for meeting new people, and headed to Koh Tao. On the way there, out of the blue, Cyndi said to me, Could you do me a favour? Could you stop commenting on people’s looks for one day?
It was so judgemental, so uncalled for. For the rest of the trip, I was not the same. Her comment took the exuberance out of me. I can no longer be myself around her, and I felt tired and censored around her. I hated her for that.
We walked to the pier in silence. Getting their early, we played in the water near the pier, in silence. A local started talking to me. Tom. He asked where I was from, and complimented on the Taiwanese electronics. We were waiting at the wrong pier, and he walked us to the right pier. He told me that after playing in the water, I should shower, because the salt would make my skin itch. He then bought a bottle water and took me to the nearest washroom to shower. Then he scootered me back. Wow. Sometimes Thai people impress the hell out of me. Perhaps it’s also because was attractive to him. I don’t know. I was coming out of the washroom and another guy, Fabio, hit on me. Tom said, You’re popular with the hippies hey? Haha. We talk about past and future. He says he tries to focus on the moment. I like that. Typical for anyone who has read the Bhuda scripture, but still I was impressed.
At the pier I didn’t want to talk to Cyndi anymore, so I talked to two girls, Gabby and Rebecca from the UK. They were really nice. I told them about my hair and how staying at hostels was new to me and made me really happy.
Boarding the boat, we saw Chelsea the Toronto girl from the hostel. We sat together. It’s cool how we run into people.
While on the boat, several diving companies approached us. We decided to go with the most knowledgeable one, a Thai lady. She works for Big Blue. Turned out that Big Blue was the biggest one, with good reviews. There are over 70 diving companies on the tiny island.
We signed up for two dives the next day, and went to our hostel. A girl Maddie, who was only 18, was there. We chatted with her. I get along better with the younger people, while Cyn gets along with the old ones.
We had a banana pancake. The guy was lightening fast, it was fun to watch. Most Thai people are slow paced. Cyn chatted up a guy waiting in front of us. It didn’t go far. The guy was her type though.
While waiting we ran into Gabby and Rebecca again. They were so nice and eager to meet up again later that night, at the ladyboy show.
We then went to eat at White Elephant, a restaurant opened by a ladyboy. Maddie had met the owner the day before, and she offered to teach Maddie to cook.
We ate mostly in silence as I was still in shock from Cyndi’s confrontation with me. I was still pissed. The food was so so.
We went to the Ladyboy show, even though we were committed to an early dive the next day. We said hi to Gabby and Rebecca. They have met some new friends too. I looked around and saw some guys sitting near the front to the side. I thought to myself, Didn’t know that guys are interested in coming too!
After waiting for 10 minutes, we both decided that we were tired, and will go back the next day instead.
Day 12 Koh Tao (Feb 23)
We got up at 5:40 to go to the morning dives.
I signed up for a deep dive in Chumpon. Followed by a ship wreck dive which was also deep. Cyn just went for the fun dive.
I met some new people. Alex and Becca are a couple from the UK. They were both good-looking and funny. I’m envious of what they have. At one point the dive masters were teaching us a finger game, Alex joked about advanced fingering, and said he mastered that at 18. Gus was my buddy. He was an engineering, working in Shanghai the past 5 years. Said he was sick of Shanghai though.
I told them about my hair, and Becca was surprised that it took me so long to get over it. She said I looked cool.
The second dive I did it with Jai, an Aussie. He was distant, and talked really fast. Nice guy though. He showed me scorpion fish, a sting ray, a white eyed moray, and a nudibranch. Cyndi’s gang saw a fish riding a turtle though!
After the dive, we got a new friend, Rebecca. She lives next to us and she was on the same dive as Cyn. She just got accepted to a medical school. Easy going girl.
We had met two lawyers the night before at the beach, who told us about Shark Bay. They said you can snorkel and see some black tipped shark. They are harmless. We decided to go check the place out.
We got to Shark Bay, and planned to rent some snorkelling gear. Turned out, they won’t rent it to us if we don’t stay at the resort. We turned to 4 Swedish boys sitting near us. They lent us their gear! It was so nice of them.
We saw sharks! I saw four sharks. I couldn’t believe it! One shark even swam under Rebecca! I was so thrilled!
The boys were 20, 21. Magnus, Jarl, Victor, and Amel. They were cute, but Jarl was model cute. Magnus had been to Revelstoke. He was mature and easy to talk to. Victor has a girlfriend. He is polite and cute when he insisted that Jarl speak English in front of me. Amel turned out to be really funny. Jarl was immature, showy, but was eager to try new things and was quite quick-witted… definitely good-looking.
They were staying at Big Blue too! We hitched the ride back together. On the bus, I asked, what’s the craziest thing you’ve done in Thailand so far. Jarl fronted a huge smile and they talked about the ladyboy show they went to the night before! hahaha. I think they were the guys I saw. Apparently Jarl volunteered to go up at the end of the show, and they dressed him up and got him to dance on stage. They groped him a lot too.
We went back to our rooms and met up half our later for dinner. We went to Barracuda. It was our most expensive meal. $650b each. It wasn’t that great. Seafood platter.
I got to sit beside Jarl, walk beside him, a lot. I don’t know if I was doing that or he was. We ended up together often. I can’t tell if he was attracted to me though. And I certainly didn’t dare to flirt with him. I’m 14 years older than him.
It’s not even like that we had anything to say to each other. He looked good, but he was so not my type in every other way.
We played pool at some point. That was a lot of fun! We played three games, and Magnus and I managed to win the last game! I got balls into holes that seemed impossible. Jarl was a bit playful with me. Just a little bit.
We went to the beach. They were skipping fire ropes. It looked mega dangerous. We ran into the German boys! How unexpected! I hugged them but didn’t talk to them much after that. Cyn surely didn’t. I don’t know if Jarl became more distant after this…but he seemed to be more distant at some point. But I guess there’s no point in overthinking it.
We wanted the Swedish boys to come to the ladyboy show with us. They didn’t wanna. I really thought they’d ditch us, but they said they’d wait outside for us. Then, after they finished their beers, they came in! I guess they liked us enough to do it.
I wished Jarl sat beside me. He did at first, but he let Amel take his seat. Amel and I danced to the music and had lots of fun too. This time Amel was the one that got dragged on stage. It was somewhat funny. Amel lost his shoes (again) and he was too scared to go back to get them, haha.
After the show, we went to sit on the giant beanbags by the beach. I thought about how there were so many young, vibrant girls backpacking through Koh Tao, and somehow, these boys end up with us old ladies. Fate is a funny thing.
Jarl sat opposite to me. Don’t fall asleep, he said. Why not? I said. I fell asleep at some point, conveniently when Amel asked us about our age. Only Rebecca answered. She was 26.
Cyn took a picture of me and the flash woke me up. Everyone laughed. A few moments later, Jarl took a picture of me and woke me up again. Not sure if that’s flirting, lol.
We started walking back, and I saw a jumping pad, at a pool. Oh! I pointed at it. Jarl was like, I wanna go on it! I was on board too. Amel too. I took off my wig, my sarong, and Jarl asked if it was ok for him to take off his shorts (he was wearing some funky colourful underwear). It was kinda fun, like cliff jumping.
Cyn took photos and videos of us. I saw the photos later on and realized that Jarl had a cut body. Dayum. That guy is super photogenic too. Model material without a doubt.
After that, I got up and got dressed, put my wig back on. The boys stayed in the pool. I felt a bit left out but that’s ok. I really wanted to find evidence that Jarl was interested, but if he was, the signs were almost non-existent.
We went back to the lobby of our hostel. Everyone started checking emails on their phone since that was the only spot with wi-fi. A guy tried to talk to us but everyone ignored him. I felt bad and talked to him a little bit. Jarl would laugh at my jokes. But a bit later, him and the guys left, without even saying goodbye. I left the guy too. He was a bit annoying.
Day 13 Koh Tao (Feb 24)
We checked out of the hostel. After paying for diving, we had no cash left. Cyn and I almost got into a fight because I was ok to have less cash on hand and do some exchanges later. Cyn wasn’t ok with it and felt that we shouldn’t make Rebecca wait for us when we go get cash exchange. Whatever. We got by no problem with the cash we had, and I got extra baht at the end of the day. All worked out.
Rebecca, Cyn, and I went snorkelling. We took a taxi boat, and went to Mango Bay, followed by Nanyuang Park.
While waiting for the taxi, we met Kale, from Victoria. He was not the funnest guy, nor good lookin’. He was friendly, but he was probably the guy I liked the least on this trip.
We went to Mango Bay and saw some amazing fish. I saw a fish with KISS makeup. It’s got a white head with a black line across its eyes, and it had a reddish, dragon body. We saw pipe fish, angel fish and tons of cute parrot fish.
We then went to NangYuan Park. It was even better. I saw a school of squids! They were so cute when they swim. They were dark grey with florescent dots. I also saw two yellow margin triggerfish (Pink-headed giant fish that looked like they were was made with plastic)! I didn’t know these were triggerfish until just now! They are very territorial, so it’s good that they didn’t attack me, otherwise I’d be forced to kick them in the face. They were the size of small pugs. They picked up corals off the sea floor with their giant beaks, and dug up a storm. A dozen colourful fish waited around the sand storm, hoping for some food. Fish are so funny.
When I saw a ton of fish eating, I suddenly noticed that you can hear them chew! It was hilarious.
We got back to our hostel. Cyn went to check out her old dive school, I went to use the laptop and made money exchange, Rebecca went to shower and to withdraw some cash. I had been lugging my laptop all this time but there wasn’t good wi-fi nor time for me to use it. There was hardly any need either. I was not in the mood to work. Poor laptop got some pixel-sized scars on the screen…probably from the sand.
As I waited in the lobby, a fairly cute guy talked to me about the wi-fi. Another girl talked to me too. It was good to seem popular when Cyndi showed up. Haha. I had not been talking to her much all day. Then Rebecca showed up. We were to go to dinner, before Cyn and I left for Phuket on an overnight boat.
I asked if France, the Swedish guy sitting beside me, wanted to join us. He came. Later on, his friend Simon joined us too. They were very different from the 4 Swedish boys. They were older, and they talked about different things. Swedish icons (the Sedins), Canadian icons (Justin Bieber, haha), etc. France was cute but not as cute as Jarl. It’s hard to beat Jarl for cute.
We told them that we had to leave in half an hour. I was certain that France was interested in having sex with me had I stayed longer. But I couldn’t. Jarl was on my mind and France would not seem cute enough.
France and Simon got a bungalow so that if one of them gets lucky, the other person has to keep out. France revealed this to us because we were leaving. It was a little bit shocking. He also said that he was ok to share the girl with Simon. No sward crossing though, haha. He said if it’s his girlfriend then he doesn’t share like that. Interesting.
We hopped on our bus at 8pm. The whole evening I had wanted to see Jarl again, just to say bye. Just when it seemed like there’s no chance of that, I saw Magnus, Amel, and Jarl walk by. I called out to Jarl. The three boys came and chatted with us. Cyn did all the talking and asked them to take care, to not do crazy things, etc. She was good at those types of speech. Made her sound like a mom though.
Jarl didn’t even look at me. Wtf. They were so shy though. Amel and Magnus were quiet too. Didn’t look at me either. Amel got new shoes, haha! Victor was still at his night dive course.
The boys were going to leave without hugging us goodbye, but I asked for a hug. Really I just wanted to hug Jarl. He gave me a nice and solid hug…full hand contact on my back. My whole body was sticky though. I hadn’t showered since we checked out of the hostel that morning.
I felt a connection with my guardian angels when this happened. I had been wanting to see Jarl before leaving, and I did! And I got to hug him. Thanks for granting my wish, my Gods! 🙂
Of course, same can be said about the German boys…maybe it was their wish to see and hug me again? It’s pretty interesting how we keep running into the same people though. On the last day on Koh Tao, we ran into this guy who we met on the first day in Patong, two weeks ago! What are the chances! Or, we ran into Gabby a couple times. Or, we ran into Chelsea a couple times. Then again, I’m very recognizable.
We met a girl Mika on board. She was from Quebec, dating a French boy. She was outgoing and talkative. She’s been travelling for 3 years! She spent time in Australia and New Zealand too. She was finally going home. Her younger siblings are a lot older now!
We boarded the overnight boat. It was pretty cool. The bunks were so low like they were designed for hobbits. A girl was assigned a bed that was next to a boy she didn’t know! Same bed! It was funny. She opted for an empty bed instead. It was 9pm now. We went to bed.
Day 14 Phuket (Feb 25)
At 4am we were waken up by the noises made by the boat. We have arrived. We waited a couple hours for the next buses, and finally arrived at Kata Beach in Phuket. It took at least 11 hours. The night boat was fun and comfortable, the bus not so much.
Cyn got nausea after the boat ride. Not sure why. It was a big boat and without waves. She puked.
Then we got on the bus and it smelled like camphor. That drove her nuts. She puked out the window while the car was running.
We finally got to Kata Beach. It had gorgeous azure water and white sand. Lots of people though and the sand was hot, the water murky. On the left side of the beach, along the rocks, I snorkelled. It wasn’t as good as Koh Tao, but not bad! I saw some crazy fish, such as this one which I thought looked like a dolphin with hooded forehead, but it turned out to be a bluespine unicorn fish:
There were also pipe fish, parrot fish, but we’ve been seeing them so much they weren’t special anymore. There were also a whole lot of these blue and orange striped fish. Not sure what those were called.
The water was cold and warm, giving me a stomach ache. I also got washed into a rock when I tried to snorkel between two rocks. There was a strong current that sucked me in. It was scary. My feet hit the barnacles on the rock and one foot was all cut up.
Cyn got a beach massage in the mean time.
We arrived at Kata around noon, and had until 10pm before we had to leave, so despite both of us feeling sick, the two of us headed to this cool thing called Phuket Surf later in the day.
I was scared to go on it, but I was curious and forced myself to. It was $1000b for an hour. I got on the board and did surprisingly ok, but I didn’t get a lot of time so I didn’t really get a hang of it until my very last turn. It was quite fun. I was too drained to go again though.
A little Thai girl was in front of me. She was really cute. At one point she went to pick up a board just to give it to me. How sweet!
One of the staff worked with her, putting her on the board, and man handled her through each step. It was really cute. The staff guy was a Thai guy. He had a blonde mohawk, cool green rimmed sunglasses, and a six pack. He wasn’t cute, and he was too tiny for me, but there’s a lot of sexy to him.
We shopped a bit in the market. Cyn kept making stupid bargains and didn’t get any gifts. She bought a scarf and a pair of pants for herself. I bought a pink bikini for $350b. That’s like, $15CAD!
We took a one hour taxi to the airport. I can’t believe we were going home! Despite the unpleasant situation with Cyndi, I really liked Thailand. I wanted to stay. I dunno which island I loved the most, but I wanted this lifestyle.
Day 15 Guangzhou (Feb 26)
Flying 3.5 hours out of Phuket, we arrived at our least favourite airport, the Guangzhou Airport. But to our surprise, the 8 hour overlay granted us a free stay at a hotel!
The shuttle took us to a decent hotel, where we had a full buffet breakfast (great selection, so so food), and a room where I had a nice long hot shower. We both took a nap.
At 11am, they woke us up. Time to go back to the airport. The flight home wasn’t so bad for me. I didn’t even use the washroom in the 11.5 hours on the plane. I just sat there, watched two bad movies and wrote about what I wanted to tell Cyndi.
Cyndi was feeling awful. She was still nauseated. She had to lie on my lap at one point, which was the only time that I was extremely uncomfortable. I was numb from her weight.
We finally got back to her place, then she was courteous enough to drive me to the skytrain. She said, Love you long time. I said Bye.
I have been quite jet-lagged since coming back. I just slept, ate, and worked a little. I went to buy some fruits at Save-On last night. I saw the mangos and almost cried. Sigh. I missed Thailand. I missed Jarl. We are now friends on Facebook, but that meant nothing. There was nothing anyway, but I liked looking at him. I miss Andy too, but I don’t think Cyn has him on Facebook.
There’s lots I need to work on here in Canada. Travelling is distracting. So for now, I’m happy to be here. I want to get Knot Theory going, get SEO going, and get ASM going. I want to establish the Alopecia Channel too. All these haven’t changed. I’m still going after these projects. The two weeks in Thailand felt like a lifetime though. It was a good play. One of the most amazing trips I’ve had, and opened my eyes to things in many ways.
