phuket

so here i am, on phuket...its pronounced poo-get just so you know and dont go running around telling all your friends that 'alia is on fuk-it' - you'll just look dumb.

After bussing it for 16 hours from bangkok to krabi and then boating it from krabi to ko phi phi i found some shabby acommodation in the slums of phi phi. and it wasnt even cheap! 500 baht got me a cold shower and a fan. and a balcony viewing a whole pile of rubbish ( ihave photos as proof) to top it off, the name of the hotel was 'uphill cottages' and it definatly was uphill and from staying in this hotel i have learned that i am definatly not in good enough shape (jenn if you could please drop off that club fit pass at mom and dads as soon as you get a chance thatd be great id love to use it as soon as i get home). anyway so i paid for 3 nights, only stayed for two and got the heck off that island!

i am now on phuket staying in an area called patong beach - my cousin shawn recommended i stay here cuz he was here just last year on vacation from fighting in afghanistan so i took his advice and sofar it looks pretty good. the hotel im staying at is expensive (but mom told me to splurge, its my last 6 nights i might as well enjoy myself) but i have hot water and aircon and a tv and its really close to teh beach. couldnt ask for more....well i could, i hope the next 6 days are sunny!

love you all much!

see you soon

only 7 sleeps

alia

bye bye jenni!

So we stayed up all night last night - jenn drank 2 redbull - made her kinda wacky for a few hours but it wore off once we got her checked in. we left the hotel at 2:50am - jenns flight left at 6:50. she's prolly in tokyo right now. i cried when i had to leave her at security. we had such a good time together. i really enjoyed having her around.

the last few days were really good. we were on ko samui for 5 nights. we spent a few hours in the morning tanning each day then we'd sit around in the airconditioned room we had for a few more hours and then once the sun went down (it was too damn hot!) we would go for dinner and wander the streets. shopping etc. we took a 1st class train back to bangkok on thursday night - it was VERY nice (according to thailand standards i think) and totally worth the extra we paid for it. although it was a long day (3 hours hanging out in starbucks and then travelling for a few hours and then 3hour wait in the train station) the train ride made it worth while.

in bangkok we SHOPPED! we also went to a muay thai fight - it was very cool! the ultimate thai experience. we had ringside seats! it was very cool, i took tonnes of video.

jenn bought 10 tshirts and like a million buddhas and lots and lots of stuff! i bought a few things. i might save most of my last min shopping for phuket....which brings me to...

i bought a ticket today phuket - singapore for aug 7th...which means i wont be stopping in KL. im a bit bummed but i seriously dont have the money for it. oh well - next time!

10 days till im home....cant believe it

see you all then!

alia

phew

hey guys

sorry i havnt been updating the blog lately - just been really busy i guess....either that or really lazy! heres the dealio:

after ko tao went to ko phangan - which is the 'party island' each month it hosts the full moon party which jenn and i wont be around to attend. anyway we stayed in a nice, cheap place only 600 baht with hot water and air conditioning. it had a pool, free gym use, a restaurant, tv lounge i thought it was great. aparently the area we stayed in (called haad rin) smelled like garbage and there were gross things all over the place (i didnt notice but jenn did) so we caught a taxi and then a longtail boat to a tiny beach called bottle beach. very nice and secluded, sandy beach pretty quiet but not much to do. the water was so nice to swim in though! anyway, we left today and now are on ko samui staying in a crappy little place near hat chewang called cosy guesthouse - the airconditioning doesnt work but there is a tv and a fridge. we've already paid for 2 nights but we'll be looking around for somewhere else to stay after our time is up there.

and thats about all. soon enough we'll be heading back to bangkok. im thinking about extending my visa by 7 days so if i want to skip out on kuala lumpur and just stay in ko phi phi longer then i can and then i'll be home. less then 3 weeks. only like 18 more sleeps or something crazy like that! i cant believe it


lovelovelove

alia

ko tao!

Yay!

So jenni made it safe and sound here in bangkok - i went to pick her up at the airport - her flight landed early and i thought i missed her! so i waited, and waited, and waited and waited and then i really forsure thought id missed her but sure enough, she walked through the international arrivals gate 45min after her plane landed! phew! i shed some tears of happiness and off we went.

day 1 - jenn and i wandered around bangkok a bit. tried to take a tuktuk to siam square - shopping centre but i had to argue with him about price and stopping (cuz they will stop and want you to buy stuff from gem shops and tailors and stuff but i didnt want that) so we ended up getting out of the tuk tuk. caught a meter taxi and he said '100 baht to siam square' and then i had to argue with him about turning on his meter (cuz generally they will charge you more if they just give you a set price rather then what it costs on the meter) and he wouldnt so we got out and caught another cab. this one turned on his meter. we did alot of shopping! i bought a few shirts that are too small for me now but will fit once i lose the 10-15 ive gained. shopping is GREAT here! a little too good i think....im really enjoying it lol

day 2 - we went on a grand palace/temples and buddhas/city tour tour - thought it was just a morning tour, turned out to be an all day thing! it was pretty good. i saw all the buddhas i wanted to see (reclining buddha and emerald buddha) once we got home we were pretty beat so we just watched a movie (on satellite) and went to sleep

day 3 - early morning for our floating market/tiger temple tour! this one was cool! lots of driving though and TOO MUCH unorganization. they told us when we bought the tours that it would be no more then 10 people but they were juggling like 3 bussloads of people! it was crazy! paid too much for buddhas on the floating market but it was super cool! then wandered around the river kwai and did some souvineer shopping then headed to the tiger temple! this was cool - although the poor tigers were so hot! they just lied and slept - looked SO hot! to go and touch and pet the tigers one assistant would hold your hand and take you up to a tiger and then say 'sit, touch!' and you could rub the tiger while another assistant took like 100 pictures of you with your camera of you and the tiger. then the 1st assistant took your hand and took you too the next tiger. same thing 'sit, touch!' and 100 pictures later. thank god for digital cameras! anyway it was pretty cool to touch a tiger!

day 4 - today we are checking out of the hotel and prolly going back to siam square and then catching the bus tonight to ko tao! YAY BEACH! although im not sure the weather is going to be so nice its going to be great to get out of a big city for a while!


well tahts the update! less then 4 weeks till i get home! are you excited!?

love you all times a million!

alia

ps i think kdays is coming up soon! just a reminder for someone to please pick me up a chunk of oreo fudge!? thanks love lots!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

So....i am now 23 holey crap! What a special birthday too - crossed the boreder into burma....hmm wasnt that nice, a 7yr old kid demanded i give him 50 baht because he crossed the road at the same time as me. and the people at the immigration office wernt too happy to hear that i didnt want to go shopping in burma, just wanted my stamp and then to go back to thailand - oh well. got er done now im legal to stay in thailand until aug 2nd. although i may end up overstaying my visa - in that case its only 200baht a day. i plan to leave around aug 4th.

and on that subject - from talking to other travellers ive learned that you really wont know if you've made it off a waitlist until the day of travel. in that case id have to spend 3 more nights in singapore incase i didnt make it on the flight. and if i did make it on the flight - i may have to spend 3 nights in LA because i dont have flights to edmontonfor the 4th of august....so i think i'll just stick with what ive got. Home aug 8th at 9:25PM.

so thats the plan stan. that means i'll be home in 5 weeks.

see ya then! much loving for you all!

alia

hey you, lady boy!

Herro!

So im in chiang mai - got here on thursday after a bit of a HUGE complication (it involves a taxi driver taking me to the wrong airport and me having to take another taxi to the correct airport and then buying a whole new ticket to chiang mai and then after already arranging pickup at the airport in chiang mai having to catch a cab to my hotel b/c my airport pickup thought id be there 2hrs earlier then when i did arrive and then me being afraid that i wouldnt be able to contact the tour ppl because i had minimal contact information - yadda yadda well thats the story anyway) but everything has been sorted out and i am quite enjoying myself here. i'll begin at the beginning:

3 day/2 night trekking tour

day 1- get picked up too early from my hotel (was told i was getting picked up between 9 and 930, the driver showed up at 840 midway through breakfast) and then drive around to pick up 6 other people - an australian couple (who were on their 4th date evidently), a strange british woman who grew up in australia but hasnt been at 'home' in more then 2 years - 45 plus years old, a girl from holland who was pretty normal and two korean boys who had never been out of korea before. we first drove to a waterfall and then drove to a temple ( i dont know the name of it, they didnt tell us but it was at the top of a hill - neat view but shotty temple) and then started walking. we walked abuot 1.5hrs and by the end of it my fat little feet that were cramped into my too-small pumas were blistered and swollen! our stop was at a hilltribe somewhere north east of chiang mai (again our tour guide couldnt tell us where we were) had fantastic thai dinner cooked by our tourguide and then hung out around some candles while a hilltriber entertained us by showing us tricks with string and smoking tobacco rolled up in banana leaves through his nose. we slept in a big bamboo bungalo with mosquito nets on wooden rises. not so comfortable but thats roughing it.

day 2 - we have breakfast - toast and coffee - and then our team splits up. team korea and holland girl are only on a 1 night trek and they go off in a different direction. this is when the real trekking begins. me and the ozzies start heading out. with me and midlife crisis woman in the back while our guide, ding, is in the middle and the two 4th daters are at the front (it would seem they are a bit of a trek-a-holics) - i ended up trekking in my flip flops cuz i could NOT wear those pumas again. so it really wasnt that difficult but after about a month of doing absolutly nothing my body was feeling it. we walked for 2 hrs and then stopped at a waterfall. we ate lunch out of leaves and the others went swimming while ding and i played with his laptop (yes im in the middle of nowhere thailand and im playing on a laptop! he asked me to show him how to make a webpage....like because im white im supposed to be some sort of internet genious!). we then began walking again. this time for only about 45 min and then we stopped at a little 'store' i guess. these hilltribe women sold cold drinks and cigarettes and chips and stuff for the trekkers that were coming through. ding, our guide was a bit sleepy i guess - he ended up having a nap for about 45min-1hr while we sat around and looked at chickens and dogs. i lied in a hammok. once ding was through with his catnap we began walking again - another hr and a half or so until we got to our 2nd sleeping spot. this village was a bit bigger then the last we stayed at. our bedhouse was shared with the dogs though...hmmm...we ate jackfruit (really good, id recommend it - i seem to recall making my parents buy me one of these strange fruit when i was a kid but at that time we didnt know how to eat it and it didnt turn out so good- i'll show you when i get home!) and had another fantastic dinner - they eat pumpkin here....not like pumpkin pie but actual pumpkin its actually really good. i thought it was strange but aparently they eat it the same in australia. the village we stayed at had a shower (not hot or fancy or anything and y0u had to bring a candle in there with you to see anything at all) and offered thai massage for 120baht but i was too tired to indulge so i just slept.

day 3 - woke up late, ate breakfast - toast and coffee again - and then went on a cavewalk. was nothing too exciting except for the big huge bug that landed on ozzie guy's back that midlife crisis woman flicked off but it made a pop-click noise and squirted some sort of pee on his shirt and then flew off - gross! checked out the village stalls - ding showed me this little monkey that the villagers had found - she was only about 3 months old. the cutest thing ive ever seen (besides ninja) i got to hold her and give her fruit! so cute. then we walked about half hour to the elephant camp. me and midlife crisis woman got to ride an elephant together. our elephant didnt like us much - kept spraying us with snotty mud but it was a good ride. then went on a bamboo raft which i got to help steer down the river. was quite nice. after that we all got dropped off at our locations and that was that.

so it was quite the experience. i dont think id do it again anytime soon but i had fun either way. the place im staying at now is called padong travel inn. its quite nice only 200baht a night it has a hot shower and a fan with a mattress on the floor but the location is good and all ive been doing there is sleeping.

yesterday i did a longneck hilltribe tour. there were only 4 of us (2 canadian guys and an irish girl) and there was alot of driving but it was pretty cool. i felt extremely weird though going into these peoples village and taking pictures of them....it was like they were on display - some sort of sideshow freak act. i kept thinking how strange it would be for me to be sitting around watching tv and eating pizza at home and for a group of thai tourists coming into my home to take pictures of me doing what i do every day...very weird. there was one beautiful little girl who i took a picture of and bought a bracelet from. she was so cute.

the irish girl complained alot about how much driving we did (it was a 10 hour day for us - we stopped at a few places but never longer then an hour). i wanted to turn around and say to her 'look, what are they going to do? you wanted to see the longneck hilltribe and they live in the hills - they cant bring the village to you so stop complaining about it!' but it was a good tour also. again really good food! these thais know how to cook.

today i went on a 'safari' did most of the things i had already done on sunday - ie ride an elephant, bamboo rafting ride...but today was a bit higher class i think. and we got a great buffet lunch out of it! i also rode a oxen-pulled cart. there was an older lady from new zealand on this tour and she was afraid of heights so after the oxen took us up the hill to where the elephants were supposed to take us back down to camp she copped out and decided to walk. when we were all supposed to meet for lunch our tour guide, tom, couldnt find her! we were all done lunch and waiting around when he finally found her! ha it was kind of funny. i dont know why you would pay for an elephant ride and not actually ride the elephant. that was the highlight of the day! also stopped in at an orchid and butterfly farm that i went to yesterday with the longneck hilltribe- i just sat and had coffee - nothing too exciting.

tomorrow - my birthday! - im going to the golden triangle - this is where opium trading occurred i think and there burma, laos and thailand borders meet. i think here i should be able to cross the border and get my passport restamped so i wont have to get an extension before i leave chiang mai....very cool!

then i have 2 days to...hmm sleep in! haha i think i will go to the spa one day - the place im staying at is advertising some cool packages at s0me of the local spas. there is also a jewlery making course you can take at an artshop around here somewhere that i might check out. i think i will also have a starbucks coffee and take a yoga class.

well folks thats all thats new! i cant wait until jenn gets here only 5 days! we have to go shopping shortly after you get here because im too fat to fit comfortably into any of my clothes anymore :( - you people wont recognize me once i get home

love you all! miss you more!

alia