Home Sweet, Sweet Home

Mummy saying: "Hai hai, Meena toh yehri!"

The past couple of days have been a whirlwind of events. I walked through those airport doors at 11:40 PM to find all my loved ones waiting for me with bouquets of flowers and roses. The first thing I did was…drumroll please…burst into tears!

"Oh my God Salim, how did you get so tall??"

I loved how Jahaan kept saying to Appa: "Mummy, I like Khala"

We spent some time at the airport and then retired to our respective homes. I tried to fend off my jetlag by staying up but I still couldn’t get to bed until about 6 in the morning! Didn’t wake up until my brother forced me out of bed at 3:45 PM!! Six months in the southern hemisphere will really mess with your biological clock. On Thursday, I had a little surprise party complete with a Welcome Home cake and presents, including my very new and tres cool electric toothbrush! It is so, so sick that I am actually brushing my teeth more then normal!


Drove around with my music blasting (the Katchafire Reggae I got from NZ) and it was so therapeutic. I feel like life here is still the same. There has been a lot of growth (Cali-g is now a million strong!) but nothing has changed significantly. In some ways, I feel as though I never left. People keep asking me: Do I miss Australia? Sure…I grew quite accustomed to calling peppers “capsicums” and sunnies “sunnies”. Handrolls were my meal of choice and I'm itching to hear “Feel the Love Generation” or Rogue Traders “Watching You”.

Take me downtown
It's where the people rock,
Three-hundred sixty five ?
cos we never stop.
Take me downtown
Cos' peoples runnin' wild.
See how we kick it in a brand new style.
Take me downtown
It's where I wanna go.
Everyone I know is going to my show-
Take me downtown
Where the city hum,
Then get your head numb
to the beat of the drum cause,
I see you watching me watching you,
And now you see just where you gotta be.
I see you watching me watching you,
And now you see just where you gotta be.

Bobbing my head just feels so good. I listen to “Livin’ on a Prayer” and I think of the Nott. I'm unpacking the multitudes of crap that I have accumulated and each postcard and magnet and article of clothing and rock and leaf tells a story.

I went out last night to the Met and I'm finding it really hard to dress in Calgary fashion. I'm sticking with my Australian style cuz I’d feel like too much of a bogan if I wore flare leg jeans. I busted out the skinnys and the boots and the leggings and I can’t help but feel oh-so-Ozzy.

Well, back to seeing the Big Dipper rather than the Southern Cross! Crazy how time flies.

(Meena+Jenn)(Tokyo)=TROUBLE

Well we finally got all of our clothes, shoes and accessories packed after much struggle and suprisingly we were able to leave the Bangkok Airport without paying for extra luggage charges. I still dont know how we managed that, considering the hideous state of my bags!! I was wearing four sweaters and my jean jacket just so it wouldnt add to the extra weight in my suitcase. Now thats what you call resourcefulness!

Between Bangkok and LA we had a day-long stop over in Tokyo. It was absolutely insane and we loved it! We flew into Narita and took the Airport Limousine Bus service to Tokyo which only took an hour and a half. We arrived in Tokyo right in the heart of the shopping district (of course) called Shibuya. The main shopping part of Shibuya is called Shibuya-109, which is a mall with floors and floors of boutique shops. Everything we saw on every mannequin was something we would wear! What made it even better was that all of the sales girls were just HOT! And as if it couldn’t get any better, they were playing reggae in most stores—we wanted to set up shop and just start dancing! (Music in Australia sucked with its “house” dance music, and there was no decent reggae anywhere! Thailand had some really good old skool rnb but the music in Tokyo was by far the best.)

In the first half hour Jenn and I had already made 2 purchases each! I got a hot pair of extra huge sunglasses (so what else is new?) and a half backless shirt to show off my tattoo! Jen got sunglasses and a hot hat! Then we had some missions trying to find sushi…I was under the impression that it would be everywhere but it wasn’t! It was actually effort to try to find a sushi place. We finally found one and enjoyed a quick efficient lunch…it really said a lot about Japanese culture. You just get in, do your ish, and get out!

After Shibuya, we tried to navigate through the very, very complicated Tokyo train system.

This city does not cater to tourists at all!! We finally got to Harijuku station which was beside this next shopping area called Takeshita Street. It was here that we scoped out all of the new fashions that will likely be hitting Canada in, well, 5 years. There were 3 basic types of people we saw trendsetting on Tokyo streets: The hot Jap girl trendy look (nails done up in jewels, brassy long curly hair, nude lips, defined eyes), the doll Lolita look (almost scary, a little too much!) and the Goth-Punk look (for emo rebels). It was all very cutting edge!For my fellow Fashionistas, these are the trends that I observed. Mark them down for infiltration into North America in the coming months/years!

• Garters (like wedding garters) showing outside your clothing. Also saw one built right into a skirt.
• Wearing lingerie (leopard for good measure). We actually saw a girl walking the street (one of the hot jap trendy girls) who looked like she had just forgotten to put on clothes!
• Military/Army wear (which is in right now in Australia as well)
• Leggings under a skirt or with a long shirt (so very 80’s, also just passed through Australia and being worn in Europe)
• Teased long curly hair
• Overalls that are shorts or skirts with one strap un done (kris kross style).
• Suspenders. Not sure if i can deal with this one!

After strolling through the fashionable Harijuku I realized that I have really embraced the Asian Goddess within me…like I think I was Japanese in a previous life. What else explains my so very cutesy and oh-so-Tokyo cell phone with its charms and big pink hearts and sparkles? I used to make excuses but I’d be proud to hold it in my hands in Tokyo! I think I could definitely live here – I just need to learn some Japanese! It was simply enchanting!

Crikey! Its Over Mate!

Bangkok has been absolutely mad and bonkers and wonderful. The heat is almost suffocating and the smell of exhaust mixed with durian and jackfruit is overwhelming. All you hear are the sounds of impatient tuk tuk horns bleeping, people shouting, and music blasting out of every nook and cranny. It is an overload to the senses with people dodging traffic with no regard for health and safety standards and colorful lights and scarves and trinkets and noisy wooden frogs and tropical fruits and the dance of bargaining at every stall.



I call it a dance because that is what it seems like. One extra second long look at something you may have found visually appealing and you have commited about 5 minutes of your life to bargaining. It is a careful courtship; you cannot start at a price too high that the seller will say yes right away, and you cannot start so low that they will laugh in your face and not even bother with you. So you judge value quickly in your head, do your conversion calculations whilst not changing the look on our face no matter how bad you would like the item. And then the dance begins, with back and forth swaying using the universal language of a calculator and as much body language as you can muster.

"Hello okay missy, hello okay how much?"
"40 baht"
"Oh no, no, cannnnnot, cannnoot missy, you give me more"
"Ok you tell me how much you sell?"
"I sell you 150 baht missy"
"Noooo noo, tooo much" (as you start to emulate their speech to get the point across)
"Ok fine how much you pay"
"50 baht"
"You pretty girl, i give you special price, i give you 120 baht"
"No, way too much" (as you start to walk away)
"Okay, okay, okay, (as they grab your arm or wave you back) look i give you best price i give you 150 baht for two!"

And the courtship continues until one loses patience or the other pursuades. It' s an incredible thing to watch.

The day we flew into Bangkok from Chaing Mai we walked Khaosan Road and then came home exhausted and ordered Pizza delivery. (Is that english...i dont even know anymore....) It was absolute heaven! And the first time I had pizza since our 3 day courtship of Pizza Hut in New Zealand! On Sunday we spent the day at MBK, which is this 7 story tall crazy mall with bargaining allowed. We got fobbed out sticker pics of the three of us, and got the last random things on our list. Yesterday in the day time we went to the floating market in the morning and then saw the Imperial Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.




Last night we ran into some friends and we went to Pat Pong, the Red Light District in Bangkok. It is definitely something to see...but....definitely not something to see again! They do quite unmentionable and revolting things with ping pongs, candles, razor blades (???) and the like (that's when we left). Ew. But it was interesting, i must admit. It was more curiousity on all of our parts, we got semi scammed like we knew we would. 100 baht for cola and free "looky-looky" but if you stay more than 2 minutes its 300 baht for cola an looky looky. So we sipped our colas and looky lookyed.

I leave tonight...and this is it! One 12 hour stop in Tokyo tomorrow so we are planning on grabbing some expensive sushi and a postcard or somthing. I reckon going from the baht to the yen is a little to hardcore for shopping. Throughout this trip i've been in an on-again, off-again relationship with Deet. On-again because I know I need Deet, off-again because no matter how much i put on i still get feasted upon by the misquitos. Seriously, I'll be sitting in a mini bus with like 20 people and the misquitos will all just come to me, pick a limb, and have a buffet. I'm surprised i dont have West Nile yet. I heard it happens if you eat to many bananas (increased potassium levels in blood...) but i gave up bananas in Australia because they were about $12/kg after the cyclones and I still got eaten alive. But that's neither here nor there....

My backpack is practically bursting right now. It took 3 of us and a whole lot of muscle to get that thing closed. My right hook does have quite a reputation though so I wasnt too worried. Half a year later and I am coming home a bit plumper, a lot darker, and without a watch. I am less stressed (even thought i'm currently unemployed and homeless in September), more independent, and i'd like to think my tattoo makes me about 2.57 square centimeters cooler. It's going to be weird going back home and having personal space again...I dont know if i can handle it...it will definitely be an adjustment! But I have a Welcome Back Surprise Party with my family on Thursday...quite excited about that! Oh how i love surprises :)

A Diva's Guide to Backpacking

Move over calculus, hello Cosmo! This is what happens when you read too many magazines! Some of you may be wondering how I have so much time on my hands to write these blogs. Well usually when I'm relaxing I write in my journal and this post came from thinking about all those times that people told me I was too high maintenance to backpack! So this is for those girls (and those guys that are in touch with their feminine sides...) that have ever been faced with the stereotype that they are too diva to backpack! As we graduate I know a lot of people are thinking of backpacking and although it can be a bit intimidating, backpacking is COMPLETELY POSSIBLE no matter who you are as long as you have a few key essentials as below!!

1. A Great Backpack! First and foremost, a great quality backpack is key! Spend a little bit more, start a "Backpack Fund" if you will, and get one that is comfortable and has a lifetime warranty. Don't be fooled by cheaper backpacks--they will not be comfortable when you are trekking in the heat through the jungle from one side of an island to another...trust me I speak from experience (Parentians). Remember-- women's bodies are different than men's so you need one specifically built for your body type. When you do find your dream bag make it yours uniquely! Make sure it expresses your individuality with buttons and patches, especially the Canadian flag! This is imperative! you get treated so well and everyone recognizes you as a fun loving and peace keeping person! Yayy!

2. Good Facial Cleansing Wipes! For night trains, non air-conditioned buses, and flights as you are jetsetting across the world! Also good for the morning after partying when you wake up with your makeup still on!

3. Hand Sanitizers and Kleenex Wipes! Most bathrooms (especially the squatting ones) don't have soap and there are stray animals everywhere! Sanitizing your hands is essential. Plus, when you've just had a monkey crawling on your arm that likely has fleas and rabies, sanitizer does something to calm your soul. A roll of toilet paper is also a good idea to carry around!

4. A Colored Head Scarf! My most important backpacking essential! A must for curly hair! Humidity + non regular hair washings + cute boys = the need for a quick fix! Throw on your headscarf and wrap like a gypsy for a suave, sophisticate, world-traveller look. Also looks great with oversize dark sunnies and a journal while sitting in a cafe. Adds a mysterious appeal to your everyday look...and doesnt everyone love looking and feeling a little more intriguing whilst travelling?

5. A Little Mirror! You're not really carrying around makeup when backpacking, and most girls lose the need for a compact when they have a healthy tanned glow! So a small mirror is key to check your teeth or the status of your frizz.

6. Bargaining Skills! Brush up on your bargaining skills as this is the most important thing when in another country--going from bazaar to bazaar, market to market. It is also a good idea to learn key numbers in the language of your destination! See also: The Walk Away Method and the Money In Hand Technique. Memorize the line that gets them all: "You give me good price, I bring friend, We buy more".

7. Tiger Balm! This fixes anything and everything! Cuts, burns, misquito bites, back pains from heavy back packs, neck pains from sleeping on a not-to-comfortable bed, general muscle aches that can't be fixed with a Thai massage! Obtain from your grandmother or your local Thai/Indian store!

8. Space Saver Bags! An absolute must--buy from your local backpacking store. Reduce your clothes by 1/3, that gives you 33% more room for more clothes. Think of it this way: If you have a 70 L bag, you can reduce it down to 46.7 L, leaving you with 23.3L more capacity. If you can fit approximately 2 shirts in a 1 L empty carton of milk, a free 23.3 L in your backpack will give you the room for approximately 46 more (small) articles of clothing! A shopaholic's dream!

9. Needle and Thread! Sounds so horrendously feminine I know but of all the things my mother taught me this has to be the most important one. If you are really a lush, bring hot pink thread as it matches with everything! Can be used for threading unruly eyebrows or face (brown girls, holla--u all know whats up!) and sewing patches on backpacks. Can also be used to mend a strap thats fallen off of a cheap 3 dollar shirt you just bought or use the needle to screw in your broken sunglasses or fix a busted earing. Absolutely essential!

10. A Woman's Power to say NO! Never underestimate the power of a good, firm, strong, "NO". Be it to the dirty man trying to pick you up, the street hwawkers trying to sell you food, the old ladies trying to braid your hair or give you a massage, the constant tuk tuk hassling (TUK TUK?? TUK TUK??), the Muay Thai guys trying to get you to come to the show, the trinkets along the beach you dont want, the sarongs in the shops you dont need! Dont get me wrong, you can start off with a pleasent "No Thank You" but when they start grabbing your arm and insisting that you buy what they are selling, a strong firm NO does wonders! I suggest practicing in front of the mirror hahaha. No i'm just joking. But a smoldering glare can also work wonders after the "No".

So thats about it. Well...not EXACTLY it...i would like to add another to the list but i dont know if it makes the top 1o. A really good french manicure combo of nailpolish has made my toes super pretty through this whole trip but im probably the only girl that would ever bring nail polish backpacking. But seriously, its been great to me, its the size of a pen and one side has white and the other side a shimmering pink. Fantabulous toes in any part of the world!!!

hmm so thats it! So i have a couple of girls in my head that i wrote this for and I hope you enjoyed it!! Sometimes i really think I do these things more just to amuse myself but this is what happens when you have too much time on your hands!!!

Sawatdee Kaa from Chiang Mai

We flew to Chiang Mai the day before yesterday, which was so incredibly hassle free and conveinient! What makes it better is we are staying in a palace for just peanuts! We are at a beautiful guesthouse and our room is bigger than all the rooms i've ever seen put together!! In the Jenn Measurement Unit (JMU), it is approximately 15 cartwheels by 10 cartwheels :P

Chiang Mai is known for its trekking and since we are only here a couple of days we signed up for a one day trek rather than an overnight 2 day trek. Yesterday tops the list of the funnest activities i've ever been involved in....right next to jungle surfing, zorbing, natural hotspring waterfalls, horse riding, cave tubing, and all the other cool stuff!! Here is a map of Thailand to put things into perspective!

We've had some bad tour guides in the past but our guide yesterday was INCREDIBLE!! His name was Nadh (pronounced Nut we think) and he was just happy to show us his country. And wow Northern Thailand is just beautiful! So we started off with a big brekky that made us real tired on the 90 minute (hour and a half) drive north of Chiang Mai. We drove first to do some elephant trekking which was so much fun. Since we are all small, Jenn, Ioana and I all fit on one basket but we got the laziest, fattest elephant. His name was Nescafe. Well not really but we think thats what our elephant man said it was...or somthing of the sort in Thai! Anyways, Nescafe was soooo lazy that he just insisted on staying behind the other two elephants, even if they stopped somewhere. He just wouldnt take the opportunity to race or be a leader much less explore different parts of the jungle like the other ones. We figure he was a lover not a fighter. Along our hour long trek we took in the amazing lush views of northern thialand and picked some logans (like lychees) off the tree tops and enjoyed them. We took lots of pictures!

After the elephant trek we went bamboo rafting along a river, which was super fun! We got quite wet and the raft was semi stable but scary at times because the thai guy on the front was spashing us and making us violently sway from side to side! A guy on our tour was a proffessor from a University in Iran and he taught Math and Statistics so we called ourselves the Math Raft! Yes there is no end to our geekyness, but we were actually quite proud of our math raft. We had to resist the urge to start discussing math theorys. It was really funny when he fell in the water and almost lost his bamboo stick haha. But its great how life felt so simple while we were rafting...we were catching apples in the water and throwing them at the other raft, having splash fights...it was just simple amusment and so relaxing to not have a care in the world!

After bamboo rafting we got to the Karan village, which is this amazing village of Burmese settlers that came to northern Thailand about 200 years ago. They live so old school, one family each in a little bamboo room in a little bamboo house. All the women learn how to weave and wear sarongs if they are married. The men all learn to catch water buffallo. Marraiges happen very very young, but there are only 3 kids on average per household. It was incredble to see life so simply. The women all have black teeth because black teeth are considered beautiful by their people. To attain the blackness they chew on this Plu leave wrapped in chestnut bark. I was the only one that tried it and it tasted kind of spicy and kind of bitter....kind of like a...um..how do you say...leaf wrapped around a peice of bark!
From the Karan village we trekked past their rice fields(picture below) and to a waterfall that separates two villages. Along the trek we learned so much about plant life and saw different trees. Jackfruit, durian (which i finally tried the other day!!), mango trees, lime trees, chilli plants, basil...everything was so incredibly fragrant...like how things are supposed to taste naturally without any genetic modification!! I even got a temporary tatoo from the sap from this leaf which was later covered in charcoal from a rock in the next village .... my name in thai!

The next village that we went to was called Hmont and had Chinese settlers. All in all it was an incredible day full of learning and simplicity.

Also got to see Pirates of the Carribean last night...the first movie i've watched in a theatre after sooo long!! We wanted to see it Emperor's Class, which is what you would pay for a regular movie in Canada ($13.00 CAD) but you sit in these PIMPED out couches and get star treatment but unfortunately that movie wasnt playing in that theatre! But it was nice to just chill and watch a movie in a nice comfy theatre, for $4.00 CAD no less! And there were THREE popcorn choices, Cheese, Sweet, and Salty! Previews in Thai were fun and before the movie started everyone had to get up and pay respect to the King!! Tomorrow morning we leave for BK for the majority of our shopping and maybe some sightseeing. Then i'm home!!

The Name's Nanji - Meena Nanji

Went on a James Bond Island excursion yesterday! It was pretty fun. Started off getting on this chintzy little bus with red pom pommed curtains and a cheesy James Bond Movie playing in the background (The Man with the Golden Gun). I had forgotten the allure of old Bond flicks...the way every woman he meets falls into bed with him, and the way he so effortlessly escapes unscathed from bullets, arrows, solar panaled super power bombs and the like looking absolutely sauve and fabulous! *sigh* He's my hero....


The first thing we did was stop at these caves with a Buddist temple inside. There were monkeys everywhere outside and we had some really good picture ops! Then we got in these cute colorful long tail boats and went around the Phang Nga islands and then finally to James Bond Island. Parts of the movie were filmed on Phang Nga, which they then commercialized for the tourist's sake! But it was still quite stunning.

Then we got back into the longtail boats and we were taken to this little Muslim fishing village created 197 years ago built in the middle of the sea on the water. The village is self sustaining and built entirely on an interwoven set of piers, complete with a beautiful domed green and yellow masjid. Really an amazing site to see!

We spent the rest of our evening looking around the colorful markets and shooting the sht with locals while they were trying to sell us stuff. So we are walking in the market and a lot of times the sellers say things like "i love you, your sexy, how much". So yesterday there was one that gave up before he even started and it was KEY. Picture this: Me, Jenn and Ioana walking by. Guy sitting on the ground by his store saying in a passive tone to Ioana as she walks by: "I love you" (She keeps walking) "I know you dont love me, but I love you. I know you dont. I know everything." At that we had to turn around and just burst out laughing, it really made our night! We're not really in the mood to go out here, it just seems too dirty and like we'll have to fend off all of the yucky men--its too much trouble and we cant be bothered! But the music here is hype, i heard Ace of Base last night. The thai boxing place is right outside our hotel so we hear it non stop..."MUAY THAI MUAY THAI BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW TONIGHT TONIGHT THE BEST FIGHT TONIGHT TONIGHT MUAY THAI". The phrase is now embedded in our every pore and i think we are going a little crazy. We can hear it in our rooms so like true Waterlooers we retired at around 1 and started doing math problems in our wonderfully airconditioned room. No i'm serious. With a timer and everything. I know you guys think i'm joking. After math problems we made a list of the things to do when we get home. Timmys topped the list!!

Today we go Phuket from Koh Samui, okay, okay.

My english become so broken here. My conversation has word like:
"Best price, best price. You give me best price, I bring friend"
"Teksi, need teksi. 120 baht? No no too spensive! You give me best price!"
"You have green curry chicken? With rice, with rice. Yes yes, green curry rice. No bones, no bones!"

I find myself repeating phrases more and more naturally. And speaking in bare sentences with minimum amounts of key words. We know a problem exists when the three of us start conversing in broken english and there are no thais around us. For example, in our room: "We go shopping tomorrow." "Yes need brush, brush gone" Okay that didnt really happen but almost!!

I was running out of internet time in my last post and was getting pissed cuz the keyboard sucked, hence the cursing! Koh Samui was nice but pretty commericalized. I felt like i was in Australia! Lots of families on the beach we were staying in, which was called Chewang Beach. The night after our failed Tiger tour (monkeys, treacherous waterfall, coconut juice, buddhas, etc) we watched some Muay Thai boxing. It was pretty fun but not as brutal as i thought it would be, i was hoping for some more blood!! It supposed to be called "The Most Devastating Martial Art" for a reason! The next day we got Thai massages for the first time, for 6 dollars CAD! It was amazing. Thai massages are not conventional massages, they actaully use their body parts to massage you, like elbows, knees, etc. They stretch you and bend you in ways you never knew possible!! But it was quite cool and we are going to go for another one today before we go to bed.

We had a day full of ghetto travelling today and it got quite annoying!! We were supposed to get into Phuket at 2:00 BUT we didnt get here until around 6 because we kept getting transferred!! We woke up at 6 and got on a bus to go to the ferry. Ferry then bus, then mini van that was supposed to be airconditioned...key word: supposed to be! We were sooo tired and sticky!! Phuket seems really lively but one of the problems i've noticed is a surplus of americans...in all of my travels i have only met about 2....and Phuket is full of them. We also started seeing a lot of men in buzz cuts, and i had a feeling it was the US Military. Either that or the new style in America. So we asked a couple of buzz cutted boys wearing a different uniform where they were from...and lo and behold they were the group of military boys chosen to make sure that the other military boys dont get too drunk and cause too much ruckus! They also have special police stationed here to look after the military guys! There are 3 fleets of them coming home from Iraq, in perspective that is 1900 soldiers! What a wrong time to come to Phuket!! It also seems quite dirty here compared to other places, in a debaucherous way. Lots of old, old white men with very,very young thai girls. We are just disgusted when we see that! We havnt been exposed to anything like this before! Its wierd because all the thai men are in the shops trying to sell purses to white women, while all the thai women are on the street trying to sell their bodies to white men! Excuse the crudeness!

Anyways tomorrow we are going to take a tour to James Bond Island, which is supposedly just beautiful. I think its a masjid and a little muslim fishing village built in the middle of the ocean. We are probably going to rent motor bikes/vespas and tour the island the day after (mummy thinking of you!!). Thats all anyone rides here! I have my eyes on a hot pink one!

One of the biggest differences between Thailand and Malaysia is the type of stray animals roaming the streets! Malaysia was full of cats and it was a lot nicer to see, whereas Thailand has huge suicidal dogs everywhere that just lie in the middle of the road because of the heat! Yuck! We nearly saw one get hit yesterday, his eye popped out! :(

Let me leave you all with a beautiful picture of what Phuket is supposed to look like!!

But before you get jealous, keep in mind that this picture is not mine because it is freaking RAINING!! I think it is because i didnt bring my lucky umbrella with me...thats the Commonwealth Games umbrella that i bought from Melbourne but each time i bring it out it never rains and each time i dont it pours! Well, that's Murphy's Law i guess!

Koh Samui

Currently in Koh Samui, we've been here for a couple of days now and its pretty chill. The Full Moon Party was CRAZY! We werent really sure what to expect so we tried to have small expectations. We piled into an open truck that was taking people to and from the main port to Hadrin beach, which is where the party was at. The best comment we heard was from a fellow Canadian beside me. As they kept loading people in to the back of the truck, he yelled apalled "Whatever happened to Safety First??" I dont think it exists in this country. Anyways party was crazy, buckets, redbull energy drink, glow in the dark paint...and thats all i'll get into!!






The next morning we got into a ferry to get to koh samui. We were so tired that we just kind of hung out all day, had some good thai food, the usual. The weather isnt too great here, been pretty rainy. We got good weather the past 5 months on every trip so i figure our luck has run out and we are going to get rain the rest of the trip! 5 minuts left on my internet! crap!

okay so let me be speedy. We met up with some U of C friends, vicky, krishna and Lauren and its been great fun, and a splice of home for sure. i hate this keyboard its in thai and 4 mins left!

so today we did a tour, it was fun but very very wet! Started off driving to .... um i dont remember! oh ya a monkey coconut show. and we also saw Grandfather and Grandmother rock, which is rock formations that look like a man and woman body part unmentionable, u can google image it if u want :) oh man the shift key is in the wrong place.

Then we went to this big waterfall and as we were climbing up one of the locals told us to go further up but he didnt really speak english, so we just followed him and 30 m ins later we were trekking in the pouring rain or more like rock climbing a 82 degree cliff and i was praying in my head the whole time cuz i thought one of the six of us were going to fall and break our heads. shit one minute! then buddha and another buddha it was crazy no more seconds bye!

Full Moon Party Tonight!!

We made it safe and sound to Bangkok yesterday morning --- Singapore Airlines rocks!! The flight attendents are so pretty and so helpful. You get hot towels at the beginning and end, on demand tv and movies, and yummy food! Anyways we got to our amazing guesthouse right off of Kao San Road, the main backpacker area. The place we were staying at was called Thai Cosy and it was sooo awesome...such friendly staff -- so friendly and hospitable!

Then we grabbed some great cheap-cheap thai food off of kao san and checked what was up for grabs on the street....soooo much stuff! But we also wanted to get some clothing tailor made so we went to a tailor and got measurements taken, picked styles and colors etc. I got 2 100% wool/cashmere suits + shirts + skirts and i'm excited for my first fitting! A bit pricey but i figure its an investment for my future!! Then we went back to kao san and started shopping...and shopping....and shopping!! The stuff is all really tiny which is wicked because i fit in it all!! It is really hard to say no to things that work out to be 3 bucks a pop but i have to try and restrain myself because of lack of luggage room!! It doesnt help that my shopping mantra has become "WWND"...(What would Naila do) inspired by my favorite shopaholic cousin. So when i'm faced with a difficult decision (to buy or not to by) I ask myself WWND and I hear in my head her voice "just gett ittttt". But thats the only decision that comes out of the WWND method and i'm not sure how healthy that is....Yes my name is Meena and I am a Shopaholic. Admitting is the first step, so I think i'm doing great!!

This morning we flew Air Asia to Surat Thani and then took a Bus and Boat to Ko Pha Ngan which is where we are now. I am sooo suprised we found accomidations, in a hotel at the port no less. We were really thinking we wouldnt make it for the Full Moon Party tonight as all Accomidations were booked out on the beach! But we are going to taxi it from here, and we are in a hotel away from the beach so it is a lot safer. The only problem is this huge beatle bug cockroach mutant i saw crawling on the bathrooom floor as i was trying to take a shower, after which i turned off the water and ran screeching downstairs to this internet cafe to get moral support from Jenn and Ioana!! I mean i can do small bugs but big mutant ones...no way!

Selamat Detang from Sensational Singapura!

Singapore is by far the best city I've visited so far...its an eclectic mix of Malay, Chinese and Indian culture and absolutely incredible! I know I've been saying that about everywhere I go lately but I really really mean it this time!! hehe. It is so clean because there are fines for everything -- littering, chewing gum, not flushing, jay walking, feeding birds, picking flowers -- anything you could possibly imagine! But these rules make it a fine city - excuse the VERY dorky pun.

Yesterday morning we got in after a great overnight trip on an Executive Class bus from Jerteh to here. We are staying in the heart of Little India and I feel right at home! Our hostel is amazing--eggs and toast and coffee every morning and nice airconditioned rooms. We have a little balcony where we dry our clothes and can look over the bustling Little India, bobbing our heads to bollywood oldies and smelling wafts of wonderfully pungent Indian food through the air. Yesterday we hopped on the City Buzz which takes you around the city at a minimal cost and you can get off and on as you please. We saw the Sultan Mosque which was beautiful and looked just like the Palace out of Disney's Aladdin! Then we walked to Arab Street and had some great Moroccan food in a little gully with cool little shops, galleries and cafes. Smells of incense added to the exotic feel and I felt as though I was on the other side of the world! Then I realized...I am on the other side of the world!After Arab St we saw the Raffles Hotel, which is crazy beautiful and super expensive! 132 suites starting at $800/night and it is the oldest hotel in Singapore or something like that. It is also the birthplace of the Singapore Sling so of course we had to go to the very bar where it was concocted and indulge in one (very expensive) Singapore Sling! It was quite rich. We had to wear nice shoes just so we would be let into the place! Then we saw the parliament - which was so very Victorian, the Fullerton Hotel, and the Esplanade where I finally got to try Max Brenner chocolate fondue (Chocolate by the Bald Guy -- all over Australia but one of those things we never got around to doing!). Then we had some famous "Chicken and Rice" only found in Singapore...it has a more fancy name - Ho Nan Ghai Phan (oh ya I'm learning Cantonese...So far I know how to say "do you want to go to the mall tomorrow?" and "I want to buy ____(insert English word here, ie boots)____. " And I actually ordered Chicken and Rice yesterday by asking for it in Cantonese...yaaaa everyone loves a linguist! Oh ya and I know how to count to 10 in Romanian). Anywho we ended the night by trying to plan out Thailand stuff...leaving tomorrow morning and trying to make the full moon party in Ko Phangan the day after...it will be a tight squeeze but we'll see!

We were going to go to Sentosa Island today, which is like a man made beach and tourist trap, but we decided against it so that we could explore more of the city because we loved it so much!! So first we walked to the Merlion which is a symbol of Singapore....it is half lion have fish. In my opinion it symbolizes the unity of the Malay and Chinese culture in one country but I'm not sure if thats what it actually stands for!
Then we visted Singapore's oldest hindu temple called Sri Mariamman and went through the bustling Indian market beside it.
Then off to Chinese Gardens which was just beautiful and serene. Turtles, pigions, and Asian towers. Pictures in the Garden of Abundence, and Turtles in the little river.
From there we made our way to Orchard Street, the shopping district, and got some great food. All I keep eating here is oily oily roti pratas soooooo gooood!! T - 16 till I'm back home! Happy Stampeding everyone!