I am here sitting at the singapore airport, killing time while waiting for my flight to Johannesburg. Yes, you have read the first sentence correctly. I am on my way to South Africa to work for the RSA Project there. :) But since I am killing time anyway (my flight is at 2:15 and it is still 1130), let me back track a bit and detail here the events of the past month…
Samet Trip
The first weekend of May was a long weekend. So Jco, Paui and I decided to take a short trip to the nearby island of Koh Samet. This trip was full of comical disasters and weird mistakes on our part. But all in all, it was fun and enlightening and I hope for Jco, therapeutic.
Mistake #1: We booked too late (we were to leave on Friday and we just started looking for a place on Wednesday) and Samet island rooms were all taken. So we had to resort to booking on Rayong instead and just thought of taking day trips into Koh Samet for all 3 days.
Mistake #2: We booked on the wrong part of Rayong. The hotel we found on the internet said it was near Samet island. But alas! We were fooled. In fact, the hotel was between Pattaya and Samet! In Pinoy terms, it's like you planned to vacation in Batangas , but the hotel you booked was in Makati. Ganun kalayo.
Mistake #3: The hotel brochure said we were 30 minutes away from Pattaya. Yeah right. That '30 minute' trip turned out to be two hours!
But those mistakes notwithstanding, we had a grand time, albeit we were always dead tired in the evening due to the stress of being on the road too much. Hehehe. On the first day, we arrived by bus, took a sangtheaw to our hotel from the bus station. A sangtheaw is basically just like a jeep without the colorful décor. We expected a 30 minute ride to the hotel. The ride took one hour and a half basically, although I confess we really did not notice the passing of time as we were making lots of tsika and taking pictures. The first day, we just stayed at the hotel, took pictures and strolled around the place. We then had lunch and planned to go to Pattaya by late afternoon.
In Pattaya, we went around Walking Street where the two boys ogled the girls in their mini dresses (or lack of it sometimes. Hahaha). We had a good seafood dinner and took some nice sunset pictures. Afterwards, we went walking around basically. Pattaya just has a dearth of poof bars and clubs and discos. It's like girls are just popping out everywhere with their white DOMs. They also had a street for gays, with bars named like 'A-Bomb Boys'. Hehehe
The second day, we were finally able to go to Samet Island (and natuwa si Paui as it was his first island trip). The three of us just lay down there to eat, swim and generally be merry. :) Paui and I went jet-skiing (first time ko!) and Jco took a lot of pictures of girls taking pictures. That night, we just hung out in the room, drinking baccardi and playing cards. And of course, allowing Jco to vent his emotional frustrations. :P
The final day, we just hung out in the room till check out time. Back to Bangkok, back to work, back to traffic. :) But even the going home was very 'backpacker' material. We had to ride two buses: first bus to go to Pattaya station and from there, take another bus to bring us to ekkamai station which is near our apartment. Hehe. And it was during the wait at the Pattaya station that Paui and I realized first month-sary namin pala. hahahaha. Is this a good omen that both of us forgot to celebrate the first 30 days of couplehood? Hehehe. Sana di naman. We just celebrated at Pizza Hut (we had the whole restaurant to ourselves…saan ka pa nun.hehehe) and just did some bit of catching up at Starbucks and making muni muni sa buhay.
All in all, it was a great weekend, especially since it was my first out of town trip with Paui (supervised of course. Hehe) . :)
Margarita Night
Reysiel was back from Malaysia for several days. She was in hiatus from gimik outings since she arrived due to work. But the Wednesday before she was set to leave for Malaysia, we decided to go for Margarita night. It was supposed to bid farewell to her favorite band also as they were allegedly moving to Macau soon.
So that night, we dressed up and went to CM2. Since it was just us two girls, we chose a table near the stage to be safe from unwanted pick-uppers. We had two glasses of margarita plus two bottles of margarita (buy one take one kasi. Wala kaming magawa). CM2 has the best margarita mix I've tasted. Tastes like juice. Hehe. Predictably, Reys and I became slightly tipsy going home. We were just laughing our heads off sa lobby and Reys even took a picture with her bodyguard. Buti naman we arrived home in one piece. Hehehe. One of the fun gimik nights I've had. And buti na din kasi baka matagal tagal akong di maka CM2.
Batchmates in BKK
Raine and Gilbert came from Singapore and Joel, Get, Chewy and Marf arrived from Manila to visit Bangkok! So the weekend they were here was a whirl of tours and sightseeing and eating and chika. Imported chika from Singapore and from Manila. Hehe. Dapat may newsletter na kasi mga Ex-centures para updated sa buhay ng lahat (solicited and unsolicited).
Reys and I fetched them from the airport. Medyo late nga lang kami because we didn’t realize that they would arrive so early. We were still watching Cutting Edge2 when we got the text message from Marf. After scrambling for the airport, we fetched Marf, Chewy, Raine and Gilbert. The next day, we went to Floating market and to the Rose Garden. Traffic din pala sa floating market. We must have been stuck there for quite awhile, with boats going in both directions on the same lane. But the Rose Garden was fun. We watched the elephant shows and we got to ride on the elephants. There was a cultural show and the lunch was great! They had really good food and with enough varieties to whet the appetite. Afterwards, we went to Suan Lum for some night market shopping then had a river cruise dinner.
The next day, we went to Wat Arun and to Grand Palace. Afterwards, went shopping at Panthip and at Platinum Mall. Did I mention that I just love this mall? It's like they put Chatuchak and Pratunam into an air conditioned building. Hassle free shopping! Unfortunately, this mall is perfect for girls mostly, so Paui, Chewy and Gilbert had to sit out most of the time waiting at Black Canyon coffee. In the evening, we had dinner at The Loft at Central then went for the view of Sirocco. We were just standing around, taking pictures, when this waiter thrust a menu at us and asked for our orders. We said we would order in a while. 'Ok. I will give you five minutes'. This was the waiter's snappy reply. Aba aba aba. Na five minutes kami. Natakot ata si raine, nauna sumakay ng elevator at bumaba.hehehe. We then went to CM2 afterwards so they could see Reysiel dance on stage with her band. Hehehe.
The next day was Paui's birthday. So after CM2, we went directly to his room and woke up him with a birthday cake. :) Sana na surprise naman sya at napabigay pa sya ng impromptu speech. Hehehe. Then we hung out downstairs for awhile with Mike, Marlon, Shirley, Len and Jco where somebody was venting out her frustrations in life. hehe.
Sister in Bangkok
Finally. A family member visits me in Bangkok. Haze arrived on Wednesday evening and Paui and I fetched her from the airport 30 minutes late. Hehehe. Immediately after depositing her bags in my apartment, we went to Soi 38 for some mango sticky rice and porridge. Mervin and Jco soon joined us after a few minutes. We had to go home afterwards though as my sister was very sleepy from her flight already. The next day, she was able to join the ABAP team for the lunch farewell for a colleague. Hehe. Naka libre ako sa lunch. The next few days, we basically just went around MBK, Pratunam, Paragon and Siam --- all shopping districts.
However, she was able to go around the 'culture' places of Bangkok as well. We met up with some of Paui's sister's friend and her family for dinner. And they graciously offered to take her with her the whole of Sunday so she was able to to Grand Palace, Wat Arun and several other temples. While she was there, I watched X-Men movie at Paragon. I had my hair cut as well, but only a bit. I've decided that long hair becomes me and I am done experimenting with my 'do (with disastrous results).
On her last day here, we went to Pratunam where she bought some souvenirs for people back home plus several Abone products which are really cheap here. In the evening, we went to have dinner at The Loft in Central, proceeded to Sirocco Towers (the waiter didn’t give us the five-minute dialogue, thank God!) and finally, we ended the evening with a karaoke showdown. Hehe.
Chao Phraya Cruise
A week after the batchmates' cruise dinner, Paui took me on another cruise dinner along Chao Phraya. Pero sabi naman nya, different naman daw. :) Fun sya. Muntik na kaming nawala, and we passed three tollways just to get there from Bangkapi. But all in all, it was a fun night. I got to see the River City Mall again (grabe, this is definitely a mall for tourists!!!). And I got to dance a real slow dance (the one in Baguio can't count). :) hehehe. Babaw ko ba. Hahaha. The meal was sumptous and unfortunately very filling. Good thing the boat didn't sink despite the added weight. Hehe.
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