Thailand

Not counting the little trips to Malaysia, this was the second trip of 'the payed holiday'. And similarly to coming back from the first one (India), the impressions are great, and I want to go back again. The islands in Thailand were aweshome in particular. Ever since watching pirate movies as a kid I wanted to get to those 'exotic' beaches, with clear water and nice sand... And as good as everything looked in the movies it was even better when experienced - natürlich.

Trip started on a not so good note, I missed my flight... This being the 2nd time to have this happen, and being more aware and accepting of my personal areas that have (lots of) room for improvement, I handled it quite good, and was lucky to be able to catch the next flight few hours later.

Catching a next flight on the same day was in a way crucial, as I was meeting with my sister Vesna on the Bangkok airport. The original flight, which base ticket price was only $40, had exactly the same time of arrival as Vesna's flight from Melbourne. She was mildly annoyed after waiting for me for 4h, but that was offset w/ our joy of being together again for the first time in 9 months, and the fact that she knows me (i.e. it's not the first time I'm late, nor the last :)

Bangkok itself is just a big, busy place... not really kind of thing that neither of us were too keen to explore. So two days there was plenty and then we caught overnight train down south.

Krabi was great, nice and peaceful. Very touristy still, but not with too many tourist. From there we went on Island tours for three days in a row. It deserve second mention: Loved islands. As expected these 3 days were very much like an adventure, and we were quite tired after it, pleasantly tired. I like snorkeling/diving around corals and chasing after fish [no, not that fish], so the disappointing thing about the tours was that they take you to the nice diving spot and there they give you half an hour, then they take you to a beach w/ restaurants and other money spending opportunities and there they make you spend 2hours. Now we know...

After 5 nights in Krabi, we spend the last two in Pukhet. On the rally like mini wan ride from Krabi to Pukhet we met Teo. Teo is Greek so his full 1st name is Thodorouspapulochonioulsgolus... ok not quite, but something like that. Anyhow meeting him was really cool, as it was funny to find someone you can relate to in so many ways so quickly... Or in Indian terms I felt that he was very much 'same same but different' like me. We'll meet again.

In Pukhet we had accommodation at the in/famous Patong beach... At night time that place is just scary, and especially so for boys, as Vesna said it. I literally had my balls scratched just like that on the street... kid you not! Seeing old (60+) men walking around with young girls (20-) was sad and sickening from subjective point of view, but then again everybody's trying to be happy, to survive, so I guess (hope) that is, in a way, one of those good deals with 'win win' situation. This point of view to the 'sex tourism' I got from a 'Pussy Cat' the bar chick from a little place on the beach.

On the bright side, bit south from Pukhet, we spend a day on the beautiful beach that was the best on-shore beach I've been to... almost as good as those on the Islands...

There are plenty more of beaches to check out, getting a diving licence and going to a jungle tour form Chiang Mai are some of the things that we'll get me back to beautiful Thailand...!

From Thailand, 15-...

KL & Klang

From the previous weekend trip to Genting, I figured it's doable to leave on Saturday morning for KL, have a a nice weekend over there, and then make it back to Spore at 4am on Monday, sleep a bit more in the bed, after some sleep in a bus, and be ready to teach few hours later at 9am.

This time around I left on Friday afternoon. Though I almost forgot that we had one of those prolonged meetings [see half way though this] on the day so I only left the office at 6pm. Add on the heavy traffic on the border and some works on the JB-KL highway, and I only made it to KL a bit after 2am. Bobby (Monkey's flirtatious character/persona) had to entertain four, desperately in need of entertainment, ladies all on his on -- Sunny's sorry bout being late, way way more then you are Bobby... way more :)

On Saturday, Monkey borrowed his Dad's driver (comes equipped w/ the nice Volvo) and we went around...

Sunday we spend with Monkey's parents and later with his friend "Uncle" Alex. Alex is cool champ. And who knows, maybe some day we develop some kind of business relationship - as they said in that commercial, possibilities are endless.

On Sunday evening, at the bus station, while taking the last piss before the trip back to Spore, the guy at the pissoir next to mine was looking at the wrong dick - my one - and commenting on it. WTF!!! It's funny now, but at the time it made me rather angry, and I had to move to the cubical to do the job - wonder what does the research say about this :?

From KL, feb07

Genting

Assumptions - a great source of surprises.

When Monkey first mentioned Genting trip he talked about mountain, family, regular visits... So in between my ears, somehow the scenario was formed that his family has this tradition of climbing this mountain - tramping/camping sort of thing. Therefore, after my morning swim on Saturday 27 Jan, when I sow his sms telling me to come and join them I thought, ok why not some adventure sounds nice...

Well - to my surprise - the only adventure I had was later that night, and it came in a form of the taxi ride from KL to Genting. Driver was a very old Uncle, with basically no ability to speak English, and more importantly not much of driving abilities either. It was already past 11pm, the old man should have been in bed anyhow, but instead he was still driving and driving as though he was the only one on the road... finding the apex across 3 lanes on a freeway; coming to a complete stop in a thick fog and mist - in the middle of the road as though it was a parking lot; and then falling a sleep at the wheel while navigating turns of the mountain... After we arrived, in one peace, to the resort I was trying to tell him to take a nap for a while before getting on a one-2 hour journey back to KL. He didn't listen, or I should say he did not understand - I hope he made it back safely.

From Genting, Jan07

Turns out Genting is this resort with number of luxury hotels that contain playgrounds for kids of all ages - theme parks, night clubs, shopping, casinos...

The main attraction of the place is that it has no need for air-conditioners... Relatively speaking, it's cold over there.

Not being able to find the hot water at 4h in the morning, and then waking up w/ a sore throat - the stupidity never cases to entertain - especially when paired with 'few' drinks :)