Friday, March 29, 2013

sandy beaches and squatty toilets

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Most people flew out the next day, but we stayed for another 2 days. Wahooo- beach day!

Isn't that water gorgeous???





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Danny enjoying the ocean.




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The greatest part about vacationing near a beach is the time we spend playing in the water together. I loooove it. We need to do it more....




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Ahhh.


I love floating in the water. It's so relaxing.




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Just hanging out, probably had an ice cold coke nearby.




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We saw this cute thai kitty chilling on the resort grounds.



I messed up our flights by accident, so we ended up having to fly back to Bangkok to fly back home. So it cut our trip short a day, but we still had fun. We stayed at the hotel at the airport so it would be easy for us to get back and forth. 





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We got up early and took the train into Bangkok for one last time.




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It was very overcast that day, which was very nice.




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We went to a different mall, and there were like 3 Crocs stores. Creepy guys!




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Thai McDonalds.




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McGrilled chicken curry. LOL.



We flew back to Tokyo....




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And I finally saw a squatty toilet! But I didn't want to risk peeing on myself, so I opted for the regular toilet. 




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Japanese Dr Pepper!




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This was a coffee drink with coffee gelatinous stuff on the bottom. I thought I'd like it, but not so much.




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A coke for Danny.




The plane from Tokyo to SF was sooooo nice. It was brand new and had tv's in the seats. Our first flight, the one I was so miserable on? It was old! Like a boxy-tv-in-the-ceiling-every-10-rows old. So watching movies wasn't an option. And I will say- watching movies saved me. A long flight is SO MUCH BETTER if you can watch movies. 




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Hm, is this lobster baby sauce?




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The snacks and the food was so much better too! I love flying from Japan!

So, a totally crazy thing happened on this flight. When we first got on the plane, two men were fighting a few rows behind and to the left of us. One man was Indian, and he took off his shoes, and the Japanese man sitting next to him threw a fit. He said his feet were stinky and he demanded that his shoes remain on during the flight. The flight attendants had to break it up a few times before we took off. Anyway, when we had about 4 hours left in the flight, there was some commotion behind us. The fight attendants were flocking together and speaking Japanese really fast. I just figured it was the men and ignored it. Then more flight attendants came back so I turned around, and a man sitting right behind us had stopped breathing, and the man next to him was giving him mouth to mouth. He finally got him breathing again, so they laid the man across that row of seats. Crazy right? 




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OMG noodlebug was SO FREAKING EXCITED that we were home!




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And I was excited to put my rings on again. (I left them home because Thailand isn't exactly know for it's safety.)

We took a nap. In our bed. Ahhhhh.





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Then we went to our favorite breakfast place- Just for You for some american food. Danny had gotten sick of Thai food- but I wasn't. 

And that's it! Our great adventure that made us world travelers!



Wednesday, March 27, 2013

jane and visnu's wedding extravaganza!

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The next day was the wedding day! It was at 4, so we had plenty of time to sleep in, get brunch, be lazy, and get ready.

A few people were badly sunburned- Visnu's friend Mark was the worst. He was red as a lobster pretty quickly- he told Jane that he kept putting the sunscreen on that was in the gift bags she handed out- but there was no sunscreen in the bags. He had been putting the bug repellant on all day! Poor guy. Lucky for us (and we used alllll of our sunscreen up on that boat ride) we didn't even get tan lines. Woo!





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I made Visnu's bowtie! I made a few, with different fabrics that Jane picked out ,and then they picked their favorite for the wedding.



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Meet our new friends!

Moustafa and Megan, Gladys and Chris.



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Gladys and Megan are seriously so cute!




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Aniyia, Gladys, Megan and Me.




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I loved all the beachy details.





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Gah, is this a dream wedding or what???




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OMG it was so hot- these fans were totally necessary.


Right after I took this photo it started POURING rain! Like torrential tropical rain. It only last like 10 minutes though.



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I love Jane's favors! Thai whiskey filled the bottles. (she graciously filled mine with fresh pineapple juice!)




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Lil Ryder before the ceremony.




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Aniyia and Marco. And I think the photobomber is Mark. Or maybe not.




I stole the next two photos from Jane's website. Hi Jane I hope you don't care!

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I wanted you all to see Janes amaaaaaazing dress.

And meet Valentine, the elephant that lives in the jungle next to the resort!



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The bottom of her dress detached so she could party!

So amazing, right???




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Mmmmm, we had these delicious drinks after the ceremony.




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Jane took insta photos of all the guests on boat day for the place cards. She did so much of the wedding details, it was amazing.




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We had an amazing dinner. I had steak again (soooo good) and there was fresh ice cream and lots of desserts.





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By the time the cake was cut, I had left to take my dress off and put something breathable on. I didn't even have cake! They cut it with a machete, it was hilarious.






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Ryder all passed out with a kiss from the bride.


I have some truly amazing videos that I took- but I'm not able to upload them! Grrrr! Check out my Vine account, my username is sixorangesocks if you want to see them.

Monday, March 25, 2013

a slow boat to phuket

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We flew from Bangkok to Phuket sunday morning (march 3rd) for the american wedding.



We found our accommodations in Phuket through airbnb just like we did in Bangkok. But it wasn't exactly perfect for our situation.
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Outside and the view from our window.








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The place was nice enough, but it was farther from the resort where everyone else was staying than I thought when I booked the room, and with the heat being hotter than it was in Bangkok, walking was not an option. Also, no restaurants were nearby.


It was so damn hot and being that close to one of the most beautiful beaches in the world was killing me. Heat turns me into a monster. So we decided to see if we could get a room at the resort.




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We took a tuk tuk down to the resort which was a bit of a pain- the resort didn't like letting tuk tuk's in unless you were a guest.





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Yea! A resort! I felt like it was a mirage, I was so exhausted.


We decided to see if we could get a room at the resort. And hooray, they had one! So we jumped ship. We took a taxi back to the other place, grabbed our bags and checked into the resort.

Since our other room was so cheap, we just left it.





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Our new view. Ohhhhh yessssss.




We ripped our clothes off, put on our bathing gear and headed to the beach for a sunset swim.


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So amazing, right?



The next morning, after a hearty breakfast mostly consisting of pineapple, and these amazing little pineapple danishes, ( I looooove pineapple!) we set out on a boat trip.


Before we disembarked, Danny and I took turns lathering each other up with sunscreen. Everyone was making fun of our routine, until later...





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An all day boat trip, sailing around the beautiful thai islands, with snorkeling, lunch and swimming at Phi Phi!





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Picture perfect sky.




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We were surrounded by gorgeous.





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Hi everybody!




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After running around Bangkok for three days, it was nice to sit, relax and hang with all our new friends.





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We were supposed to be headed to some fantastical snorkeling spot, but the crew said the water was too choppy due to the bad weather, (ugh, what?) so they insisted on taking us to James Bond Island while we waited for the "weather" to get better.






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It was pretty, but super touristy and very busy. We had to get off the boat onto a smaller boat, and since they were busy taking people on and off of the island to other boats, it took forever and all we wanted to do was go snorkeling, ugh.




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This is pretty awesome, I'm glad we stopped here.




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Kinda touristy.




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Oh hey! Check out that calculator!!!



When we finally got back on the boat, we were told that we still couldn't head towards the snorkeling place, that we needed to have lunch first.

It was hot, we were all waiting and waiting and got told we had to wait some more and I had been in the sun for 6 hours and I was tired?

Ok, then Phuket. This was about the journey, not the destination. 


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So I went down and took a nap. With some others that had the same idea. Hi Michael!






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Kayla and Jane.





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Aniyia.





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Jane taking her nephew Ryder's photo.





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Hey there Danny.





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I accidentally took this- I was trying to take a photo of the water and didn't realize the camera was turned around.




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Marco and Aniyia.




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Thanks for this awesome shot Moustafa!

After my nap, we had lunch. I felt muuuuuch better. Then the crew told us it was too late to go snorkeling. So no snorkeling, ok let's go to Phi Phi and swim and take awesome photos!

Nope, can't go there. Undercurrents or some bullshitstupidseeItoldyouI'mamonsterwhenI'mhotgrrrrrr.

It's about the JOURNEY, remember?

So they took us to the nearest island so we could at least get some beach time.



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By this time however, everyone was sunburned and most people were drunk. We all lazed about in the shallow water, grateful for the relief it brought from the sun, and laughed about how apparently this boat had definitely taken us for a "ride".

I'm short tempered when I'm hot, and I'm not good at waiting. If I had know it was just going to be a long pretty boat ride I would have been fine, and not so disappointed at every turn. But I had been looking forward to snorkeling in Thailand for months. So excuse my bad attitude, I really did have fun and I am really glad we went, it's just.





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It took a few more hours to get back, but now that we were no longer waiting for anything and the sun wasn't as hot, we relaxed and chatted.





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Then it was back on a bus to the resort. Boy was I glad to be out of the sun.

That evening we went and ate at the sushi restaurant. (there are like 5 restaurants!) I had a fillet mignon from australia, it was incredible. Danny had sushi of course and then we went to bed.

I don't really get motion sickness- but after the all day boat ride, laying in bed almost killed me. I felt like I was spinning and ugh, it took me forever to fall asleep. Does that happen to any of you? After motion motion sickness?