i went down the street today to drop off my laundry and get some coffee, so of course i had to walk by the place on the left. the two women were sweet as always...the young one who makes the food asked me easy things in thai (was it fun? beautiful? where did you go?) but the old lady said some mostly unintelligible things so i just smiled and nodded. efei and sisi were inside eating some grub, so i popped in to catch up to them. one of efei's first comments to me was that i looked skinnier in my face. of course that woman would make a remark on my weight right off the bat. nobody thinks more about bodies than efei. the old woman pointed to my skin and must've made some comment about how i was tanner.
then i went to ban ya's to catch up and get some coffee (first coffee since before i checked into the hospital! worapoj told me i couldn't have caffeine/alcohol for five days after i checked out. psh, communist). first thing she said was how i was tanner now.
ohhh suphan people, it's good to be back in your very observant company.
11.5.10
things i would say to roommates
aka dumb things i'd say just to say.
i wanna do toastmasters again. i really miss it. i know i couldn't recreate the exact experience i had at school and it'd probably be an awkward let down, but i wanna try. the main bangkok club meets monday nights, 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm. the sucky part about that is that the last van to suphan leaves at 8:30 pm or something like that. too early for me to finish up the meeting and catch it back. so i could go to the meeting at just leave at 8 pm...but i don't wanna be one of those early leavers. it's always like they're not REALLY part of the club. and what if someone's giving a really good speech or i'm really clicking with some people there and i wanna hang out after? i can't stay in bangkok overnight...oooh or maybe i could. maybe i could just catch the early van back to suphan on tuesday morning...
OR here's my even more brilliant/idiotic idea. what if i rented a car? let me tell you how much i miss driving: A LOT. i know, i know, the traffic's insane here, i'd probably get in a thousand accidents, they drive on the left, it's so stupid, blah blah blah. but how fun would it be to have a car? we could just flit around central thailand on the weekends, dash out to kanchanaburi/ayutthaya/insert a place in thailand without worrying about a bus. that would be neat.
oh wow. renting a car is expensive. budget tells me it's about 1,000 baht/day for the cheapest one. man, i don't make that much money in a month. *sigh* looks like car rental is OUT.
man, living alone is boring. the only advantage is that i get to listen to country music all the time.
i wanna do toastmasters again. i really miss it. i know i couldn't recreate the exact experience i had at school and it'd probably be an awkward let down, but i wanna try. the main bangkok club meets monday nights, 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm. the sucky part about that is that the last van to suphan leaves at 8:30 pm or something like that. too early for me to finish up the meeting and catch it back. so i could go to the meeting at just leave at 8 pm...but i don't wanna be one of those early leavers. it's always like they're not REALLY part of the club. and what if someone's giving a really good speech or i'm really clicking with some people there and i wanna hang out after? i can't stay in bangkok overnight...oooh or maybe i could. maybe i could just catch the early van back to suphan on tuesday morning...
OR here's my even more brilliant/idiotic idea. what if i rented a car? let me tell you how much i miss driving: A LOT. i know, i know, the traffic's insane here, i'd probably get in a thousand accidents, they drive on the left, it's so stupid, blah blah blah. but how fun would it be to have a car? we could just flit around central thailand on the weekends, dash out to kanchanaburi/ayutthaya/insert a place in thailand without worrying about a bus. that would be neat.
oh wow. renting a car is expensive. budget tells me it's about 1,000 baht/day for the cheapest one. man, i don't make that much money in a month. *sigh* looks like car rental is OUT.
man, living alone is boring. the only advantage is that i get to listen to country music all the time.
9.5.10
suphannnnnnnn!
i'm back! wandering around the internet, listening to a mix bri bri just made for me, and loving life.
i just watched a keyt news video on floatopia this year. iv is the most magical city ever. i keep traveling all around the world but still have yet to find a place i've felt prouder to call home.
i'm all unpacked now and when i zipped up my backpack, i felt this big rush of sadness. this trip--this insane, two-and-a-half-month summer break from school--is what i'd been looking forward to all last semester, for months. as soon as the excitement of thailand had settled around me, i got pumped for this vacation.
and now it's over. i don't even have the excitement of thailand to distract me this semester. i mean, it's not like i'm not thrilled by this country still or whatever. it's just about settling into a routine this semester. and i've said i'm excited for said settling, but now that i'm here, sitting on my bed, doing the exact same thing i'm gonna be doing for the next five months...well, i don't know. it's just so dull sometimes. i immediately want it all back...long, insufferable bus rides, hot nights in fan-only rooms, heavy backpacks, bartering for crap, foreign beer, deet, lonely planet planning, daily massages, fruit+yogurt+muesli...
meh. it'll probably just take a few days to shake this feeling.
i just watched a keyt news video on floatopia this year. iv is the most magical city ever. i keep traveling all around the world but still have yet to find a place i've felt prouder to call home.
i'm all unpacked now and when i zipped up my backpack, i felt this big rush of sadness. this trip--this insane, two-and-a-half-month summer break from school--is what i'd been looking forward to all last semester, for months. as soon as the excitement of thailand had settled around me, i got pumped for this vacation.
and now it's over. i don't even have the excitement of thailand to distract me this semester. i mean, it's not like i'm not thrilled by this country still or whatever. it's just about settling into a routine this semester. and i've said i'm excited for said settling, but now that i'm here, sitting on my bed, doing the exact same thing i'm gonna be doing for the next five months...well, i don't know. it's just so dull sometimes. i immediately want it all back...long, insufferable bus rides, hot nights in fan-only rooms, heavy backpacks, bartering for crap, foreign beer, deet, lonely planet planning, daily massages, fruit+yogurt+muesli...
meh. it'll probably just take a few days to shake this feeling.
8.5.10
one last night
angkor wat is phenomenal. i just wrote about a thousand postcards to a lot of you saying just that (and if you don't get one it means i don't have your address and i'm a terrible person and i need you to give me your address so i can shower you in asian goodness), but i like the instant gratification of sharing it with you on the internet, too.
i should really be showing you pictures with this, too. ahhhh coulda, shoulda, woulda.
anyway, i woke up at 4:20 am (har har) on thursday so i could see the sunrise. lucky, the trusty guy who drove lexa and maddy and co. around the temples in the earlier days, arrived in front of my hostel at 5 am, ready to whisk me away to the khmer temples...on his motorbike. you all remember that terrible motorbike incident i had. i've been gun shy ever since, but it was 5 am and i really wanted to go and lucky's a nice guy so i decided to trust him and hop on the back of his motorbike.
i haven't made a better decision in ages. there's nothing like waking up and going for a motorbike ride through the dark, relatively cool siem reap morning. lucky dropped me off and told me to have fun, take my time.
a quick note on the layout of angkor wat. the big main one with three pointy things sticking up--the one you've probably seen pictures of--is the actual angkor wat. there are bunches of other temples that are part of the angkor wat temple zone, and those are all what take so much time to see. they're up to 50k apart, i think, and it can take an hour to drive to some of the farther away ones. it's a sort of complicated, oversized disneyland for temples.
angkor wat is the famous one for the sunrise. i ran into a woman the night before who'd said she wasn't that impressed, so i tried to keep my hopes down.
that woman was really super wrong. as i walked down the causeway to angkor wat, i popped out to see the most gorgeous sunrise of my whole life. THIS IS NOT AN EXAGGERATION. the sky was hot pink with tinges of purple blending into a bright orange, lit up against the dark silhouette of angkor wat. just...you need to see it some time. (i tried to replicate it this morning, but the sky wasn't working with me.)
lucky took me to angkor thom next, which is actually a huge complex of lots of temples where people used to actually live. the main temple in the middle, bayon, has 216 faces that look precisely like the guy from "legends of the hidden temple" (the big face, not the awkward, terrible host).
after that i was hot and freaking tired and hungry (still not feeling 100% after the dengue), plus it was 10 am and it was SO EFFING HOT that i wanted an ice cream and then to lie down in an ice bath, so lucky drove me home.
at 4 pm, after a nap and a much needed recharge in the a/c, lucky came back over to the hostel and took me to ta phrom, which might look familiar cuz lara croft was totally there. (seriously--parts of "legends of the hidden temple" were filmed in and around angkor wat.) i had bought a scarf for myself the day before and wrapped it around my head when i was walking around the temples cuz it made me feel like a badass tomb raider.
the temples close at 5:30 pm, and by the time i got out everything else was closing down, so lucky drove me home. oh, then i went out to eat by myself on a busy street, which is always a weird thing but i really enjoy it. i'm reading vampire diaries cuz i'm about 14 years old, so i get a lot of time to read when i eat. cool story, huh.
aaaaaaaaaaaanyway, i went ahead and woke up early again this morning cuz it's not like i stayed out drinking by myself last night (reading at the bar has this creeper ring to it), but i was super tired and i never really woke up. my body was still exhausted from the day before, and every temple i saw today felt like something i'd already seen. around 9 am, i asked lucky (of course lucky took me again...we're bffs) to take me home. "how sure are you?" 97% sure, lucky. so he drove past another temple, i looked at it with 3% of my effort, and home we went.
today i've just been wandering around town...i ate a delish salad, had a sorbet, read my book a lot, lamented the heat to myself, then came here on the computer. now imma splurge on a plane ticket back to bangkok (i love flying--one last flight for the summer) then get back to home sweet home, suphan tomorrow!
i should really be showing you pictures with this, too. ahhhh coulda, shoulda, woulda.
anyway, i woke up at 4:20 am (har har) on thursday so i could see the sunrise. lucky, the trusty guy who drove lexa and maddy and co. around the temples in the earlier days, arrived in front of my hostel at 5 am, ready to whisk me away to the khmer temples...on his motorbike. you all remember that terrible motorbike incident i had. i've been gun shy ever since, but it was 5 am and i really wanted to go and lucky's a nice guy so i decided to trust him and hop on the back of his motorbike.
i haven't made a better decision in ages. there's nothing like waking up and going for a motorbike ride through the dark, relatively cool siem reap morning. lucky dropped me off and told me to have fun, take my time.
a quick note on the layout of angkor wat. the big main one with three pointy things sticking up--the one you've probably seen pictures of--is the actual angkor wat. there are bunches of other temples that are part of the angkor wat temple zone, and those are all what take so much time to see. they're up to 50k apart, i think, and it can take an hour to drive to some of the farther away ones. it's a sort of complicated, oversized disneyland for temples.
angkor wat is the famous one for the sunrise. i ran into a woman the night before who'd said she wasn't that impressed, so i tried to keep my hopes down.
that woman was really super wrong. as i walked down the causeway to angkor wat, i popped out to see the most gorgeous sunrise of my whole life. THIS IS NOT AN EXAGGERATION. the sky was hot pink with tinges of purple blending into a bright orange, lit up against the dark silhouette of angkor wat. just...you need to see it some time. (i tried to replicate it this morning, but the sky wasn't working with me.)
lucky took me to angkor thom next, which is actually a huge complex of lots of temples where people used to actually live. the main temple in the middle, bayon, has 216 faces that look precisely like the guy from "legends of the hidden temple" (the big face, not the awkward, terrible host).
after that i was hot and freaking tired and hungry (still not feeling 100% after the dengue), plus it was 10 am and it was SO EFFING HOT that i wanted an ice cream and then to lie down in an ice bath, so lucky drove me home.
at 4 pm, after a nap and a much needed recharge in the a/c, lucky came back over to the hostel and took me to ta phrom, which might look familiar cuz lara croft was totally there. (seriously--parts of "legends of the hidden temple" were filmed in and around angkor wat.) i had bought a scarf for myself the day before and wrapped it around my head when i was walking around the temples cuz it made me feel like a badass tomb raider.
the temples close at 5:30 pm, and by the time i got out everything else was closing down, so lucky drove me home. oh, then i went out to eat by myself on a busy street, which is always a weird thing but i really enjoy it. i'm reading vampire diaries cuz i'm about 14 years old, so i get a lot of time to read when i eat. cool story, huh.
aaaaaaaaaaaanyway, i went ahead and woke up early again this morning cuz it's not like i stayed out drinking by myself last night (reading at the bar has this creeper ring to it), but i was super tired and i never really woke up. my body was still exhausted from the day before, and every temple i saw today felt like something i'd already seen. around 9 am, i asked lucky (of course lucky took me again...we're bffs) to take me home. "how sure are you?" 97% sure, lucky. so he drove past another temple, i looked at it with 3% of my effort, and home we went.
today i've just been wandering around town...i ate a delish salad, had a sorbet, read my book a lot, lamented the heat to myself, then came here on the computer. now imma splurge on a plane ticket back to bangkok (i love flying--one last flight for the summer) then get back to home sweet home, suphan tomorrow!
6.5.10
escaping the hospital
i got tired of that place so i was just like "PEACE OUT, BITCHES!" and ran away.
no i didn't. my platelet count was better today and the fever stayed away, so as promised, i was released this morning! i'm still supposed to be careful cuz my platelet count is still lower then normal, so if i fall down or something i might bleed internally. (i already hit my head on the cieling in the guesthouse...oops.) after a minor debacle with insurance--because insurance can never go smoothly--i filled out a customer service paper, got my meds in this cute goodie bag, and went on my way. lexa and maddy stuck around to help me get out of the hospital and check into mandalay inn in siem reap. this is a cute little place. i've got two beds for no reason, a tv with english channels, a/c, and my own bathroom. livin it up.
oh, i'm by myself cuz lexa and maddy are off to vietnam. lexa's dad is over here for one last asian hurray, so since maddy'd already seen angkor and that's all i'm planning on doing with the rest of my trip, she figured she might as well join lexa.
i'm thrilled to explore angkor by myself tomorrow and the next day. it seems like the kind of place where i'll wanna get lost staring at stuff, and i'm not gonna wanna worry about holding people back. so this should be great.
unfortunately, this means no laos this time. maybe that's just fate's way of saying one week wasn't enough anyway, come back when you have more time.
i should go to bed soon...sunrise at angkor wat tomorrow morning :-)
but first, THANK YOU all for your well wishes and good thoughts while i was holed up there in the hospital. <3
no i didn't. my platelet count was better today and the fever stayed away, so as promised, i was released this morning! i'm still supposed to be careful cuz my platelet count is still lower then normal, so if i fall down or something i might bleed internally. (i already hit my head on the cieling in the guesthouse...oops.) after a minor debacle with insurance--because insurance can never go smoothly--i filled out a customer service paper, got my meds in this cute goodie bag, and went on my way. lexa and maddy stuck around to help me get out of the hospital and check into mandalay inn in siem reap. this is a cute little place. i've got two beds for no reason, a tv with english channels, a/c, and my own bathroom. livin it up.
oh, i'm by myself cuz lexa and maddy are off to vietnam. lexa's dad is over here for one last asian hurray, so since maddy'd already seen angkor and that's all i'm planning on doing with the rest of my trip, she figured she might as well join lexa.
i'm thrilled to explore angkor by myself tomorrow and the next day. it seems like the kind of place where i'll wanna get lost staring at stuff, and i'm not gonna wanna worry about holding people back. so this should be great.
unfortunately, this means no laos this time. maybe that's just fate's way of saying one week wasn't enough anyway, come back when you have more time.
i should go to bed soon...sunrise at angkor wat tomorrow morning :-)
but first, THANK YOU all for your well wishes and good thoughts while i was holed up there in the hospital. <3
5.5.10
no more needles in my skin!
my doctor came in again to check up on me and reassure me that i'd be out tomorrow if my platelet count was up and my fever down.
"anything else?" he asked.
"um...when can i get this out?" pointing to this annoying iv stuck in my hand
"oh, you want it out?"
yes, very sweet doctor, i would like this very annoying needle-bob-thingy out of the vein in my hand, thank you.
three minutes later, the nurse came back, peeled it off, and i'm free!
ALSO, you guys, we totally missed celebrating my 100th post. i think it was that one about sextuplets.
"anything else?" he asked.
"um...when can i get this out?" pointing to this annoying iv stuck in my hand
"oh, you want it out?"
yes, very sweet doctor, i would like this very annoying needle-bob-thingy out of the vein in my hand, thank you.
three minutes later, the nurse came back, peeled it off, and i'm free!
ALSO, you guys, we totally missed celebrating my 100th post. i think it was that one about sextuplets.
tentative good news!
my rash came today! i have no idea why this rash means good things, but the doctor told me it does and i believe everything worapoj says. i haven't had a fever since yesterday, and my appetite's coming back. i even wanted to eat some of the chocolate cake lexa bought for "me" (but she's really just put it in the fridge for herself to eat every time she comes). my platelet count (which was low as of yesterday) is either going down much more slowly today or is stable or something, i forget what he said, but it was def good news.
so...if i still don't get a fever...and my platelet count goes up...i can leave tomorrowwwww! *does a jig*
not to jinx it or anything.
so...if i still don't get a fever...and my platelet count goes up...i can leave tomorrowwwww! *does a jig*
not to jinx it or anything.
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