From the Land of Smiles.

Hello everyone! I have been away for a week and therefore the lack of any updating whatsoever although I am on a Massive Break (I'm sorry) but here we are, and I'm back home after an adventure to Bangkok. It was a very impromptu trip- it's the last chance during this period that my family and I will be able to go on holiday, so we decided to make a long overdue trip to Thailand. I hadn't been there in 12 years, and I was pretty keen on seeing what all the hype was about shopping and stuff (which, in retrospect, made a lot of sense.) 

We decided (perhaps semi-foolishly) to make the trip during the new year's festivities, also known as the water festival or Songkran- and my mother doesn't look kindly on getting water-gunned by random individuals, even in the spirit of fun and blessings. That said, we decided to basically hole up in the hotel that was attached to the giant shopping mall known as terminal 21. There is SO much to do there, you wouldn't believe it. I'm going to skim over the fact that every level has a different world theme, because you can read about that just about anywhere else- but if you do go there, make your time well spent by hanging around at the Men's clothing section. Maybe it's because the girl clothes aren't that appealing to me (in my defense everything was pink and too...too overwhelming to wear back home) and the T-shirts, oh man the T-shirts are just the most amazing thing. Also, go to the shoe and bag section on the 4th floor. Worth every moment. 

I got a bit of shopping and sight-seeing around before disaster basically struck me- halfway through the trip I had a massive fever and my stomach started turning on itself. A combination, perhaps, of having foolishly ate an ENTIRE CHILLI PADI (the chilli from hell- my stomach hates spicy. I hate spicy.) on the very first night and that probably wrecked everything. I also ate raw fish the next night, too late at night- and that probably is what gave me the stomach infection I am currently nursing. At least I got to eat some pastry before my parents literally had to call a doctor to come down to the hotel and see if I was going to be able to make the flight home. Whatever the case was, it was not fun being intensely lethargic and basically running back and forth from the bathroom all day. At least the medication worked well, and I was able to continue my sight-seeing and shopping the next two days. 

Among the many things I have come to appreciate about Thailand, the low cost to get my nails done and to get a massage have to literally be at the top of the list. Count me in for a trip that's solely for spas and pampering everyone- it's really worth doing it there. I managed to get my gels done for a fraction of the cost here, and I found that the service was much, much better. Sorry if I sound strange and extremely girly- the heat makes my brain process strangely. More than the shopping, it makes a lot of sense to invest time in relaxing here. (For some reason at this part of the post I find my writing voice extremely unlike me. Maybe it's because I haven't spent time doing deep thinking in a while, or something.) There's not much to talk about this trip I guess? It was more relaxing and/or painful than actually stimulating in that sense- because we stayed in the hotel so often, I didn't really get to experience the floating markets or anything like that. So it feels like I've left out a really huge important aspect of travel- immersing in the culture of the place, what people do on a day-to-day. I'm not much of a shopper either, so while fun, I didn't quite get my usual satisfaction (?) with travelling.

I did get to see some unusual things though- Branded goods in Thailand are much more expensive than here, and yet the amount of branded good stores they have is overwhelming. I saw water guns that were a good meter long, and had water canisters the size of a small fire extinguisher. Water guns that had a reservoir that was worn as a backpack. Water guns that looked so magnificent, that I would not want a jet of it to hit me in the face. I managed to find a Whittard of Chelsea (if you don't know what it is, it's a tea store that changed my tea-game. I know it sounds very stupid, but my love for tea possibly grew exponentially when I went to the UK at age 15 for a school trip, and we stopped a Covent Gardens to shop. And there it was, the original Whittard of Chelsea store, best known to me for it's instant teas and hot chocolate range, and I left the store with a Teapot. Yes, you read that perfectly right. I hand-carried a tea set home, along with two tins of instant tea, 2 types of loose leaf teas, and I think my teachers thought I was bonkers. I probably still am.) and I managed to find a Twinings tea room, where I could sit down and have high tea with scones and the finger sandwich platter. 

One of the more unique things I bought back from Thailand has to be my dress-bag. Handbags are literally the bane of my existence- I hate carrying them in my hand, because then it leaves me with one hand less to have free. I don't like slinging them on one shoulder, because I think sling-bags have done enough damage to my shoulders when I was a 14 year old. I literally only have one because there are situations where carrying one is basically a necessity, because if not the outfit doesn't look right- and I resolved to find myself a backpack that I could wear dresses with. Because although I love my Kanken to bits and pieces, I can't wear it with my dresses all the time. Even I can't force that to match. I've seen loads of people carrying the Longchamp backpack- and it's not cheap either. I was thinking of getting that, but there's nothing special about it that merits the price in my opinion. So I searched around Bangkok and got myself one that was fully leather- it wasn't too pricey and it's nice and sturdy. Besides, leather cleans out well if you take care of it, and as a bonus you can use leather for a long time. It's evergreen, no? 

Right now, it's back to the daily grind. I'm going back to work to try and earn a little more money before Uni starts, just in case I have another trip to plan for. It'll also be good because it means I can supplement my spending in Uni, because we all know how expensive tuition fees are already. I'm still waiting on some of my applications, and I'm hoping things end up well. The pressure is quite intense, and I'm hoping I get my choice. I've still got about a month and a half at most to get a reply, so I'm not going to rush into anything.

Here's to hoping for my own sake that I'll be posting more regularly.

xoxo