its been awhile...

...well as the title says, it has been awhile since ive written in here. i think i last left off when i just got to railey. railey went real well, it was just as beautiful as i remembered (just with some more construction done). though i fear that they might over do it with the building and turn something beautiful into something that isn't. i had many sunsets on pranang beach (my favorite) that were quite beautiful (i seem to be using that word a lot). i even taped myself making a christmas message that i wanted to post on facebook but with the chords i have its going to be harder than i thought. but ya, after spending many days on the beach, one day rock climbing, and watching many movies at "moms kitchen", me and clem returned to bangkok (we left on the 26th). i made the mistake of on the last day in railey going to one of my favorite burger places (a stand on east beach) and eating a burger that was still pink inside (yes, i kept eating after i noticed (stupid jon)). then by the time we got on the bus a few hours later i was already starting to feel flu-ish (chills, upset stomach). then throughout the 12 hour (or however long it was) i wasn't feeling very good, and it didn't help that they had the a/c blasting on us the entire way (we took the night bus too, so it wasn't even that warm outside). luckily i had a couple blankets that the bus had, plus the travel blanket the my lovely mother gave me to keep me somewhat warm and more comfortable. even though we took it at night i think i only slept a couple hours the whole time (though i managed to finish the last few hundred pages of my book (thank you julie for that)). by the time we reached bangkok it was i think 6 in the morning and by then i was dead tired. we went to our normal place we stay at in bangkok but they didn't have any room with hot showers (and we wanted this luxury after spending the last how long with just cold showers) so we went to the next door place, which turned out to be real nice and just as cheap and it had a hot shower plus the bonus of a tv with cable. as soon as we checked in we of course just went to sleep and didn't wake up till sometime in the afternoon. then we did the normal bangkok life for us and checked out khao san (sp?) rd for a bit and then headed to the mbk center (7 story mall) to look around. we looked at all the cool stuff for awhile, ate lots of fun and then went to a movie (the new alien vs predator). after that we just went back to our room, clem stayed there to just fall asleep watching tv while i went to go find a much needed haircut. after doing so and feeling much lighter (she took off a little more than i wanted but its still good) i decided to get a massage as well since i hadn't for a few days. after that i felt like i just got an overhaul and was ready to go...but i just went to my room and went to sleep anyways (in my defence it was already after midnight). while in railey we got the phone number for cree's sister (who also used to work at the cocobar) who is now living in bangkok. so we gave her a call, after a hard conversation (she doesn't speak the greatest english, plus a bad connection) we decided to meet up at the mbk center...so i thought. me and clem took a taxi there and started waiting for a phone call saying that she was there and where to find her...we got the call but she had somehow mistaked the meeting place for khoa san rd (which is where we are staying and it just took 40 minutes for us to get here cause of traffic). so we said we come back, jumped on some motorbike taxis and took off. these motorbike taxis are not for the weak of heart but are absolute genious' when it comes to beating traffic. we flew along, weaving through traffic went it came to stand still (since they don't always follow the lanes here it wasn't like they could just go down the center). im sure we made it back in under 15 minutes and most of that time was when we were waiting at lights. so ya, we got back and met up with On (thats her name) and her friend (which i can't remember her name again (clem has reminded me a million times). we caught up on things and talked for a while at some sports bar of sorts and then decided to check out there neck of the woods. we took yet another taxi (probably about an hour and a bit) to their place, which was in the middle of bangkok with no other "farangs" around. we ate supper at this corner restaurant which i thought was really cheap but aparently was one of their nicer restaurants. while sitting there eating elephants were walking by with their owners who were trying to sell sugar cane, which i found real weird cause i hadn't seen any elephants in bangkok yet and i figured they would use them to sell to the tourists not in the middle of a thai people only place. it was funny cause as they were leaving the elephants had flashing lights on their tails and reflector strips on their feet. meanwhile on had called a few friends over and we headed to some thai bar/restaurant/hang out place. this place was real cool, it had a huge stage up front of a gym size area filled (more like packed) full of tables with chairs around them. then there was also a balcony area surrounding that also filled with tables too. and every table is just packed with people too (some sitting some standing dancing in front of their own table to the loud music being played). we found a table up stairs somewhere and ordered some more food and hung out randomly trying to speak to the people we were with who spoke very broken english. a band later came on stage that im guessing was a big band in thailand cause everybody in the place was singing along with them and they had flat screen tvs around the place that was showing the band playing on stage and occationally played music videos that went along to the song they were singing. the energy in the room was just amazing, there wasn't a dance floor or anything. people just danced with their own friends in front of the table they were sitting, everybody was just there for a good time and not worrying about how they looked (it didn't matter how they looked cause everybody was singing and dancing just as hard as them). so after quite a few hours there we just went back to their place and then said our goodbyes and me and clem went back to our place. of course by the time we got home it must have been around 4 in the morning and we were leaving for koh chang on a bus at 8. suprising enough though i wasn't that tired in the morning and we made our bus. this ride went much smoother and i was actually comfortable enough to sleep a bit to catch up from thenight before. we arrived in koh chang, went to white beach (great name to call a town) and met up with some of clem's friends that he met in bangkok last time he was in thailand. they turned out to be awsome people (i was a little worried about who id be spending the new years with) and we have been living the beach life again for a few days now. well thats enough writing for now (even though there is plenty about this place i could tell you about). until next time...