adventuresofashli

[adventuresofashli]

day 23

today was a pretty boring travel day. we checked out around 11 before going to lunch at a fish place. they served us really yummy veggie food though. we then went to this little market before going to the airport and flying back home. I was so tired by the time I got back, but I still went and got some omelette paid thai at the mall with everyone and then headed back to pass tf out.

[adventuresofashli]

day 22

it’s our last day here and i’m super sad :( it was once again a very chill day. I hung around the villa after eating breakfast and watched some fresh prince. I then went to the beach with elyse and alana to go swim and watch the sunset. the sunset was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. way more beautiful than last nights and it’s something i want to never forget. ive never seen such beautiful blending colors that especially reflected in the water. it was like being in a pot of gold. it was quite the moment and probably my favorite part of this trip. it took some cliche photos in front of the sunset and then I went back to shower and get ready for a fancy dinner at the villa. I thought the restaurant was michelin starred but it was only michelin recommended but it was still the best thing i’ve eaten. I had a three cheese soufflé and spinach pesto gnocchi. I ate them so quickly I was in heaven. after we ordered our food, yarn told us that the dean paid for our entire meal. so we only had to pay for dessert which was super convenient. for dessert I had a lemon tart with some sorbet. once again it was very delicious. we were supposed to go out that night but we’re honestly all too tired and we didn’t finish dinner till 11.

[adventuresofashli]

day 21

I can’t believe it’s been three weeks already. it almost doesn’t seem right but i’m not going to question it. after last night and having to wake up early for breakfast I did not do too much today until we went to the surf place to do some fake surfing. it was nice because I didn’t think I would be able to due to my piercings becaus they had a no jewelry policy, but they say I was fine so that was super nice. they served us food and also had an open bar. if I didn’t drink so much last night and wasn’t so hopped up on food I would have drank more but I spent the entire three hours on the surf floor. i totally wiped out the first time i did it because I did not put enough weight on my back foot as I had thought I did, but I got it down the second time and all the times after that. I felt like a pro. afterwards I just headed back to the room and chilled I was so tired.

[adventuresofashli]

day 20

more island hopping!! but before that was a very yummy breakfast with the freshest fruits, homemade yogurt, and yummy waffles that i’ve been craving this entire trip. today we got to visit five islands and the first two that we went to were he phi phi island which are common places to visit. the boat ride took longer to get there and we had to van ride to the pier unlike in krabi but it was nbd. the boat ride was about an hour but once we got there the water was so much more clear than krabi it was worth it. plus the water was warm, but also really salty per usual. snorkeling was a lot more enjoyable and I did it the full 45 minutes on each island. they had so many different colored clams and anemones and corals, it was beautiful. plus they had rainbow fish and some other ones that were so iridescent. I took lots of videos and pictures. afterwards we went to a lagoon and jumped off of the boat but it wasn’t as clear and had a lot of junk in it. we got to see the island where they filmed The Beach but we couldn’t get too near because they were trying to reharvest the area from over tourism. it was a good day and a better night. myself, joseph, denisse, melanie, mary, and michaiah all went and got pizza and gelato at a cute place down the road before going out for the night. we then finally went out and got ready to go to Patong for some bars and night clubbing. we got there around 10 or so and we wanted to do a ping pong show but we didn’t make it on time to one bc it was at 1 and we didn’t leave the club until after 1. they club was pretty cool. I paid 600 baht for an open bar and I made it to about 5 drinks that were 200 baht each so I made my money’s worth. after getting pretty drunk I just danced the night away. once again there was creepy dudes trying to dance with us and this one guy put his drink up, so I put mine up and clang with him but I spilled half of his drink on himself and I felt so bad. he looked super fucking pissed. but his friend literally just turned to me and gave me a high five and I just ran off. the club was called Illuzion and it was pretty bougie. aparntely ranked #33 in the world. the DJ was pretty good and there was dancers dressed in gold. at 1 am there wa confetti that came down and these girls who were on a chandelier pouring alcohol into people’s mouths descended from the ceiling. we then went and met up with shaheen, jen, and gao who were playing pool at the parrot bar across from us. i then took two more tequila shots and it actually made me feel slightly better after those too sweet drinks that I had. after grabbing some water and a cheese toasty, we hauled all our drunk asses into a tuk tuk and got home after 3am. a very successful day indeed

[adventuresofashli]

day 19??

today we go to phuket! which i’ve been told us way more prettier than krabi but I was pretty blown away with this place anyways. we left in the morning to head over to a sea kayaking place to go kayaking for about 2 hours or so in the mangrove forest. we did doubles and I was partnered up with mary and I did ALL the work. I should’ve done it with someone of similar strengths but it’s whatever. the mangrove forest was beautiful though. I wish we could have gone all the way through but it was too shallow and we turned back around the way that we came. we then ate lunch at a restaurant that had really bomb tofu curry. I peed before the restaurant, but the I ended up having to pee in the van and literally almost peed myself until the next restroom. I was in so much pain. the drive to phuket was about three hours and I tried to make myself go to sleep because I was so tired but I literally couldn’t. the drive there was kind of pretty though. i didn’t realize how large the island is. but they were right, our resort is beautiful against a hillside of rock, right on the beach. we’re staying at mom tri village resort and i don’t want to leave. it’s very jim thompson inspired architecture and the rooms are fantastic with so much wood, pannels, with red and gold. plus this place has three pools, including an infinity pool that over looks the beach. it’s absolutely incredible. we went out to dinner shortly after arriving and I had no time to shower but I wasn’t even mad. people typically go out to patong for bars and club on the first night but we have to be up early the next day for more snorkeling and island hoping so people are planning on doing it tomorrow so I made sure to go to bed early and get my sleep bc ya girl is exhausted per usual.

[adventuresofashli]

day 18

today we went island hoping and snorkeling amongst the islands in krabi. we get free breakfast in the mornings so I ate a yummy omelette and some fruit. i’m never really abreakfasft person but I really can’t pass up the food here. i’ve definitely been having weight since we’ve been getting so much free food but I can easily cut the weight when I regulate my eating cycles again. we took speed boats to three islands and a lagoon. I thought the islands were going to be more private but there were other boats and tourists. the water was really murky when we went on th first island so i snorkeled for about 15 minutes then got bored. plus i hit my heel on some coral and go some small chunks stuck in it but it was no big deal. we then went to another island but it was also murky and I just wanted to wade in the water. we did all jump off the boat and swim in the lagoon. it was just very shallow so we had to be careful. the last island we went to before the lagoon was called hong beach and it was the best one. it was still kind of murky but not as bad. I took a fat nap on the beach while a bunch of ants crawled on me. I think the dramamine makes me drowsy which is why I was so tired. but afterwards I just grabbed a floaty and just floated in the water. we then just drove back on the boat to the hotel and showered and relaxed before we went out to dinner. after that me, shaheen and mary went on a cave exploration and to also see the penis shrine that people made to honor the god of fertility. definitely interesting. the cave turned out to not be a cave at all so we just wandered and crawled on some rocks to look at the other side of the beach. I was barefoot, in a dress, and wearing no underwear but I managed ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I also had to poop really badly so I just went at the entrance of the rocks lol. after thay I hit the pool for the bit and then took a nice bath and hit the bed.

[adventuresofashli]

day 17

waking up was kind of a bitch, but all i had to do was pack mine and kelly’s shit into my luggage and leave the hotel. we left right at 7am and headed to the airport for krabi. we were able to get a vip breakfast which is nice and I ate so many cheese breads lmao. the flight wasn’t long at all and I liked how I could see the ocean for some of the flight. when we arrived we had to drive down to the pier to take boats to the resort and the islands are so fucking beautifully there’s so much rock and vegetation I wanted to cry. and the water was very nice and warm and wasn’t cold like the pacific. when we arrived they gave us juice and some towels and they took our stuff to our room. they’re little villas and we watched had our own little hut with a king size bed. you really can’t ask for anything more. they even had their own pools and beach in the front of the resort with bars and restaurants and a little shopping strip. I like the exclusiveness of it all. I immediately went into the ocean after dropping my stuff off and laid on the sand before going to the pool. we then decide to go on a hike to the view point around 3:30 and we had to rock climb (not even legit rock climbing like scaling the side of the island) to get to the view point. it wasn’t too bad at all. I got up pretty swiftly. the view point was absolutely beautiful though. it gave a view of the entire island. the hike on the way back SUCKED. Climbing down was awful. i’m sure it wouldn’t have been as bad if there wasn’t so many of us but there wasn’t as many things to grab going down in comparison to going up which was odd. but yeah my leg muscles were quivering from bearing all my weight and not letting me fall. but hey, I was all for it. it was a total adrenaline rush. on the way back to the hotel, I saw a monkey with elyse and it was so cute. they had cautions inside the hotel to lock everything so that the monkeys don’t steal our things so I think they’re pretty aggressive. we then had dinner and they gave us the best veggie thai food ever. we were in good hands. we then headed down to a bar and got drinks. then watched some local muay thai and a fire show. we then danced a little before going to sleep. I was so tired. I wasn’t able to nap on the plane at all

[adventuresofashli]

day sweet sixteen

I finally got to saw my elephants!! we had to wake up kinda early to get to the elephant sanctuaries. the people said they would be there to pick us up at 7:30 so I didn’t wake up unti 6:45, but they were here by 7!! like dude. so I quickly got dressed, braided my hair, shoved my last doughnut in my mouth, and we were out of there. the sanctuary was about 50 minutes away since it was in more of the jungles area but I never mind the long drives here since everything is so new and filled with growth. just like me (; heh, gaaayyyy. when we got there, we first got to change into some elephant clothes and grabbed a satchel full of sugar cane to feed them. I didn’t realize how massive they really are. but they are so gentle and very loving and cautious. also super hungry. there was an elephant named lily and she was my favorite. she would always come up to me and let me scratch and rub her head and trunk. after feeding them sugar cane, we fed them some bamboo and then went and made them some herbal balls made from banana tumeric and something else. we just missed them together and fed them. we would say “bon” and the elephants would open their mouths and we would just plop them on their tongue. my hand were covered in mush banana so I just kept rubbing my hand along their tongue. they’re so cute. I still can’t get over it. then we got to bathe with them and wash them and it was very wholesome. I just really hope that they are treated well there. afterwards, we went and hiked to a waterfall that was kinda nice and hung out there for a bit before going to downtown and getting food. oh, I totally saved someone’s life at the waterfall. we were about to leave and I was descending the rock and a group of three were ascending a rock. the mom passed me without a problem but I helped what i’m assuming were her daughters. they looked like teenagers so I helped the first once get around me and up the rock in front of us with no problem but the second girl like clung to me when i was helping her pass and i could like tell she was uneasy. so as i helped her up the rock she like fell back down and i had to support her weight and push her back up so that she wouldn’t fall back up the rock. total hero moment. we stopped at a cafe to cool down and I ordered some pasta and a muffin. we then walked around a bit before heading to the airport to leave. they had a double veggies burger at burger kind so I obviously had to order that. the flight was so much nicer heading back. they gave us a pastry, water, and some tea. now that’s what I called service. I probably didn’t fall asleep until after midnight but the day was well spent. now we had to get up the next day and come back at 7am to do the same shit on the way to krabi.

[adventuresofashli]

day 15

i’m behind again, but what else is new. I had my midterm and it honestly wasn’t bad. there was a few questions that threw me off. but it was an overall easy test. afterwards, we all headed to the airport to head to chiang mai but I forgot my fucking tooth brush at the hotel so me lauren and sylvia booked it back in the pouring rain before leaving. our flight left around 2:20 but before we left I was craving french fries so I grabbed some at the airport along with some krispy kreme bc i have no self control. the trip there sucked bc they didn’t offer any water or juice. what kind of service is that? but the flight was only an hour so I can’t really complain. when we were descending, all I could see was tree tops on mountains and it was so beautiful. so much vegetarian in the north. we then headed to our air bnb to a villa that only cost $19 a person and it was very cute and had a pool with floaties in it. we went to a night bazaar but our grab driver got super lost in our neighborhood so we basically just sat in the street playing games until he cam and grabbed us. the night bazaar was kind of small but I was able to get my mexican food and waffle cravings in so that was a success. we then headed back and watched some vine compilations until we fell asleep

[adventuresofashli]

day 14

again, didn’t do jack shit except go to class, eat, and study. I think i’m better prepared for my midterm. I am excited to leave for chiang mai tomorrow. I got all my bags packed for it and for krabi/phuket

[adventuresofashli]

day 13

did not do much. went to class and lab. ate two grilled cheeses in the morning to soak up all that alcohol and then went to fried rice lady bc she’s my main bitch. then “studied” and watched movies until dinner time when me, addie, autumn, alana, shaheen, and megan all got japanese food. then went back to my hotel and did the same thing. I wanted a very lowekey two days since I will be killing myself this up coming weekend with all these flights. rest up my dude.

[adventuresofashli]

day 12

it was a tuesday on this fine lovely day where I got really fucked up and instantly regretted it the next morning when I had class and lab. but more on that later. so typical tuesday’s are just class and lab. for lab, we had to collect a water sample from a nearby canal and that canal smelled terrible. I don’t even want to know what lives in it, or what was put in it. we had a bucket with some rope attached to it to get some water out and it was the most ghetto thing ever. one of the asian international student threw the end of the string in with the bucket and we lost the bucket. I assumed that was going to happen sooner or later, but I didn’t think it was going to happen after three people. especially since we were after them. but hey, we improvised with a plastic bag. even more ghetto. afterwards, a group of us decided to go to chinatown. we managed to cram 6 people into a small ass mazda uber. it was me, megan, mary, joseph, jen, and shaheen. 5 in the back and one in the front. it was definitely an adventure and it rained the entire time. after cramping for 1 hour, we finally made it and we went to go find some food and shaheens girlfriend. i didn’t realize that this was the largest chinatown in the world. i felt honored. also a little disappointed that i didn’t find any spring rolls. megan and I split some pancake dessert tacos. they were like a crispy thin pancake base with melted marshmallow and sweet egg yolk. it was fantastic. we also spilt chocolate and nutella sweet rolls that were to die for. so much chocolate every where. we then went to 7/11 and I picked up two wine coolers before heading to a food truck to eat some fried and seasoned bugs. mmmmm. yup, your girl ate some fried bug larvae and it wasn’t half bad. like, 6/10 recommend with maybe 1/2 a michelin star. we then decided to tuk tuk to Kao Sahn Road and it was definitely a party. it was me, addie, jen, megan, kelly, alana, and sylvia that all went. everyone else headed back to the hotel. we decided to head to a rooftop bar and I ordered a strawberry daiquiri that got me slightly buzzed after those two luke warm wine coolers. we then headed to a very poppin bar/club where I ordered a pink lady and that made me slightly tipsy. once I started dancing and sweating, losing all those fluids definitely made me pretty drunk. but the drinks weren’t too pricy, like $5-6. I can’t complain. we danced probably until 12:30 and then we tried leaving, but it was basically just a street party and I continued dancing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ can’t stop, won’t stop. this guy thought I was from london, i’m not sure if I should take that as a compliment. I also don’t have a british accent so idk what he was smoking. it was also still raining, so at this point I was just soaked in my sweat and then rain. not a bad day at all.

[adventuresofashli]

day (7)eleven

it’s already monday again. I think this is the only country i’ve been to where I don’t hate monday’s. i’ve also been thinking about how not stressed out i’ve been feeling. it’s kind of weird. i’m normally not this calm about being calm. I always feel like I have to do so much with my time and so much on my plate to surmount to anything or feel like a contributing human being. maybe that’s my toxic trait. lol, it’s definitely not. we have lab tomorrow and i’m not looking forward to that. they take so long. I had to wake up early this morning in order to an online shift pickup; so I had to be awake here at 7am in order to attend a 5pm PST time shift pickup. I just want to cafe amazon and used their wifi since it’s incompetent anywhere else. after class I went back and did my laundry in the bathroom sink. it kinda took forever and my clothes are still wet, but what are you going to do ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ the laundry place is kind of far away and I didn’t want to haul luggage that far. after I did laundry, kelly, alana, sylvia, and I went to the Jim Thompson museum and saw his cute fancy bungalow house. it was so beautiful. so much wood finishings I loved it. they said that he kind of just ran away one day and never returned which was sort of bizarre. but there’s also been times where I wish that I was off the grid and MIA so I wouldn’t have to worry about things. that’s probably how i’ll die. i had a lemon maringue tarts, and it was to die for. honestly, anything with lemon that i eat is to die for. we then taxied backed to the hotel place and got some pad se ew before heading to the hotel. there was a bunch of cute geckos and salamanders and i wanted to feed them but they kept getting scared of me and it made me sad. let me feed you god damn it. the taxi drive took forever. I hate how bad the traffic is in this city. there traffic lights run for about 4-5 minutes which hold up traffic. it took 2 hours today just to go 10 miles. if you took LA traffic with NY traffic with a dash of SF traffic, you would have bangkok traffic. we just played some “who am i” until we got close to our food destination. when we were walking back, some homeless man groped alana’s boob and it was so icky. I hate how all the local men just stare all the time. I thought they’d over exaggerate when they said that people will stare and cat call, but I think it was an underexaggeration because it happens daily. sometimes it’s kind of funny or cute because they’ll say that we’re beautiful or they’ll smile and wave all adorably, but other times it’s just gross and weird. I don’t think i’ve felt so, I guess, ashamed of my body in away. I don’t think that’s the word, but definite out of my skin. like I have a third tit or something. but it’s too hot to wear anything more than tank tops and shorts.

[adventuresofashli]

day 10

how the hell has it been a week and a half. I feel like i’ve been here for a month with the amount of activities that i’ve done. shits wild. so I woke up super late on sunday. like 11am late since I didn’t go to bed until 3. we had to be at a market by noon but it was absolutely massive. we took a bts which is like a subway and a skyline which is a monorail i think and it was my first time taking these kinds of transportation. i feel so sheltered. Bangkok was also the first time i’ve been in a taxi. it feels like a humid new york city. not that i’ve been, but from what i’ve seen. i do really want to go to new york though. idk why but i feel like it’s magical there. im very fond of cities and cityscapes. i like options and cities definitely have options. i wouldn’t want to live in the city though. i’d want to live in a cute neighborhood where i can just work in the city. anyways, before we went i stopped at starbucks and got a You Are Here collection mug that says Phuket on it since were going to be there for about 4 days. at the market, there were so many rows of clothes and bags and art and literally everything at this market. I just walked around with joseph, mary, and a little bit with denisse. it was a little too much and I preferred the train market, but I found some cute stuff for people and a little purse for myself. i also ate a really delicious jelly filled donut. i’m not sure why, but my appetite was very minimal that day. i think the buffwt may have triggered something. afterwards we went to another mall. it was called siam square. I went with melanie, michaiah, and denisse since they wanted a certain beauty care line. I didn’t buy anything since I don’t wear makeup, but I liked browsing everything. it started pouring again and we had to walk in the rain a little bit but I don’t mind the rain here since it’s warm. the thunderstorms here are beautiful too. the lightning lights the entire sky up and it looks really nice with the skyline and buildings. this was a really long weekend though.

[adventuresofashli]

day nine part two!

buttttt we took a tuk tuk! it was my first tuk tuk and hopefully not my last because it was super fun and goes really fast. hopefully not my last. we got to DEMO but he was to buy like a 1500 baht drink and we were all fuck that. so we went to a nearby club called Sway and just danced the night away until 3am. I knew I wouldn’t sleep in if I didn’t take melatonin, so I popped some pills and knocked tf out afterwards. but I was literally awake for 22 hours and I wasn’t even tired after getting home. I don’t know how I do it honestly. it’s like I suck at sleeping.

[adventuresofashli]

day nineeee

this is where shit gets crazy. waking up at 5:30 was MISERABLE but the shower really woke me up. before I went to bed last night, I grabbed some chocolate cereal to eat for breakfast since I figured that I wouldn’t have time to run to 7/11. it’s so weird that so many people go to 7/11 fo eat meals. it’s going to be so weird going back home, I haven’t seen a 7/11 in years. I remember having one near our apartment when I was younger and my mom would let me get half hot chocolate and half mochas out of their coffee machines before school. I also remember walking to 7/11 to get sour skittles before my production practice and totally slipping and eating shit then spilling all my skittles everywhere. yeah i’m still just as clumsy unfortunately. anyways, that shower did wonders because it really woke me up. i’m not sure why, but when I sleep super minimal hours, I can be awake all day with so much energy. I feel like more than 7 hours makes me lazy and tired feeling all day. it’s odd. but ayutthaya is beautiful and quite frankly the coolest and most amazing ruins i’ve yet to see. well, the only ruins i’ve seen but, whatever lmao. the weather wasn’t bad in the morning but holy shit, I sweat so much. when we got to the palace I was in awe. it was so pretty, it looked like a thai versailles. i believe they said this was the kings summer villa. the architecture was beautiful and had a lot of baroque, rococo, and neoclassical influences. basically all my favorite time periods for architecture and statues so ya know, i gawked, a lot. kind of still pissed I didn’t minor in art history. I geek out on it so much. I also had the best ice cream after the palace tour. it was mangosteen and strawberry flavored and I was little bummed I didn’t get double mangosteen. it was way too good. I think it’s been my favorite fruit here. I even bought mangosteen scented fruit here for myself. im a little obsessed. afterwards we went and visited the ruins I was talking about earlier. I don’t even have the words to describe them. just being in the presence of something so massive, and beautiful, and ancient made me overwhelmed with emotions. and sweat. when we went inside the temple which had a massive buddha in it. they also had this cup filled with numbers that you could shake out and give to a lady that will give you a fortune. it was scarily accuarte. It told me something along the lines of traveling over seas and that i’ll have a bright future etc. definitely keeping it. we went to another set of ruins after and they looked very similar, but more rundown and had a lot more statues. there was this one buddha head that’s kind of famous and had a tree growing around it. nature is amazing. for lunch, we went on a river cruise buffet which was an experience. this trip makes me feel way more bougie and rich than I actually am and going back to the states is going to be a slap in the face. I ate a ton of rice with curry and some vegetables and fruit. they also had these tea cookies that were really good. they had an area where you could go outside and look about so I went up there with mary, joseph, and michaiah. it’s kind of weird that this is a study abroad bc I forget that we’re actually learning things. after going home and resting for a bit, we decide to go out and hit the bar scene. we decided to go to soi cowboy which was popular in the movie the hangover and I ended up watching my first strip show on accident. so that was cool. I probably saw a little bit too many vaginas for one night, but they’re just vaginas and I paid $6 to get in so i’m seeing my $6 vaginas okay. but yeah when I walked in there was just these two chicks banging each other on a harley with a strap on. then there was this one lady who pulled a really long lei out of her vagina and stripped with it. it was pretty impressive not going to lie. I also had a better body than 75% of those strippers so I at least have a shot if needed. we then decided to go to some club and walked over that direction but they had a vey strict dress code that none of us met so we decided to go to DEMO

[adventuresofashli]

day ocho

this week was sort of rough because they made us do lab for about four days straight and it was kind of a lot. after class we had to go back j to lab to look st all our test tube results and record them. our lab report isn’t due until monday which is nice. our lab reports are super easy, i’m just wondering how terrible the midterm is going to be since it’s on 20 hours worth of lecture and all the labs as well. i’m definitely going to review all the material this weekend. after lab and stuff, me, mary, joseph, lauren, kelly, and sylvia all went to the train market. I think this has been my favorite night market so far. they had so much stuff and I bought so many things for souvenirs for people. I also bought myself a basic ass thailand shirt that i’ve been sewing around and some nice quality elephant pants for myself and krista so it was nice. I definitely want to go back and browse more of the market. since there was 6 of us, we kind of just split into two groups, so I wondered around with mary and joseph and we all egged each other on to buy stuff. just the kind of support that I need. I bought these french fries that were super bomb. they were covered in barbecue sauce and had cheese, ketchup, and chili sauce on them. I would definitely eat them again. it also rained quite a bit when we were there. I didn’t mind it, but a lot of the stores closed up when it rained but I still found quite a bit of shops open. I didn’t want to leave, but we had to be leave for Ayutthaya the next day at 6:30 and I was planning on waking up at 5:30 to shower so we left around 10 pm. I was so awake though when I came back. I took a quick body shower and was still awake. I don’t think I fell asleep until 11:30 or so. sucks to suck