#Rent a Car Hat Yai

[mamaestapa]

I love that idea!! What about one where you go on vacation with Joe and his family?

“Blurb night! What about one where joe takes you in vacay with his”

“Yay prompt night!! Could you do one where Joe and you go on vacay?!”

The Best Vacation Yet|| Joe Burrow x reader

•pairing: Joe Burrow x reader

•summary: You and Joe go on a beach vacation with his parents (i got a few asks for a vacation blurb, so i just combined them if that’s okay🤍)

•warnings: none, just fluff :)

"Joe!" his mom called from the top of the stairs outside of the beach rental, "can you grab these chairs please?” Joe unwrapped his arms from your waist and jogged down the stairs to help his mom load the beach chairs into the car.

The two of you were currently on vacation with Robin and Jimmy—Joes mom and dad. They invited you and Joe to join them on their vacation to Florida. Robin rented out a cute beach house not far from Clearwater Beach. It wasn’t too big of a place, but it was big enough for the four of you and perfect for a week long stay. You and Joe don’t go on vacation often, the only vacation you really go on during the off-season is to California when Joe works with his trainers. So it was nice to get away from Cincinnati and spend some time with his parents for a while.

You were helping Jimmy pack up the cooler in the kitchen while Joe and Robin packed up the beach chairs and umbrella into the rental SUV. As you grabbed water bottles from the fridge you felt a hand rest on your shoulder, causing you to jump. You turned around, smiling as you saw your boyfriend behind you. “Hi Joey.”

“Hey baby,” he greeted with a smile, “you ready to go?” You shut the fridge door and put the waters into the cooler next to you. “Yep,” you said with a smile, “let me get my sandals then we can head out.” Joe nodded and moved to the side so you could step out of the kitchen and put your shoes on. As you slid on your sandals with ease, you couldn’t help but laugh in amusement as you watched Joe slide his socks on over his feet. Joe glanced up at you, rolling his eyes. “Quit.”

“You look so silly, Joe. Who wears socks and tennis shoes to the beach?”

Robin walked out of the bathroom and shook her head, “My son.” The three of you just laughed.

Jimmy wheeled the cooler out of the kitchen as you, Joe, and Robin stood around and waited for Jimmy to grab his hat and slide his shoes on. Once everyone was ready, the four of you left and the house and went down to car to drive to the beach. You and Joe sat in the backseat, holding hands all the way to the beach, just like his parents did in the front. The ride to the beach was short, less than five minutes. Once you arrived at the beach, the four of you got out of the SUV and each grabbed something out of the back to carry. You took your sandals off and walked through the sand, enjoying the feeling of the warm sand beneath your feet. Joe glanced down at your feet and cringed as he watched the golden sand cover your manicured toes. You chuckled, looking at your boyfriend as you said, “I’m sorry Mr. ‘socks on the beach’, I actually enjoy the sand.” Joe just shook his head at your teasing as you continued to walk through the beach. Once you got closer to the water, the four of you set your things down and started to set up for your beach day. You helped Robin set out the chairs as Jimmy and Joe put up the beach umbrella. As you were helping Robin set up the chairs, the two of you engaged in conversation about Joe.

“I can’t believe he wears socks to the beach.” Robin laughed, shaking her head in disbelief as she looked at Joe’s socked covered feet. You nodded in agreement, laughing as you said, “I know, I tease him about it all the time.”

You looked over at Joe, your eyes full of love as you said in a genuine tone, “He’s lucky I love him so much.” Robin stood up straight, a genuine smile on her face as she said, “He loves you too, Y/n. You two are perfect for each other.”

Robin was so sweet, so was Jimmy. You always loved Joe’s parents.

“Thank you Robin, he makes me really happy.”

Robin smiled, “You make him happy too sweetie. He’s the happiest I’ve ever seen him whenever he’s with you.”

Your heart swelled, filling with a whole lot of love as you listened to her words. It was true, you made Joe the happiest he’s been in a long time.

After you finished setting up, you and Joe played catch with the football he brought. The two of you played for about an hour, you and Joe erupting into bouts of laughter every time you couldn’t throw the ball well or he couldn’t catch a pass. He tried giving you pointers and helped you with your form, but it never worked as his lessons always ended in the two of you laughing. After your fun game of catch, you and Joe took a lunch break, enjoying sandwiches and chips with Joe’s parents. The four of you spent the rest of the afternoon laying out on the sand and soaking up the warm Florida suns rays. It was a relaxing day that you, and Joe especially, needed.

As the evening creeped up, you and Joe decided to take a walk along the beach. You were able to convince Joe to finally take his socks off, but you couldn’t get him to walk in the water with you. But that was fine with you because you were just happy to see him have his socks off. You and Joe held hands as you walked along the beach. No words were shared between the two of you as you enjoyed the peaceful walk with the beautiful water and sunset in the distance. Joe’s parents were walking behind the two of you, wide grins on their faces as they watched you and their son walk along the beach.

“Aren’t they so sweet?” Robin asked, glancing up at her husband. Jimmy nodded, a smile on his face as he said, “They remind me of us about twenty years ago.” Robin chuckled, agreeing with her husband. She squeezed his hand as she said, “Did he show you the ring?”

“He did. She’s going to love it.”

“She is.” Robin nodded, tears welling up in her eyes as she noticed you and Joe had finally stopped walking. The moment She, Jimmy, and especially Joe, have been waiting for has finally arrived. You were about to finally become a member of the Burrow family.

For as long as you’ve been dating Joe, this was by far the best vacation you’ve taken together.

hey loves!!

i had gotten a few requests for a vacation with joe, so i just combined them to make this one. i did get a bit carried away with this one lol. also i’m sorry for the rushed ending, i wasn’t sure how to end it so i just left it like that

i hope you’re all enjoying blurb night so far! more coming soon🤍

[rentacarclub-blog]

Rent a car on affordable Prices

Rent a car on affordable prices in Bangkok, Thailand or even anywhere in Bangkok. No further process required, just pick the car you want to book on rent, select the pick and return date, select the location and enjoy your ride on just a per/day price. Deal with the real car owner at one place, Visit today.

[lio-the-chaotic-nonbeanie-weenie]

A Supernatural World: Chapter 1

NEXT

Summary: Fleeing their hometown of Miami, Florida due to it growing far too dangerous, Roman and his vampire brother Remus move to Detroit, Michigan. Remus hopes it’ll be safer here for his human (or so he thinks he’s human) brother. Roman only wishes to start anew after a traumatizing incident in his last college, hoping to make new friends and maybe even find love. They don’t know what this city or the future holds but it’s going to be quite the adventure as they explore their new surroundings and the…interesting people that live in it.

Pairings: Eventual roceit, Eventual Intrulogical, slowburn roceit, slowburn Intrulogical, romantic roceit, romantic Intrulogical. BROTHERLY CREATIVITWINS (rem/rom shippers fuck off)

WARNINGS: IMPLIED ABUSE, MENTIONS OF ABUSE, MORE TO BE ADDED AS THE STORY GOES ON

(A/N: Finally got back into some kind of writing pattern so enjoy!)

______________________________________________________________

Pitter Patter

Pitter Patter

Remus watches as the sparkling raindrops streaked down the window of the taxi that he and his brother, Roman, were currently in. It’s a rainy evening in Detroit as they near their apartment. It isn’t anything fancy but it has all the utilities they need and a room they could share. It certainly had been a while since Remus had shared a room with his twin. His parents would always separate them, their mother saying Remus was a bad influence on their so-called perfect Roman. Neither of them believed it and always found a way to see each other. Though punishment always followed should they be caught.

  That was then and here they were now. No more horrible parents. No more horrible home. They’re in a new city now and they just want to start fresh. Remus was going to explore and get supplies once he and his brother were settled in. It’s not easy being a vampire who constantly had to be out at night or help his brother sleep. Speaking of sleep, Remus glances over at his twin. He smiles fondly as his older brother snores away on his shoulder. It’s always nice to see his twin peacefully resting. He only wished he didn’t have to use his magic to keep him like this. But it was that, or intense nightmares every single night. 

Remus sighs and adjusts the red scarf that he wrapped around Roman when they left their home. Roman had been through a lot. From the abuse at home to an incident in college that he never got justice for, Roman would have nightmares of it all and Remus would use his magic to calm him down. It’s probably not the safest trick but Roman had begged him to keep using it ever since he found out about it. At least Roman was resting better for now. 

“Ferndale District Apartment Building, sir.” the taxi driver suddenly cuts through, tired eyes gazing at the twins.

Remus nods in reply and turns to his twin, gently shaking him awake.

“Wake up, Ro. We’re here.”

Roman whines and yawns, eyes fluttering open as he sits up.

“Already?” he asks sleepily. 

Remus chuckles softly.

“Yeah. Come on, Ro. You can sleep some more once we get our stuff in.” he says, patting his brother’s head.”

“Kay.”

Roman stretches and sits up, getting out of the car as Remus paid the driver. It’s cold and wet but the rain seems to be letting up into a light sprinkle. He looks around and there isn’t much. Another car passes by and a dog barks in the distance. Roman can make out a small gas station across the street, its dying neon sign flickering like an old lamp. Beside it is a convenient store that’s closed for the night, a laundromat right across it that’s still open. He watches for a moment as a mother and daughter, both sopping wet from the rain, run inside the laundromat. Then Roman turns back, seeing his twin unload the trunk. So, Roman follows and helps with getting their items out. 

They have two boxes, a luggage bag, and a backpack each filled with their belongings as well as food and drinks and emergency supplies. Then there’s three boxes full of other miscellaneous items like toiletries, plates and cups, silverware, pillows, blankets, and other things they grabbed. The apartment may be furnished but it didn’t have everything. It takes over thirty minutes but they managed to bring everything into the building. The taxi leaves and the twins sigh in relief as the warmth of the building melted away the cold feeling in their bones. Remus then heads to the front desk and speaks with the receptionist, a red-haired man with green eyes and freckles, so he could get their apartment key.

Meanwhile, Roman looks around again. It isn’t much but it feels cozy. There was a lounge across from the desk with a moss green carpet and dark brown leather armchairs. A small but sleek black coffee table sits between them, a flower vase holding bright red roses on it. In the corner is a small fish tank, bubbling away as two dwarf gourami swam around each other. On the faded mahogany wall is a painting of a hand. Roman can just barely make out the artist’s signature at the bottom. ‘C.Manfred’ is written in black cursive in paint at the lower left  corner. Roman hums and admires it for a moment.

“Oh, I wasn’t aware that the newcomers were here already, Jeremiah.”

Roman jumps at the sudden voice, turning around.

There stood a man in a black a blazer over a dark yellow turtleneck. He also wore matching black gloves and a black bowler hat. What confused Roman is the eye bandage on the man’s left eye and his black face mask. The man walks towards the front desk, standing by Remus. He looks him up and down for a moment before turning to the receptionist, Jeremiah, and greets him.

“Oh, they just arrived, Janus. I just gave them their room key. And here’s your mailbox key.” Jeremiah replies, handing the key to Janus.

Janus nods and takes it, making his way to the mailboxes beside the front desk.

“I must say, you’re both quite intriguing.” he says, glancing at Remus again before turning back to open his mailbox.

Remus blinks. He could’ve sworn he saw a glint of gold in Janus’ eyes.

“I’m just a guy moving in with his brother. I don’t see anything special about that.” he replies, playing it safe.

Janus chuckles quietly and grabs his mail, tucking it away in his blazer.

“No? I think you are. I’ve never met someone like you, especially. I tend to keep to myself, you know?” he hums.

Remus blinks again. Oh. Now he gets it.

Janus sees Remus finally getting it and chuckles again.

“Now, now, no need to fret. Your, ah, secret is safe with me.” he says, holding up his right hand.

That makes Remus relax a little.

“Right. Sorry. I’m just being safe” he says, rubbing the back of his neck. “Oh, I’m Remus and that’s my brother, Roman.”

Roman waves shyly as Janus glances towards him, flustering awkwardly.

“It’s alright. It’s nice to meet you both.” Janus replies. “My name is Janus.”

“It’s nice to meet you too, Janus.” Remus nods before turning to Roman. “Come on, Ro. We gotta haul this upstairs.”

“But we can’t carry this all in one trip!” Roman whines.

“Oh, where’s your apartment?” Janus asks.

Remus checks the key.

“Number 413.”

“Ah. It’s not too far from my place. I’m in 501. Just a floor above and the first door on the right.”

“Ooh, we’re neighbors! Yay!” Roman cheers.

Janus huffs a laugh.

“That we are. So, would you like some help?”

Remus looks over to Roman and Roman nods eagerly. Remus chuckles and shakes his head with a smile.

“Sure. Just be careful. Some of the boxes have fragile things.” he replies.

Janus nods.

“Of course.”

With that, the twins grabbed their personal boxes while Janus handled the remaining three. He was surprisingly strong and didn’t even seem to struggle. Remus is pretty sure that the big box on the bottom was quite heavy. Janus doesn’t have a complaint and they pile into the elevator. As it slowly heads for the fourth floor, Janus finds himself curious about the twins. He knows by now that Remus is...well...not exactly human. He wants to know even more.

“So, what brings you two here? It’s been a while since we’ve had someone move in.” Janus says after a beat of silence.

The twins tense a little and shift.

“Oh dear. Too soon to ask?”

Remus shakes his head.

“No. Just caught us off guard. We settled here since it was the first place we could find after searching for so long. We’ve been on the run across the country. All the way from Miami, Florida actually. We’ve been in and out of hotels along the way here. We looked everywhere online for a good place where the rent price wasn’t a fuckton of dollars. After looking for so long, we found this place and here we are.” he explains.

Janus nods, feeling concerned.

What had these twins been through?

“I see,” he replies. “If you don’t mind me asking, why were you on the run?” 

Roman answers this time.

“Home was bad.” he replies quietly, sighing as he gazes at a poster advertising a pirate themed amusement park.

If Remus didn’t have his arms full with boxes, he’d comfort his twin. He can only give him a sad smile.

“Yeah, mom and dad weren’t exactly dearest to us. We got up and left not too long ago while they were away at some big business meeting. I stole their money too. They were greedy fucks anyway.” he sighs.

Janus gives them a sympathetic look. It’s hard to tell with his mask but he’s smiling sadly too.

“I’m sorry to hear that. I’m glad you got out though. I get it. My mother and father weren’t exactly loving either.”

“Is that why you wear those on your face?” Roman chimes in, glancing at Janus.

“Roman!” Remus hisses.

Janus smiles softly, finding Roman’s innocence a little endearing.

“It’s alright. I suppose it’s partially why. They never did like my...birthmarks.” he replies.

“Oh. I’m sure they’re not that bad.”

“Trust me, my dear. This is something you don’t want to see.”

Roman flusters. He finds himself feeling a little warm with how charming Janus is.

“O-Okay then.”

They continue talking some more, Roman excitedly telling Janus his plans as they continue trekking to their apartment. Roman wanted to get back into theatre now that he was free to do so. Remus occasionally joined in on the conversation, mentioning that he wanted to explore the city and be familiarized with the area...for reasons. By the time they reach the apartment door, Roman is giggling and seems to have already become friends with Janus. The conversation continues as they enter the apartment. 

It’s spacious enough for two, a small hallway leading into the living room. The walls are a light beige and the hardwood floors are a faded oak that seemed to have been waxed not too long ago. There’s another hall to the left of the living room and another hall to the right. The left hall leads to the bedroom and bathroom. The right hall leads into a small kitchen and dining room. There’s also a small laundry area at the end of that hall. It isn’t much but the twins like it. Any place that isn’t their old home is safe enough for him.  

Remus heads in first and Roman curiously follows with Janus trailing behind him. They gather in the living room, boxes set down to be unpacked in the morning. For now, the twins look around the apartment. Remus spots the heating system by the light switch in the hall and fiddles with it for a moment. Roman sees a big sliding glass door and immediately heads over there, making a sound of delight as he gets the lock undone with a click before sliding the door open. He steps out and is greeted with a good view of Detroit despite only being four floors up. He can see a train station, an abandoned dockyard with an old rusted freighter still floating in it, and part of the Ambassador bridge despite how dark the city is.

“So pretty! I’ve always wanted my own balcony!” Roman says, beaming as raindrops sprinkled all over his cheeks.

Remus chuckles.

“You can hang out there tomorrow, Ro. Come back inside. It’s cold out.” he calls. “And shut the door.”

“Kay!”

Roman lingers for a moment longer then does as his twin says, coming in and shutting the door before locking it too.

“I like our new home.” he says, joining Remus and Janus.

Remus pats Roman’s head.

“Good, because we’re stuck here for a long time.” he says. 

Janus smiles softly, seeing how the twins really care for each other. 

“I’m glad you like it here. I hope you’ll sleep through the night. There’s a certain apartment down the hall upstairs that tends to be loud often.” he tells them, setting down the boxes he’d been carrying.

“I’ve slept through worse.” Remus shrugs though there’s a dark look in his eyes.

Remus still remembers hearing his mother scream, her shrill but sharp and haunting voice overpowering Roman’s cries. And if it wasn’t her, it was their father. Their father would beat Roman, drunk or not. Remus couldn’t do anything about it, having been locked away in the basement for most of his time in that old house. Didn’t mean he escaped those beatings. His father made sure he had his ‘fair share’ of punishment.

Janus smiles sadly. Just how badly had these twins been hurting?

“I see. Still, I figured I’d let you know ahead of time.” he says, deciding not to push it. “If you don’t need anything more, I have to go now. It’s late after all.”

Roman looks up from the boxes. He was about to open one when Janus said he had to go.

“Already? But I liked having you here, Janus.” he says, pouting a little. 

Janus huffs a laugh.

“Don’t worry, Roman. We’ll meet again soon. I don’t leave my apartment so I’m almost always home. Feel free to come over anytime soon, my dear.” he smiles softly.

Roman flusters again. Something about Janus makes Roman feel a little warm. 

“O-Okay then. Bye bye, Janus. It was nice to meet you.” he says, smiling bashfully.

“Goodbye, Roman.” 

Roman waves and watches as Janus leaves, happy to have already made a new friend. 

Meanwhile Remus was a little wary. So much has happened due to Roman trusting almost every person he’s met. The college incident was one of them. After that, Roman had a hard time trusting new people. So it’s a little surprising to see Roman easily get along with Janus and trust him. Especially with sharing a bit of his trauma. Shaking his head, Remus smiles fondly. At least Roman is happy for the time being.

“So, you already found a friend in Janus?” Remus asks.

Roman blushes a little, still smiling bashfully.

“Yeah. I think he’s nice. And I know I probably shouldn’t trust people so soon but I think Janus is someone we can trust.” he says. “I know it.”

Remus chuckles.

“If you say so, Ro. Now come on, we still have to unpack some stuff so we can get ready for bed.” he says, ruffling Roman’s hair again.

“Okay!”

So with that, the twins unpack what they can, filling the kitchen cabinets with what bit of food they could bring from their old home along with the kitchen cutlery. They had grabbed as many things needed when they first left their old home and kept it with them as they moved around. Their toiletries were from the many hotels they stayed at. For food, they either ate at the hotel’s buffet or had small meals from the stores around the place. 

Remus had stolen most of their greedy parents’ money for themselves to use but did his best to save it. Now that they have a new place to call home, Remus decides he’ll go grocery shopping in a few days. In the meantime, Remus was content to live off of the food they picked up on their way here. It wouldn’t be the first time they had instant noodles and a small bag of potato chips. 

Soon the twins unpacked what they could, the two bringing their luggage bags into the bedroom. They got undressed and into some warm pajamas. Roman’s pajamas are a plain white t-shirt and a pair of red sweats. Remus’ pajamas are a pair of grey sweats and a Thriller t-shirt. Now that they were in comfy clothes, Remus leads Roman to the bed.

“Alright, bed time, Ro.” Remus says, setting up Roman’s night light before joining him.

Roman gets in bed, holding a small crown plushie that Remus made for him to stim with. He’s quiet as he thinks about their safety. Yes, they were away from that awful place now but anything could happen. Especially with Remus being a vampire. Remus is an easy target for hunters and much more feral vampires. Roman has seen those vampires, one of them having even tried to drink his blood. Remus saved him though. Still, what if-

“Earth to Roman. You in there, Ro?” Remus taps his forehead.

Roman blinks and shakes his head clear, settling in bed.

“Sorry, Ree. I’m just a little worried. What if we’re found here or another feral vampire hurts me? What if it’s not safe here too?” he asks, fiddling with his crown plushie. 

Remus smiles softly, tucking Roman in.

“We won’t be found here. I made sure of it. Besides, if anything happens, I’ll be there to protect you. You know I’ll beat their asses.” he says.

Roman giggles.

“You always do, Ree.”

“Hell yeah. Now, get some rest. We have a lot to do tomorrow.”

Roman nods, yawning.

“Okay. I’ve been wanting to get into theatre now that we’ve settled. You think the local college will accept me?” he asks.

Remus pats Roman’s head.

“They will. You’re super talented, Ro. You’re gonna do great.” he says.

Roman smiles at that before shifting.

“Okay...um...can you do that thing to help me sleep?” he asks.

That thing is basically Remus using his magic to help Roman sleep better and to manipulate his dreams so that the nightmare stays away.

“Of course.” Remus smiles softly, his eyes glowing a soft red. “Sleep.”

Remus waves his fingers and a red, sparkling aura of magic swirls from him and into Roman’s head, making him feel hazy and tired. Soon his eyes flutter shut and his breathing evens out. After a few moments, Roman is deep asleep. Remus sighs in relief and stands up, looking back at his brother for a moment before moving to turn off the lights. Then he slips out of the bedroom to continue unpacking and cleaning up. Hopefully tomorrow will be good for both of them now that they’re here. 

[thermie]

For the meme! Norwegian Angelica, Pincushion, Pink, Primrose, Sunflower

Heyo! :)) Thanks for asking, and so many! I like sunflowers! And don't recognize any other flowers here! :D Norwegian Angelica: Tell us about your mom.

Hmm, it's hard to be concise as I've had a complicated relationship with her to say the least. But I'm sort of trying to reach out intermittently (once in a couple months hah) again so that's something. But my mother is someone very in touch with nature and animals, she grew up in the countryside and is still very much a country girl as she now keeps goats, ducks, chickens, turkeys etc. She has told me that she has no need for antidepressants because she can just go to the forest, for example, which, well, shows both her medicine-hate and nature-love hah. She used to be very hardworking - she almost got a PhD in chemistry like my father but three kids and the house and a business was a bit too much to also write a thesis. Because of this and other things, she's.... currently I'd best describe her as horribly burnt out and depressed and self-depreciative. But she is easy to talk to, she will carry the conversation and she will tell her side eagerly and at least listen to yours - she both is probably lonely and has this need to be always presentable and talk to her family a bit like we're business partners she needs to convince which I used to hate, and she will tell you about how horrible she has it at the drop of the hat. When in a room with others, she will most often stay silent and listen, however, she used to say that she liked to just listen when me and siblings would talk. She has her own, mostly non-explicit ways of showing she cares, and you know, hey I managed to write a p alright summary that wasn't just unprocessed anger, yay for me. Pincushion: How do you deal with pain?

Mm, I assume this deals with physical pain. I've been quite lucky thus far and have no chronic pains except the normal millenial achy knees sometimes. Since I already mentioned above that I grew up in a pretty anti-medicine household, I didn't use an ibumetin or paracetamol for anything not mirstamā kaite (dying sickness) until I was like... 19. So I just kinda, uh, waited it out I guess? Which is largely still the mode of action for me nowadays, though now I usually take ibumetin, that's about it. I always thought I deal with pain p well and have a high tolerance and I definitely am quite good at pushing myself through it when needed but really I'd rather I didn't have to feel that toothache while having to focus on the paper or smth. I actually had pretty strong period cramps a week or so ago that I usually don't get and then I just... took one ibumetin, finished off the research paper, took another ibumetin because holy shit, complained to friends, played assassins creed until the pain faded a bit and got back to studying :D Also re: mental pain, well, I've had 2 years of therapy to sort of help with that, and I find the thing that works most reliably to me is the schema therapy caring parent/vulnerable child thing, I just sorta. Listen to the pain and hear it and then console it. Be your own parent 2kforever.

Pink: Where is home?

Here!

It's quite a cozy flat in an... hm, middle class neighborhood, the owner never shows up and we just pay the rent in his debit card, he's chill with us paying it late and when our stove sort of implodes he comes and buys a new one! I also live with sis which is p great, since, as my therapist pointed out, we've been negotiating how to live in each other's spaces literally since birth so we know how to co-exist (I like my space perhaps more than others - I don't particularly enjoy having friends over and I like that we have sort of come to an arrangement of kitchen is talk space and our rooms are less so). I used to think I didn't get attached to places but now with potential talks of moving that didn't end up anywhere I got so afraid of losing this sense of stability, a place to jump from that I didn't have as solid before. It's my gremlin cave and yes there's mold growing in places that we're too lazy/tired to try to deal with, and sometimes we play chicken about who will cave and wash the dishes or take out the trash, but hey, it's my gremlin cave.

Primrose: Describe your ideal life.

Hah, I've actually been on and off daydreaming about winning a million euros in lottery (a pal's gotta dream, alright :D). And then the scenario goes a bit like buy a house with a garden that me and sis and poosssibly my friends would live in, get a car and driving license, travel a bit, stop working at my current job and just vibe for a bit before either moving to the deep countryside and being a farmer or working in businesses as an anthropologist for sense of accomplishement. In the 99.99% case I do not win the lottery, however, I think working in a place where I can both excercise my brain and feel smart and appreciated about doing it would be great, I'm lowkey considering working as an anthropologist if I can wrangle a vacancy in some place. I think I'd like to either continue my slow, slow ventures into writing, or, since I've realized I'm pretty fucking amazing at realizing other's mistakes instead of my own and giving constructive criticism :D go into editing work. But who knows. I mostly want to get enough money to have a bit of property and a garden and be able to sometimes travel, and then a nice job is a luxury. Still sometimes thinking of moving just deep deep into the countryside and buying chickens. But I won't really make much money that way alas. Sunflower: What is something you don’t want to imagine life without? Mm, well the obvious basics of a roof over my head and food in my tummy tum tum, but besides that, I'd probably say my friends. Be weird old people together. Even if I do move or somehow lose my current friends, I still want to make connections with close friends bc well I find them neat. I don't make a great lonely person.

[amandaj718]

I’m a mess. My brain is either going a million miles a minute or completely dead and I don’t know what I am or what I’m doing. 

I could blame these feelings on my period that started this week. Usually that brings about crying at the drop of a hat (which I cried twice when I fell trying to clear snow from around my car...I gave up. I’ll wait until spring) and I get angry super easily. lash out. 

Work is killing me. I’m questioning everything I do. People don’t seem super nice to me (they don’t have to be nice but things feel off) and I’m struggling with a new program that I need to set up and become an expert at. I kind of feel alone and I’m just not getting. Like...

Everyone knows I’m a fraud and I’m just guessing my way through this job for the past three years. 

I want to be brave and fearless but I also am afraid of getting it wrong or being yelled at. I keep telling myself to toughen up but I can’t just do it and I need to. I just don’t know how I guess. I don’t know. 

I’m just spiraling and can’t seem to get back on track. 

I wish I was smarter.

Braver. 

Wasn’t such a bitch.

Wasn’t so angry all the time. 

I wish I could just grow up already. 

I’m am legally in my adult years where I am supposed to have it together but I feel 16 years old. Not 33 going on 34 years old.

I know the answers. I know what I have to do. I just need to do it. 

Grow up. 

Find a way to be smarter. 

Somehow figure my way out of my own head. 

I was thinking about my job and how I don’t consider it a career. I’ve had the career talk before with my supervisor and manager and I have nothing to offer to the conversation because right now, I consider what I do...a job. Something to pay rent, groceries and my utilities (also the fun stuff like internet and books for example). Something to get me the things that make me happy. 

Is that bad? Shouldn’t I think career, especially at my age? 

My main goal in life since I was ten years old was to become an author. A published author. 

I’m beginning to doubt that will ever happen but now I’m stuck with a job that should be a career. Something I never planned to happen. 

I don’t know. Just thinking out loud. Throwing out these thoughts swarming my head into the universe to handle. To help answer. Or ignore. 

What I think I am saying is....I’m having a breakdown. Yay me. I’d like to say this is my first one but we all know that isn’t true. 

I just want to be better and find ways to become better without bugging anyone about it. 

I’m really needy and not very nice right now. I cried at snow today. I couldn’t handle the 30 inches of snow around my car and I panicked and fell and started to cry. I cried again after work when I tried to tackle the snow again. I managed to clean off my car. My dad kept telling me to leave it be. The warm weather will melt a lot of it around me. Nothing will happen if I don’t clean around my car in a parking lot. I think he was telling me not to worry about what others think and that is what it comes down to isn’t it?

I’m always afraid of being wrong or saying the wrong thing or doing the wrong thing that I just stay quiet. Let things fly past me. Make me think I need to learn and fix everything on my own. Its holding me back. I’m doing this to myself. I keep reminding myself that no one is watching me as closely as I think they are. Its not all about me. I’m not that important in the scheme of things. 

Maybe if I keep repeating that it can help. 

Forget others. 

Do what is best. 

Don’t worry about sounding stupid. No one cares or is listening as closely as you think. 

Maybe that is the only way out.Be strong. Ask for help and what I want. Remember no one cares about me as much as I care about myself and what I’m saying. No one wants me to fail. No one likes to watch a fail. 

You are going to be ok. 

Right? RIGHT?!?

Oh man...written down breakdown by Amanda. How embarrassing. 

Clarity. That is all I want. Clarity. 

A good cry and clarity. Maybe some chocolate. 

Mostly clarity about me and my life and my life choices. 

Someday. 

[it-begins-with-rain]

Goblin: The Lonely and Great God Reaction Thread (Ep 1)

For @ladyvanserra

He moved a pot a couple of inches and broke a Frenchman’s rib. I already like this show!

Period dramas (even partially) and fantasy mixed with history. That’s my drama-kink right there.

Wait why are they declaring him a criminal?

He won the war for them?

Oh wow, violence with blood! Yay korea(n dramas)!

Wait why do you look familiar King Dude?

OH MY GOD IT’S THE BOY FROM “THE BIG HIT”

DOES YOUR FATHER KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING RIGHT NOW?!?!?

Actually, he seemed more likely to declare himself a god...

Ah, they’re mad at him for being Julius Caesar, got it.

Well obvs the white girl is supposed to stand out, who are you?

Oh, that was a “we used to fuck” look

“Imma kill every innocent person.” That’s some A+ kinging right there.

Ohhhh yeah, they fucked.

Wait she wants him to go kill the king? Even if everyone dies?

That’s fucked up.

I want more backstory of this whole thing.

“Fire on her from behind the guy walking and kill her to punish him for not being easy to kill!”

Or, you know, order him shot in the back?

And he walks up behind him and slices.

Like, couldn’t just do that before? A+ guarding right there.

Eew, why do people drool when they cry in dramas? Just... eew.

“Forgive me sir for slowly stabbing you with a giant broadsword”

Cut. Off. His. Head. It’s. More. Polite.

See? Like what that guard just did to the other guy.

Man the advisor from Mulan is a dick

I know that’s chinese not Korean.

It’s the hat.

SHE’S STILL ALIVE??? LONGEST DEATH WITH AN ARROW IN SOMEONE’S HEART EVER.

DIE FASTER.

oh the old lady’s ring, splashed with her blood.

So shouldn’t she be a goblin too?

Is that why the old lady looked so young-made-to-look-old?

Is she the dead lady as a goblin in some way?

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE HIM TO DIE OMFG.

Well, I mean, from the show... a long damn time. But still!

Seoul, 1998, and he looks like Neo

JFC THAT CAR CAME OUT OF NOWHERE AND HE FUCKING DEMOLISHED IT!

Wait, why do you look familiar car dude???

Seriously familiar.

Death is hot and all, but this dude looks SERIOUSLY familiar...

C’mon google, help a girl out

*cries 20 min later when no amount of googling turns up anything*

WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU

Fandom recruited to identify.

BUT NO LUCK

JFC did he have bodies in his trunk???

Death is hot.

He resembles another actor, but I can’t think of who.

Not in the this-will-drive-me-insane way, just---

OH, THE DUDE FROM “THE 100″. BELLAMY.

He reminds me of Bellamy. Just in the eyes and hair.

“Drink this tea or you’ll regret it...” Kind of rapey, Death.

what the frick-frack? that’s a lot of tea

Death literally making tea all day huh? ~drama~

Death that hat looks stupid.

Haha, Goblin just casually dropping shade XDDD

Slightly obsessed with candles, are we?

It’s child abuse to dress a kid like that.

"This is my grandson, who I obviously want beaten up on the playground.”

“From now on, this child will serve you, old bloody sword dude!”

Yeah this is normal.

So it wasn’t just that he was killed with his own blade, it was that he killed so many, or left so many to die at his hands?

HOW ARE YOU NOT RUNNING LIKE CRAZY THE OTHER WAY AT THE ZOMBIE THAT JUST STOOD UP IN YOUR FIELD???

That old guy is so fucking chill...

Oh, he’s going to kill the Mulan-Advisor!

Again, I know that’s Chinese and this is Korean, it’s the hat.

So who was the girl that they gave her a proper memorial?

That poor little Goryeo boy... He’s doomed to one day don the above ridiculous outfit.

Death would have been kinder.

But he is seriously cute as a button!

In the past, not in the yellow thingie.

Is it bad I only find the lead hot when he’s got his warrior-hair (long)?

omg the little nugget is hungry~

and he’s trying to hide it.

THAT BOY DESERVES ALL THE LOVE AND FOOD AND JUST EVERYTHING IN THE WHOLE WORLD.

He was starving! Poor bean sprout~~

WHY ARE YOU BULLYING THE CUTE LITTLE DUDE?!?!?

NO!!!!! NUGGET!!!! DON’T DROWN

SAVE HIM YOU RAT BASTARD!

SAVE THE KERNEL OF CUTENESS!!!

Yes, you using your new powers (that we never see you learn to control) to kill the evil slavers is nice and all

BUT SAVE

THE

BABY

BUMBLEBEE

Ooo, green flaming sword, cool.

But where’s Button???????

YOU. CAN’T. SNAP. TO. PRESENT. THERE.

So they say “Goblin”, but they mean a minor god?

Uh oh, Female Lead in hit-and-run.

I wonder if she’ll be saved

*she says sarcastically*

Wow that is a lot of blood.

Her entire body’s worth

And yet she’s still chatting.

And Goblin will save her.

But not the adorable little bean.

Female Lead is preggo?

Death is gonna be PISSED

And not just because his hat is silly.

OMG that’s the cutest baby ever.

AAH! CORPSES!

Whispering about brides.

Over a baby.

Who is now 8 years old.

The mom looks mildly familiar...

I think from her Banjun Drama days? I think I saw the DBSK ones...

OMFG THAT IS AN ADORABLE LITTLE PUPPY

Who apparently doesn’t exist?

DOES THAT MEAN IT’S A DEAD PUPPY’S GHOST????

NO, THERE AREN’T ALLOWED TO BE DEAD PUPPIES

NOT EVER

NEVER EVER EVER

*traumatized*

Yeah, something was weird with the mom not touching candles.

How’d she die?

Was it before?

Or recently?

This convo with the mom’s ghost is so creepy and sad at the same time

I love it

Seriously creepy, sad, and cool all at once

Love love love it.

This part kind of gives me “Black” vibes.

Did anyone else see that?

It was just ok.

“How do you never seem to grow old granny?”

Because she’s obviously a young lady in age make up.

It’s the eyes. She has painfully young eyes.

And Death came for the kid... why?

Oh, he’s surprised, he came for the mom.

“You of all people should know.”

Oh, so old lady is a Reaper too?

A head of cabbage as a birthday gift.

Yep, she’s an old lady.

Oh look, the old lady is young again. What a surprise.

LMAO the little guy in the dumb hat grew up to be a drinker.

Not surprised with that dumb hat.

JFC the ghost trying to get her attention is freaky.

The dangers of shooting a guy walking in slow-motion.

He looks like an idiot when he blinks.

OK this super intense stare between him and the teenager is kind of eew (even though she’s 19).

Can we do a time jump and age her again?

And he’s like *instant boner*

Ooo, little nugget grew up hot this time

Another reason he shouldn’t have drowned in the Goryeo times.

“How can she be proud of killing her own mom”

Wow, fucking nice family there...

Assholes.

Throwing a rice bowl at her head and demanding money?

Wow.

These fuckers deserve bad things.

Aw, Goblin is adorable with the old man.

He’s got a nice smile.

Just... totally nice.

Is he pacing around where he died? Gnarly.

What? He heard her prayer?

Is it because he saved her?

Aw, he came to her.

Arguing over who summoned who, lmao.

It sounds like when my mother and father think they heard the other call them.

“Did you call me?”

“No, why would I have called you?”

“That’s what I’m asking you.”

“Give me (flowers), they don’t suit you.”

hahahahahahahahaha

He gave her flowers, so I guess this is a first date?

“What do these flowers mean?” “Lovers.” *romantic music*

Again, I know she’s 19... but she looks 15, and he’s like 40.

Aw, Death is looking dapper.

He lives with a centuries-old Goblin.

And is renting the house out to Death.

Why isn’t the show about this guy’s life???

It could be a comedy.

omg burning the contract with a finger-gun is hysterical

And his face when there’s a copy XDDD

DON’T  YOU THREATEN MY LITTLE NUGGET DEATH

NOT EVEN AS A JOKE

I will CUT YOU

This is the bromance I didn’t know I needed.

These two flinging pepper and paprika (or probably chili flakes) around the table like children.

It’s already a comedy! :D

She’s going to work at a Korean Chicken restaurant.

Korean chicken restaurants are proof of the divine.

If it’s made of chicken

and you’re in Korea

it’s going to be amazing.

Especially garlic or soy sauce fried chicken.

But also spicy chicken bites.

Kind of like Korean orange chicken?

I can’t spell the word.

So the connection between them is fire? That’s how she summons him? Or is it the act of putting them out?

“I must be a fairy. Like Tinker Bell.”

*rolls eyes and vanishes immediately to get away from the stupid*

Haha, so it is lighting and blowing out a flame.

If blowing out a digital candle works-

JFC IT WORKS

“Goblin” must be a loose translation.

Because nothing about this is goblin-like in western mythology.

So it must just be the closest equivalent creature to translate to.

Ah, now he knows who she is.

And what she is.

Wow, he’s brutal.

“Just go die then. I only care about you 10 won worth”.

*follows him through a portal to the other side of the world on accident*

I think he just peed himself.

“Canada.... you mean the place with the maple leaf? The one in North America?!?!??!?!?”

LMAOOOOOOOOOOOO

“No matter how I think about it, you’re a goblin... I love you.”

Immediately latches on to tall, dark, and handsome because he insta-travels.

Mood.

[littledonkeyburrito]

My neopets account is old enough to drive

1. Why are you at home? Because it’s 2am and I’m not working tonight 2. This time last year, were you single? Sort of, leaning towards yes

3. What are you listening to? "Big Tings” by Skindred 4. Do you think someone is thinking about you right now? Nope 5. Are you a big fan of thunderstorms? Yeah, that’s one thing I missed when I was living in Spain - tropical thunderstorms

6. Is there anyone you would do anything for? Sure 7. When will your next kiss be? Depends if I end up going on that date tomorrow night and how well it goes. Otherwise idk, sometime in the next month probs. 8. Are you satisfied with what you currently have in life? Yeah. I’d rather be living in a different country but I can deal 9. Do people ever think you’re older/younger than you actually are? People usually think I’m younger, like 16. 10. Have you ever liked someone way older than you? Yeah but he liked me too so it worked out fine 11. How many texts are in your inbox? I don’t text except to the work phone. I prefer messenger/whatsapp. 12. Who last left you a wallpost on Facebook? First thing that came up on my page was Patrick who tagged me on a screenshot of when I said “I don’t know anything about politics but I sure am drunk and have opinions”. That counts. 13. Assuming you have various kinds of electronics (phone, camera, iPod, etc.), are you currently charging any of them? Laptop is currently plugged in.  14. How are you wearing your hair today? Messy. Got out of the bath and towel dried it. Didn’t bother combing or styling because I’m going to bed soon. 15. What are you eating/drinking? Chips and Pepsi 16. What will your outfit be today? Was wearing a stripey shirt and jeans earlier. Now in my jimjams 17. When’s the next time you’ll be traveling somewhere (anywhere) and where will you go? Maybe going out on a date tomorrow night. If not, will be hanging with a friend. Maybe at my place, maybe out at some bars. Also working on Sunday night.

18. Do you ever sit indoors and wear sunglasses or a hat? Sometimes wear sunnies inside at work because I’ll be staring out the window the whole time.

19. Are you putting off doing something right now? If so, what is it? Nope. I do what I want.

20. What’s the most daring thing you have ever done? Idk, probably moving to a foreign country on my own and barely knowing the language.

21. Do you like playing video games? If so, what do you usually play? Currently playing Horizon Zero Dawn on PS4. Whenever my PC is working again I’ll eventually finish playing Dragon Age Inquisition.

22. Are you sitting in front of or by a window? What can you see out there? Blinds are closed but all I’d see is the construction site next door.

23. Do you ever dance to the song playing in your head? Sometimes

24. How long have you had an online presence for? I think my first account was on Neopets. I just logged into that old account (god knows how I still remember the password) and the account was made in 2002. So, 16 years ago. Oh my god my neopets account is old enough to drive

25. If you got a chance to go to space, would you? Depends on the situation but yeah probably!

26. What’s something we do every day but they don’t depict in movies? The cleanup after sex. Okay not really every day but still. They always just roll over and go to sleep. Like, bro you still got a condom on your dick, and you’re just gonna sleep like that??

27. Do you enjoy travelling? Definitely

28. Where’s the most beautiful place you’ve been to so far? There are many beautiful places I’ve been to. Although I think I have to give an honourable mention to the High Atlas Mountains in Morocco for being so beautiful that I was actually speechless.

29. What’s something cool about the city/town you live in? River got sharks

30. Is your style feminine, masculine or somewhere in the middle? Masculine side of neutral

31. Do you usually carry a backpack, a shoulder bag or something else? I don’t carry a bag unless I’m at work and then it’s a duffel bag, or I’m travelling then it’s a backpack

32. What smell brings back a memory for you? Woodfires make me think of winter at my grandparents’ house when I was a kid, even though we never had fires there. Also sawdust reminds me of my dad’s workshop

33. When was the last time you went in the car past midnight? Couple of nights ago when I last did a nightshift 34. Who was the last person to message you?  Maggie

35. What did you do today? Played PS4, Maggie came over, went to Dan Murphy’s, watched some Will & Grace, had a bath with a lime coconut bathbomb and now all my skin is lovely and smooth 36. Why did you last laugh really hard? Okay so I bought a pack of tiny squeaky rubber pigs online and I have an ongoing treasure hunt in my apartment with Maggie. We re-hide the ones we find. Anyway, I laughed a lot when she adjusted her position in the beanbag and the piggy under it squeaked 37. Would you be able to name everyone you kissed? Nah, I’ve kissed one or two people I don’t know the name of 38. Where is the last person you kissed? No idea 39. What color shirt are you wearing? Navy blue 40. Did you have a fling this summer but it didn’t really go anywhere? I only had half a summer because I moved back from europe. I slept with an ex a few times. Does that count as a fling? Probably not. 41. Why did you kiss the last person you kissed? About to bang 42. What was the last thing you bought? Bottle of rum and a case of beer 43. Ever kissed anyone with a nipple piercing? I have no idea. Maybe..? 44. What about a lip piercing? I don’t think so 45. Nose piercing? Again, I don’t think so but it’s possible 46. Have you ever kissed someone who had a boyfriend/girlfriend? Lmao yeah made out with both of them  47. Did you like kissing the last person you kissed or the one before that more? The one before 48. Ever made out in a pool? Uhh I don’t think so? 49. When was the last time you went shopping for new clothes? Do you remember what you bought? I bought undies and singlets a couple of days ago. Not as glamorous as you were expecting I’m sure 50. What sort of compliments make you feel the best? An acknowledgement of something I put effort into

51. What would you say to a twenty year old version of yourself? idk she was pretty much already on the right course 52. Name a few things that make you happy? My lil squeaky pigs drinking/hanging out with friends making plans to travel again 53. If you were going camping for a few days (or to a fancy hotel for those that dislike camping), who would you want to bring with you? Friends that would actually enjoy the camping 54. How long have you been living where you are now? Is this somewhere you intend to stay for a while, or is a move in your future? I’ve been in this apartment for 5 months. I’ll renew for a second year so long as they don’t try to bump the rent up too high. After that idk. I want to move overseas again at some point 55. What was the last thing you put away? I put the towel back on the rack 56. When was the last time you were near a large body of water? I was along the river the last shift I had 57. How much time do you spend in your bedroom? Only when I’m sleeping 58. Do you secretly like to go grocery shopping? No, I put it off until I basically have no food

59. Breakfast; yay or nay? I have vegemite on toast before work but if I don’t have a shift I forget to have breakfast 60. What’s the most creepy experience you’ve ever had? Nothing in particular comes to mind 61. Yay, you’re going out on a date! What do you wear? Fuck I hadn’t even thought about that -_- 62. What’s the last movie you saw in theatre? Was it good? It was either Antman or Deadpool 63. On average, how long would you saw your on the computer per week? When my desktop is broken (now) I usually just use my phone. Laptop is pretty slow. 64. Do you like your music loud? No 65. If you had to lose one of your five senses, which would it be? Smell 66. Would you rather have no computer or no cellphone for a week? Computer. 67. What’s you favourite thing to have for dessert? I don’t really eat dessert at home. I just eat whatever I’m in the mood for whenever. I guess sweet stuff I usually go for timtams or a nutella sandwich 68. Do you tend to straighten or curl your hair more? Neither 69. What’s your favourite summer sport? Sitting inside with the AC blasting. 70. Can you dance, or do you just completely fail at it? I cannot dance. 71. Do you get nervous when you’re about to get a haircut? Yes! And I don’t know why 72. Choose one: Hanging out at the beach, or playing some winter sports? SKIING 73. What’s the coolest place that you ever been to? What’d you do there? Oh man I’ve seen some cool shit. The roundhouses in Tulou village in China were rad. Varanasi in India was a weirdly spiritual experience and I am very much not a spiritual person. Ziplining through the jungle in Panama was fun. Sagrada Familia in Barcelona was super cool in the afternoon with the sun coming in through all the yellow/orange windows. And I’m sure I have more to see in the future 74. What’s the earliest time you ever had to wake up? Was it hard for you? I often wake up at crazy times for work so there is no “earliest” because it loops back around to late 75. What radio station do you listen to most? I have 97.3 playing in the car 76. Whenever you take pictures, do they always end up posted on Facebook? The good ones go on instagram

77. You have unlimited money, what do you do with your life? Travel indefinitely. Pay for friends to travel with me. Give away money. Basically just do whatever I want and hope that nobody tries to kill me for my money. 78. What was the last thing you spent under $5 on? Hmm I have no idea. I can’t think of anything recently. According to my bank statement it was the icecreams I bought from Woolies a couple of weeks ago when I was with some friends 79. How many times have you cried in the past week? None, I don’t really cry 80. Have you ever used your cell phone as a light source in the dark? I need it to see if there’s anything in my mailbox. For some reason I always check the post when it’s dark. 81. Is there anything written on the shirt you’re wearing? “Max Rager” it’s the energy drink from iZombie

82. Where were you living in 1997? I think my family and I had just moved to australia 83. How was your first kiss? eh 84. Do you still talk to the person you shared it with? No 85. How long has it been since you showered? I showered this morning and had a bath a couple of hours ago 86. Have you ever dated someone who had kids? Not dated 87. Have you kissed someone 4 or more years older than you? Several 88. How about younger? Not that I’m aware of 89. Were your parents married when you were born? No 90. Are there any candles in the room with you? No, I don’t like candles, they make me anxious 91. Does the last person you kissed have tattoos? No 92. Do you live within 20 miles of where you were born? Nooooo. more like 10,000 miles 93. Has anyone seen you naked in the last week? Nope 94. Where was your current profile picture taken? In a camping ground in southern Spain. I was visiting my dad’s friends

[bangkokjacknews]

Thailand's Best Beaches

Thailand's Best #Beaches - So many tropical beach paradises in Thailand, so little time. You kind of can’t go wrong on any beach in #Thailand but we picked a few of our favorites anyway, including entire islands with multiple beach options.

Want to stroll for miles along deserted stretches of silky, white sand? Snorkel, dive, and surf just offshore? Party under a full moon until dawn, or just hide away from the rest of the world? There’s a beach—and islands filled with a variety of beach options—for that in Thailand.

Ko Jum This tiny car-free island is comprised of jungle, rubber trees, a few guesthouses and resorts, and that’s pretty much it. Somehow, the locals haven’t gone tourist crazy so it’s a true escape from more popular areas and just a great place for sunbathing, afternoon napping, and listening to waves lapping on the shore. There are no ferry piers or docks, so long-tail boats go to retrieve guests a few times a day from the big ferry boats out at sea.

Railay Beach No roads, no cars, just paradise. Railay is a peninsula between Krabi Town and Ao Nang and can only be reached by boat so it is remote, laid-back, and much quieter than its neighbor, Ao Nang. Railay’s craggy limestone karsts attract climbers from all over the world, while the pristine, white sands and the lack of vehicles attract vacationers desiring a blissfully relaxing destination. It’s the kind of place to read a book, swim multiple times a day, take a long-tailed boat ride and island-hop, or just chill and soak in the stunning setting. If you get antsy, hop on a boat to Ao Nang where there’s a little more going on. Or don’t.

Kata Beach An energetic and sporty family-friendly spot in Phuket, Kata Beach offers clear seas, white sands, plentiful accommodation options, lots of good food, and endless activities. There’s a wave park right at the beach entrance where you can rent surfboards or SUPs (Stand Up Paddleboards) and take lessons. Try acro-yoga on the beach then take to the water to snorkel, surf, and scuba dive. The south end of the beach is more relaxed if all that activity just seems too…active. INSIDER TIP - If the kids need a break from the sand, there’s a community park just across from the beach with jungle gyms.

Ao Sane One of Phuket’s prettiest little beaches, this is tucked around the horn from Nai Harn; it’s not a huge beach and has lots of places for shade. There’s a decent little restaurant a few steps away so you can easily spend a dreamy day sunbathing, snorkeling, and swimming, barely moving from your spot for pretty papaya shakes and drinks and a light lunch of crab curry. INSIDER TIP - Allow time to explore. There’s plenty to see in this area, including the Big Buddha, Karon Viewpoint, Promthep Cape, and more.

Ya Nui Another Phuket beauty, Ya Nui in the south of Phuket Island is a tiny beach that is split into two bays by a rock formation. It may be small but there are a few different sections to choose from: a cove to the left, a flat stretch in the middle, and some rocks to the right (where you’ll find good snorkeling). The water is that perfect blue-green, the setting features an island backdrop and grassy slopes, the attitude is relaxed and easy, and tiny thatch-roof restaurants serve up drinks and ice cream—what more could you need?

Nai Harn At the southern tip of Phuket, almost two hours from the airport, this crescent of pristine white beach is off-the-beaten tourist track (which makes it worth the trek); think, “jungle-covered mountain backdrop, sailboats anchored in the distance when it’s season, a high-end resort on one end, and a lookout point with a windmill marking the other side.” The water is calm and clear with an occasional gentle wave. There are a few beachside restaurants where you can grab a coconut and bring it right down to the beach, or sit around in lounge chairs sipping Singhas with locals. There’s beach volleyball in the evenings, and sunset happy hour at the Rock Salt. It’s an easy, gorgeous spot to holiday for a while, and we recommend renting mopeds to explore the surrounding area.

Laem Singh This hidden cove is accessible only by boat from Surin Beach (because the neighboring landowner doesn’t want tourists traipsing through his trees!). As small as this beach is, there are still lounge chairs and boogie boards for rent, in addition to a restaurant with decent food and drinks complete with very pretty views. Even on a cloudy day, Laem Singh feels tropical, with trees hugging the beach and turquoise waters lapping at the shore. When the waves are up, it makes a stellar spot for a bodyboarding. INSIDER TIP - If you want to get a look at this spot from above (and snap an excellent selfie), get on a scooter and stop at the Laem Singh View Point.

Koh Yao Noi Remarkably untouristed despite its location just an hour’s boat ride from Phuket, Koh Yao Noi is the remote beach you’ve been dreaming of. While there’s internet in many of the guesthouses, this is a destination where you’ll find it easy to disconnect—fall asleep to the sounds of gently lapping waves, not a pumping bass. Rent a scooter and explore the island. Check out the little beach shacks along the beach, where you can get a simple lunch and have a dip in the calm waters. Find deserted stretches of beach that you can have all to yourself. Explore mountains and rainforests in the center of the island, and stop to photograph rubber plantations, rice paddies, palm trees and water buffalo. Stay at a backpacker-ish yoga shala for a weeks’ retreat, or kick it up a notch and stay at the Six Senses.

Koh Bon Less than an hour’s boat ride from Rawai on the southeast coast of Phuket, Koh Bon is one of the smaller islands of the Similan Islands but delivers big on the basic necessities for a great beach day, with natural beauty, pristine sands, swings, and palm trees. Bring some supplies from a mini-mart in Rawai and just ask (offer to pay) your longtail driver to hang out for a few hours (he most likely will, closely moored to the other drivers, happily having a chat with his feet up). You might share this stretch of beach with some picnicking locals or a few couples posing for wedding photos, but otherwise it’s likely all yours.

Bottle Beach Arrive by boat to this secluded cove known as the best beach on Koh Phangnan, a lifetime away from the raging Full Moon Parties on the south side of the island. Spend days snorkeling, kayaking, or hiking through the hills behind the beach, and your evenings just chilling and soaking in the serenity. (Long-tail boats deliver day tourists, but in the evening they depart and this end of the island empties out.) INSIDER TIP - This beach can also be accessed by motorbike, but it’s difficult, dangerous, and not recommended. Take a boat instead!

Haad Salad The polar opposite of Haad Rin and its banging Full Moon Parties, Haad Salad is just a tiny, quiet cove, perfect for snorkeling and lazing the day away, waiting for the perfect pink splash of sunset. The beach here is perfection: white sandy bay with shallow, crystal-clear waters, shouldered by green cliffs. A great place to spend your time before and after the Full Moon Party and an even better place to just avoid it altogether.

Silver Beach Koh Samui has plenty of long white sandy beaches populated with resorts, restaurants, massage parlors, and nightlife, but if you want a little break from the tropical hustle and bustle, visit Silver Beach, also known as Thong Takian Beach. Located in Crystal Bay Cove, between Lamai and Chaweng, Silver Beach is calm and quiet; its silver-white sands are dotted with boulders, and it’s bordered by jungle. Activity options include snorkeling, kayaking, and getting a relaxing massage under the shade of a tree on the beach.

Koh Tao’s Beaches Koh Tao, meaning “turtle island,” is the place for all things diving and getting your PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) certification, but it’s also known for its spectacular beaches. Spend some time on Shark Bay Beach and snorkel with blacktip reef sharks and green turtles in turquoise water. Sai Daeng Beach is one of Koh Tao’s best beaches for marine life, as is Ao Leuk, which has a small entry fee (but it’s worth it for the lounge chairs, cold drinks, and pretty beach). INSIDER TIP - In December and January, there are tiny jellyfish that populate the coast, but the little guys are harmless.

Lonely Beach A backpacker-favorite for decades, Lonely Island on the eastern side of Thailand, has become slightly more upmarket, and it’s not so lonely anymore. The beach is beautiful, clean, uncrowded, and fringed with palm trees so it’s the perfect place to refine your beach bum skills. There’s a nightlife scene if you want to partake, with a few funky cocktail bars, and, if you’re lucky you can float in phosphorescence under the moonlight (a particularly popular pastime here).

Koh Kood The fifth largest island in Thailand, but still relatively undeveloped, Koh Kood (also known as Koh Kut) is in the Gulf of Thailand, north of the maritime border with Cambodia. The island’s main beaches are spread out along the west and south coasts and while there isn’t one agreed-upon best beach, favorites include the lively Klong Chao and the picturesque Ao Noi. Snorkel, sunbathe, swim, and just snooze and when you tire of that, hike to Klong Yai Ki Waterfalls, or venture around the island to Ao Salat or Ao Yai fishing villages for barbequed fresh catches.

Koh Kradan Just off Trang Province, this island is picture-postcard Thailand. Here, you’ll find powdery white sand and views across calm waters to the islands Ko Ngai, Ko Muk (which is a nice place to visit to explore the Emerald Cave), Ko Libong, and a few karst islets like Ko Lao Liang and Ko Phetra. Most of this island is part of the Hat Chao Mai National Park, and so it’s undeveloped. There are no cars or ATMs, just a few resorts, bungalows, and beaches galore. One of the most noteworthy is Ao Chong Lom Beach, or Sunset Beach, which is memorable for its—you guessed it—gorgeous sunsets. INSIDER TIP - Visit (or avoid) Koh Kradan around Valentine’s Day for its annual Underwater Wedding Ceremony, when couples from around the world swim up the aisle together. To participate, you and your partner must be certified divers.

Koh Mai Phai Located between Krabi coast and the Phi Phi islands and also—misleadingly—known as Bamboo Island (the main flora here are Casuarinas trees), this tiny, heart-shaped island is home to a quiet and beautiful beach that gives off desert-island feels. Snorkel in the reef with hawksbill sea turtles, lionfish, and leopard sharks, and then head back to the bar shack on the north side for some nibbles and a cold beer. - Erin Gifford/fodors.com – You can follow BangkokJack on Instagram, Twitter & Reddit. Or join the free mailing list (top right) Please help us continue to bring the REAL NEWS - PayPal Read the full article

[themurphyzone]

Mayor Murphy Ch 5

Honestly, you can’t expect me to put in a time stream without our favorite time travelers? 

Ch 5- Errand Running

Balthazar and Vinnie were used to sharing a small, cramped space and the looming threat of eviction if they didn’t pay the rent on time. They were accustomed to the Bureau ignoring Balthazar’s constant requests for a pay raise. Not to mention occasionally losing the money they made from exploding pistachio carts if a certain boy happened to wander by. 

So the whole talking raccoon giving them a place to stay with no set deadline for paying off a home loan thing was still a big shock for them. But like all good things, there was a catch. 

And that catch was playing delivery boy for Tom Nook while wearing a ridiculous green work shirt. The shirt clashed horribly with Vinnie’s pants, but he didn’t mind in the slightest. 

In his humble opinion, seeing Balthazar wearing informal clothing was completely worth it. Or at least partly informal. He still kept the dress pants and hat. 

“A leaf,” Balthazar said in disbelief. “We have to deliver a leaf to a Ms. Eloise.” 

“No, no!” Nook chortled. “This is a special kind of technology that only exists in Crossing Valley! Since you seem behind the times, I will happily enlighten you. Since it would be rather cumbersome to drag beds and desks with you everywhere you go, we’ve developed a way to collapse furniture items into a more portable form.” He turned the leaf over, revealing a small red button on the stem. “Push this button and it will expand into a piece of furniture you can place into your home.” 

Vinnie whistled. “That’s amazing. Why don’t we have anything like that?” 

“Because the Bureau would rather watch us suffer than do anything useful,” Balthazar muttered. 

“Trade secret,” Nook winked. “Now, I believe I forgot to give you a town map when you arrived. Forgive the inconvenience. As you can see, Eloise’s house is located in Acre B2. Just south of here. Come back in thirty minutes, and I might deduct a few extra Bells from your home loan.” 

Nook waved them out of the store, humming as he rearranged the tool display. “Dakota, we came here to investigate the disappearance of pistachios from the time stream of Crossing Valley,” Balthazar muttered, crumpling the map in his hand. “Not to owe money to an apron wearing raccoon!” 

Vinnie shrugged. “I wouldn’t mind working for him. He’s nicer than Mr. Block. Though maybe it wouldn’t hurt to find a better uniform. Green just isn’t my color.” He coughed. “But hey, it looks good on you! You’re green with a fancy mustache.” 

Balthazar tried not to preen at that. “Well, I don’t like to brag or anything but it does take quite a bit of time for proper mustache maintenance. Moving on, let’s get this, uh, leaf item thingy which is apparently a green chair to Eloise.” 

“How do you know it’s a green chair?” Vinnie asked. “It could be a UFO, or a video game, or a plant-well, i guess it’s technically a plant since it’s a leaf but then again it’s synthetic so-” Balthazar reached over and pinched Vinnie’s lips closed. 

“Because the label says ‘green chair’, you disco loving dolt,” Balthazar pointed to a tag on the end of the leaf. 

Snow crunched beneath their shoes as they kept an eye out for Eloise’s house. Vinnie almost didn’t want to tread on it since there was such a pretty star shaped pattern dotting the landscape. He paused in front of a cherry tree, stomach growling at the surprisingly large cherries that hung from the lowest branches. These had to be several times larger than any berry back home. And it was yet another food that had gone extinct in the future. 

Vinnie shook the tree, and three large cherries fell down, the bright red skin standing out from the white powder. “You want one?” Vinnie swallowed one with a single gulp, spitting out the pit. 

Grimacing, Balthazar declined. “You’re really going to eat that without washing it first?” 

Vinnie bit into a second cherry. “More for me, I guess.”

After walking south for several minutes, they finally found Eloise’s house. Smoke poured from a brick chimney, the small house looking more quaint than the one they bought from Nook. Balthazar straightened his hat before knocking twice. 

“It’s unlocked,” Vinnie said, twisting the doorknob. 

Balthazar slapped his hand away. “We can’t just barge in there unannounced! We’ll be arrested for breaking and entering!”

“Didn’t you hear Nook when we were looking at the houses?” Vinnie asked. “The houses only lock when the owner isn’t around. Though you didn’t really care about being arrested when you tried to use a battering ram on the Murphy’s back door-”

“I thought we agreed to never mention that incident again,” Balthazar hissed, opening the door and shoving Vinnie inside. 

“Yay, leprechauns! I’m so happy to meet you! I’m Eloise, toooot!” an elephant cheered. Her entire house was green, with several moneybags stashed in odd places. It looked as though someone had decided to interior decorate with a jungle.

“Um, no actually,” Vinnie said. “Balthy and I aren’t leprechauns. Now that I think about it, you could easily pass for a leprechaun. A tall, cranky one with a big mustache.” 

“First of all,” Balthazar snapped. “We are not leprechauns. We are the newest residents of Pecanville. My name is Balthazar Cavendish, certified time traveler. And this is my colleague, Vinnie Dakota. We are on a mission to deliver-wait, something wrong?” 

“If you aren’t leprechauns, then you have no business in my house!” Eloise suddenly whipped out three brooms, clutching one in both arms and trunk. Her eyes blazed ferociously as she stomped her feet and prepared to charge. “You will get a front row seat to my special Three Brooms Style!”

How on earth she held anything without hands was beyond Vinnie. 

“Wait, wait!” Vinnie frantically waved his arms, jumping in front of Balthazar. “We do have business here! Tom Nook wanted us to work in his shop for a while, and we have a special delivery for you.” He grabbed the leaf and held it out. 

Eloise promptly dropped the brooms, squealing happily. “The great Lucky has blessed me with this green chair!” She tapped the button with her trunk, the leaf expanding into a green chair with a cushion in the back. Dragging it over to a small table, she thanked Lucky profusely. 

“Now, since you’re from beyond Crossing Valley, I assume you’ve met Lucky before?” Eloise asked.

“I don’t know anyone who goes by Lucky,” Balthazar grumbled. 

Eloise gasped. “How could you not know who he is? Why, when I lived in Ceres, someone there told me about Lucky, a great leprechaun god who could make marshmallows and dry cereal pour from the sky while he relaxed in a river of milk! And whenever he came down to earth, a crowd of children always chased him so they could learn the secrets of his Lucky Charms! Oh, and he has little leprechaun helpers that create rainbow slides and give gold coins to good children! Oh, and please accept this guitar as a gift from Lucky himself.” She tapped a button on the neck of the guitar, and it shrunk down into a leaf. 

As he pocketed the leaf, Vinnie noticed many portraits of the cereal mascot around the house, with scented candles lit underneath. “We should really get back to Nook. These deliveries aren’t going to deliver themselves!” He and Balthazar quickly exited the house. 

Behind them, Eloise called, “Prayer is at seven tonight if you wanna join me!”

Vinnie patted Balthazar’s back as he fumed. “Relax. What could possibly go wrong around these parts?”

Nook only deducted 80 Bells for that task, claiming that they were dawdling too much even after Balthazar tried to protest that Eloise held them up with inane ramblings of the leprechaun god. 

The next task was to write a letter to a villager named Puck about an upcoming sale. They managed that one in less than five minutes since the post office was next door. 

“Yes, yes! Very good, very good!” Nook nodded in approval, carefully handing a long, wrapped bundle to Balthazar. “Your next task is to deliver this ax to Murphy! You will not be able to use it yourself, but handle it carefully all the same!”

“Deliver an ax to Murphy?” Balthazar yelped. “Are you insane?”

“No, no! It’s a perfectly reasonable request! Out with you now! And no dilly-dallying!” Nook ushered them out of the shop. 

Balthazar twirled the gift-wrapped ax in his hands. “I am officially placing Tom Nook under investigation for having potential ties to Agent Murphy. He must be a weapon supplier.” 

Vinnie moaned. “I don’t want any part of this please. Have you considered maybe there’s someone living in Pecanville named Murphy and we’re supposed to deliver the ax to him?” 

“Don’t be ridiculous!” Balthazar snapped. “We met all the residents in this backwater town already. Besides, Nook seems awfully quick to get us out of the shop quickly. He’s hiding something, and we’re going to find out what it is. Luckily, I have reliable sources that point towards Agent Murphy and his accomplices hiding somewhere in Crossing Valley.”

Vinnie rolled his eyes. “Reliable sources being one conversation at the dinner table.”

“The problem is that there are millions of towns within the time stream, so we must try to narrow it down to a single location,” Balthazar mused. “We shall begin where all the time streams converge. Central.”

They boarded the train bound for Central, sitting down in a car next to an old boar. “’Scuse me, sirs. Would you like to buy any turnips? Selling ‘em for 100 Bells each!” She gestured to a a handmade basket full of turnips on her back. 

Balthazar scoffed. “We don’t need any sales pitches-oof, get off, Dakota!” 

Because the seat was so small, Vinnie had to lean awkwardly over Balthazar so he could peer into the basket. “May I please get two of your largest turnips?” They completed the exchange, the boar counting her payment. 

“Thank y’all!” the boar exclaimed. “Old sow Joan is pleased to do business with you lovely folk! Now, if ya’ll excuse me, I need to go find that nosy kitty who’s always talking it up with strangers he don’t know. Gonna be in trouble one of these days, I’m telling ya....” 

Joan mumbled to herself as she exited the car, slowly shuffling down the aisle as other passengers ducked her swinging turnip basket. 

“You could stand to be nicer,” Vinnie commented as he snacked on a turnip. He stopped chewing and made a face. “You want these? They’re kinda on the bland side.” 

Balthazar took one bite and made a face. “What’s the point of selling these things if they don’t even taste good?”

“MROW-HA-HA!” a cat snickered. They jumped. She definitely hadn’t been there before. Two fangs poked out of her mouth as she snickered. “Man, I knew noobs learning the ins and outs of plain old everyday town life could be completely clueless. But this? You two definitely take the mouse, purrty. Cheese, whiskers, and all.”

“It’s terribly rude to eavesdrop on conversations that are none of your concern,” Balthazar retorted. 

Vinnie gave him a look. “I think you’ve maxed out the hypocrite meter today, Balthy.” 

“His name is Balthy? How embarrassing.” she smirked. “The name is Katt. Yes, a cat named Katt. Hilarious, am I right or am I right? Time traveler extraordinaire, not at your service, purrty.” 

Katt kicked back against the seat so that her legs rested on Balthazar’s kneecaps. 

“Prove it,” Balthazar demanded. “And we are not clueless. We know what we’re doing.”

Katt lazily flicked her wallet at him. “Sure ya do. Word to the idiot. Turnips are meant to be bought and sold. Not eaten. We’ve got a little thing called the Stalk Market. If ya wanna get rich quick, ya might want to figure out how to use it.” 

“I don’t care about the turnips, Katt,” Balthazar spat her name as if it was poison. “What time traveling organization are you affiliated with?” 

In response, Katt flicked out her watch. “I don’t work for anyone. I’m a lone cat, purrty.” She winked at Vinnie while the gears in her watch wound up. “Your partner is a handful. Makes me glad I’m solitary. Catch ya later!” 

With a burst of light she was gone, leaving a charred seat cushion behind. 

“Eek eek! Arriving in Central! We are arriving in Central!” 

Balthazar and Vinnie set up a pistachio stand as soon as they arrived to bait the target. The ax was hidden inside a compartment, since Balthazar was still indecisive about giving weapons to Murphy. 

The animals were completely clueless to the stand’s real purpose. A purple squirrel paid for his pistachios and muttered something about persuading the mayor for a pistachio stand public works project. 

“Hey, it’s those pistachio sellers!” a voice called out, and a boy in a sweater vest politely made his way across the thick crowd of animals. “Didn’t think I would be running into you guys here! How are you?” 

A small green bear fished by the ocean, yanking up another sea bass.

“Why does everyone always forget things that I ordered, laddie?” he asked his catch as he held it up to his face, preparing to chow down. The sea bass slapped him in the nose with its tail, escaping back into the water and disappearing into the depths. 

“Sure. Forget about me. You’re just like everyone else, you know that?,” he mumbled. “I need to figure out a way to make animals remember the name of Murphy.”

Balthazar and Vinnie are in the Gamecube version of Animal Crossing in winter. 

Eloise copies Zoro’s fighting style in One Piece. 

Poor Murphy. 

Don’t be rude to your neighbors, Balthy. 

[kumar14kay-blog]

Never Been Easier To Compare Hotels In Thailand

Razzle dazzle 'em! Use colour to draw the eye. Again the amount of colour required depends on the other merchandising displays in your shop. For example, a single block of colour will grab attention when placed within a relatively busy merchandising display. Simply need to think about those particularly effective soft drink displays in refrigerators and supermarket aisles for proof this tactic - when viewing items on display, shoppers are hit having a wall of red that instantly grabs their concentration. It's simple and very effectual. Buying condo property hua hin can be a great investiture. Since it is a tourist hub that has visitors all year long long, the probability of this investment failing are least. The demand for property to rent is never down. Thinking about resort can also always growing, this demand is always growing. As a result it makes it possible invest in property in Villas for sale hua hin at a decent price reasonably easy. My young (white) trainee silently retreated and disappeared back in the building. However the even notice he was gone. I was totally mesmerized by this man's face and his eyes. His face was a map that revealed lengthy and hard journey. His eyes revealed a soul that was alive and glowing with energy and life. Has been something majestic and magical in his bearing. He was perfect. He was fulfilled. He "knew" where diet plans . at when i wanted come across what he knew. What was his secret?

Education - The city of Vancouver is equipped with an great system of schools both private and public. The public school system along provides education to substantially more than 56,000 students every season. In addition there are fantastic post secondary options such when compared to the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, along with the Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design also as a bunch of community and specialty colleges. You start your trip in Bangkok at Hualamphong Station, in the heart of Bangkok, across from the Hualamphong subway station. You'll see a row of windows selling tickets, but very best to if you visit up the stairs to the two rooms located on the second level. Here they speak some English, and can also help you book whole trip. A leg get from Bangkok to Butterworth/Penang, Malaysia. You start at 2:45 pm inside the afternoon and arrive in Butterworth/Penang at noon the next morning. On the way, you'll pass houses for sale hua hin and Hat Hai in Thailand. This leg necessitates First class sleeper car, and is going to be fun trip for everyone. Platform for that appeal critical because many potential buyers might just be at property or home. Returning for a second time, depends on your first impression, so the actual outside looks absolutely the best, keep garbage containers out of sight, may need it, give the entrance a fresh coat of paint. Clean paint the interior of the property issues, pertaining to instance behind doors, cabinets and many others. This may sound strange, but buyers are usually any small hole. Are generally to compete effectively to houses inside the area, you should choose a local hua hin property agent helps make this service you shine - an exciting new kitchen countertop may cease all that is needed. You're guaranteed tropical wildlife here. And much it! Over 3000 species of plants, 300 species of birds resulting in 70 mammal species call the area home. Talking about area, where exactly is it? And how big? The nation's park lies mostly in Nakhon Ratchasima Province (also known as Khorat) within the lower Isaan region, but additionally stretches in parts of Saraburi, Prachinburi and Nakhon Nayok provinces in Central Thailand. Khao Yai National Park is 2168 square kilometers in area. Real Estate is work of trading with huge houses or villas. The difference is the net profit when property is purchased. There are also marketplace commission agents who bring the buyer and the vendor into phone. The agent gets commission from both the parties without having to risk buying dwelling first. Could a much easier way of getting money globe real estate market. Topic matter connected with and selling here is real property, commonly called "realty".

[rentacarclub-blog]

Rent a car Thailand

Rent any car online in Thailand, Bangkok and start experiencing the joy of the real ride on the road. Satisfactory prices, Genuine car owners, variety of cars with full information along with insurance cover. Deal with the real car owner. Visit today...

[mtalaiver]

May 18, 2016 - Hat Yai, Thailand

Greetings. There is a saying in Tamil. “No matter where the temple car goes, finally it has to come to its parking spot”. “தேர் ஊரெல்லாம் சுற்றினாலும் அதன் நிலையில் வந்து நின்றுதானே ஆக வேண்டும்''. The same way no matter where I go every day, I end up back in my hotel room in Alor Star, Malaysia.  

Since the Thailand border is less than 50-kilo meters from our hotel, I decided to visit Thailand.  I rode a bus, crossed the land border into Thailand, and spent the day in a different country. Thailand looked no different than Malaysia, except the signs and writings on the billboards were in the Thai language. In any case, both Malay and Thai are Greek & Latin to me, I can’t read both.

After reaching Hat Yai, I rented a taxi for four hours and went all over the town. Though the taxi driver spoke very few words in English (you can say, practically no English), he was a good man. I told him, “Take me everywhere, fish & fruit market, temple, churches, colleges”. Mostly with hand signs, and he understood, I assumed. 

Talking about taxis, they are only pickup trucks fitted with two rows of seats on the bed with a roof over it. My taxi was a jalopy – the steering wheel was tied with strings and ropes to the steering column. But for four hours it was my private limousine.

Hat Yai (the third-largest city in Thailand), is about 70 kilometers north of the Malaysian border. We were warned not to venture into certain localities.  But people were very friendly, helpful and the marketplace crowded. 

Buddhism is the major religion in Thailand and there are several Buddhist temples and viharas everywhere. I visited a few today. 

The Wat Hat Yai Nai temple was constructed in 1917 in the city of Songkhla, Thailand. It is a monastery in Songkhla. The temple was large and built-in a typical Thai architectural style. Devoted to the world's third-largest reclining Buddha, 35 meters long, it was beautiful.  The architecture of these temples has an amalgamation of Thai, Indian (Hindu), and Chinese cultures. The main structures are in typical Thai style (many-layered roofs & sharp needle-like steeples), the ornamentation & decorations resemble Chinese work (dragons & animals), and the paintings inside the buildings are representations of Hindu epics.

I also visited a temple (Wat Khongkha Liap) that belongs to the Mahayana Buddhist sect located at Amphoe Bangklam.

While driving around the city, my driver stopped the vehicle at place, pointed out a building, and said, “Go. Body”. I did not understand and went inside a beautiful building. True, there was a body – it was a funeral home.

The next stop was another pagoda-like building and he said, “Go, burn, burn”. I diligently went and it was a crematorium.  

Later, I walked for quite some time through the marketplace with clothing, fish, meat, fruits, vegetable, groceries, the list go on.  Several vendors were selling their wares, from food to fruits, on three-wheelers.

The bus back to Malaysia was supposed to pick me up at 8:30 PM and bring me to Alor Star by 10:30 PM. But I found favor in the eyes of the bus company manager. He said, “Sir, you don’t have to wait for the bus. We would send you to your hotel in our company car”. I was driven back to my hotel from Thailand in an air-conditioned car. It was an unexpected luxury for the day.  I was in my hotel room by 8:00 PM.   

In both directions I had to go through immigration in both countries for exit and entry visas, totally four times. Thai visa cost me one Malaysian Ringgit (US$ 0.25). I am blessed to be an American citizen. US Dollars and American Passport may easily take you to many places and countries in the world, but not to heaven (John 14:6). Be blessed and stay blessed.

[vacationsoup]

New Post has been published on https://vacationsoup.com/top-small-towns-and-villages-in-thailand/

Uncovering Top Small Towns and Villages in Thailand Unknown To Most

When people think of Thailand, they usually paint their imagination with long, powdery beaches, historic temples, cotton roses, and feast on tom yum soup. Undoubtedly, all these are inviting symbols of the country for tourists all around the world. But there are many lesser-known and less-visited, but top small towns and villages in Thailand that will show you the “ethnic Thailand.”

To inspire you for a memorable and a soulful trip to Thailand, we have put together a list of the most scenic, visit-worthy hidden gems in Thailand.  We bet you will not find these places on most itineraries.

Chiang Khong

Mekong water in Chiang Khong, Image source: https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8059/8247189330_61e17f2ed4_b.jpg

This small riverside village is settled across the swirling Mekong waters from the Lao town of Huay Xai.  It has a popular Friday market, lots of temples, and gorgeous sceneries painted by nature. If you are looking to explore Thailand’s top towns and villages, you must head to Chiang Khong.

Take a walk or cycle to the nearby Hmong village and waterfall. The track is a bit rough and steep; so better leave your motorbike or cycle and do the last stretch to the waterfall on foot for a pleasant hike. If you are looking for top small towns and villages in Thailand, head to Chiang Khong village.

Essential Information

Getting around: You can see the riverfront area on foot and get a tuk-tuk or taxi for the trip out to the bus station.  Rent a bike or motorbike to visit local villages and drive along Mekong banks.

Major attractions: Wat Luang, the 4th Thai–Lao friendship bridge, Rin bar, Wat Phra Kaew and Ang Kep Nam Huai Chang

Ban Bo Luang

Houses in Ban Bo Luang, Image source: http://www.hotelroomsearch.net/im/city/ban-bo-luang-thailand-3.jpg

Ban Bo Luang is a picturesque village that is located over 100 km in the north of the eponymous provincial capital. Nestled between two mountainous national parks and Lao border, the village has long been linked with the salt extraction from local salt walls. That’s why it’s also known as the Salt Well village, one of Thailand’s top villages.

There are many natural places to explore in Ban Bo Luang. Visit Doi Phu Kha National Park to see some of the areas’ highest peaks while Khun Nan national park boasts a trail culminating in a dramatic lookout over Laos.

Important Information

Getting around: To reach Ban Bo Luang, take a bus from Nan to Pua. Arrive at 7-Eleven and take the thrice-daily taxi that that terminates the village.

Things to do in Ban Bo Luang: Swim in the Mekong River, try Khao Soi Pa Orn – traditional soupy noodles, visit a Buddhist temple

Ban Na Ton Chan

Sukhothai historical park, Image source: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/content/dam/travel/rights-exempt/Travel-2016/thailand/article-2/sukhothai-historical-park-sukhothai-thailand.jpg

This beautiful village is one of the hidden small villages of Thailand, located in north-central Thailand. You will see spiky red and green dragon fruits dropping from trees outside homes.

Local wisdom and passion are the charms of this village. Over 20 years, the village has created a fascinating history of local traditions and won many awards for its community-based activities.

Essential Information:

Things to do: try weaving, biking on the streets, feast on Khao mao – a traditional sticky Thai dessert

Mon Cham

Mon Cham village, Thailand, Image source: http://www.easydaythailand.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Chiang-Mai-Mon-Cham-campsite.jpg

Located an hour away from Chiang Mai, Mon Cham is a mountain farming community with amazing, sprawling flower fields. The local hillside tribe produces a variety of flowers using sustainable farming methods. They also produce cooler-weather veggies and fruits.

The flowers keep the hill cherry, colorful and tended while creating panoramic stretches across the village. Walk through the flower fields or visit the mountain-side café for a meal and experience an uninterrupted beauty of nature.

Essential Information

Address: Tambon Mae Raem, Amphoe Mae Rim, Chang Wat, Chiang Mai

Best time to visit: From October to February and the best mode of travel is a car.

Chiang Dao

Wat Tham pha Plong temple, Image source: http://media1.trover.com/T/53cdc126d6bdd45c9200006c/fixedw_large_4x.jpg

Settled in Thailand’s mighty limestone mountains in the north, Chiang Dao is where expats come to escape from the crowd and noise of city life. One of the best things to do in this small town is climbing Doi Chiang Dao, which is Thailand’s third largest peak.

A 90-minute natural trail leads to famous Chiang Dao caves. Bamboo rafting is another amazing fun thing to do in Chiang Dao. Spirituality seekers should head to Wat Tham Pha Plong and less-visited, but gorgeous Golden Temple for stunning views around the town.

Essential Information

Other Things to do: trekking, rafting, soak in Pong Arng hot springs, visiting waterfalls.

Getting there: Take a bus from Chiang Mai, Hwy 107 runs 72 km north to Chiang Dao and then on to Fang and Thaton. The nearest major airport and railway station are in Chiang Mai. You can also rent a metered, air-conditioned taxi one-way.

Trang

Boating in Trang, Image source: https://dynaimage.cdn.cnn.com/cnn/q_auto,w_1024,c_fill,g_auto,h_576,ar_16:9/http%3A%2F%2Fcdn.cnn.com%2Fcnnnext%2Fdam%2Fassets%2F150717133549-islands-of-trang–libong-trang.jpg

Looking for hidden small towns and villages of Thailand? The province of Trang has made its place in our list due to its amazing mountainous interior, lush parks, and pristine and unspoiled beaches. Since not too visitors visit this gorgeous town, it’s undoubtedly one of the best hidden gems in Thailand.

Spend a day or two to explore this ‘real Thai town’ and local culture at their best. Explore wet and dry markets, visit the Clock tower, and local festivals in the town.

Essential Information

Things to do: Visit nearby islands for an exciting snorkeling trip, explore Had Chao Mai National Park othe n bike, enjoy nature at Khao Chong Wildlife and Conversation Centre

Getting there: Local buses run between Trang and Phuket, Krabi and even Surat Thani. Trains also run from  Bangkok and other major cities to Trang.

Rangong

Boats at a beach in Rangong, Image source: https://back-tourcameleo.orchestra-platform.com/admin/TS/fckUserFiles/Image/TRAVELTEAM/THAILANDE/PHUKET.jpg

Rangong is one of the top small towns and villages in Thailand. Rangong is a small border city with fewer crowds of tourists and hence maintains a quaintly Thai atmosphere.

Some of the most popular attractions of this town are bald hill, hot springs, Rangong canyon, and natural waterfalls. Moreover, Rangong’s off-shore islands also set spectacular scenes, especially Koh Phayam and Kam Islands.

Essential Information

Things to do: Shop at Rangong’s bubbly day market or sizzle up mouth-watering Thai dishes at the night market. Some other must-see places are Rattanarangsan Palace, Ngao Waterfall National Park and Punyaban Waterfall.

How to get there: Take a bus from Chumphon’s central bus terminal to reach Rangong.  The Songteow is the best mode to get around this small town.

Phetchaburi

  Cave in Phetchaburi, Image source: http://www.datofarm.com/pics/Thailand.jpg

The scenic town of Phetchaburi is known for its long sandy beaches and mesmerizing natural beauty. Meaning “city of diamonds”, Phetchaburi will keep you busy enjoying no matter how long you’re staying for.

The main beach destinations in the town are Cha Am, Hat Puek Tian and Hat Chao Samran. The city is also rich in culture and history. You can explore beautiful caves, ancient temples and royal palaces in the town.

Essential Information

Other major attractions: Wat Mahathat Worawihan temple, spectacular murals of Wat Yai Suwannaram, Kaeng Krachan National Park, Mrigadayavan Palace

Getting there: You can travel this town by train or bus from Bangkok, which takes around 4 hours to reach Phetchaburi.

Surat Thani

Surat Thani town in Thailand, Image source: http://travelneu.com/o/Surat-Thani-o13.jpg

This small town is known as the “city of good people”, which is surrounded by tasty southern street food and colorful Chinese temples and Chinese shopfronts.

One of the most popular islands in Surat Thani is Koh Pha-Ngan. The island is famous for swimming, snorkeling, diving, and peacefully listening to sound of waves. Khao Tha Phet Wildlife and 210-meter above the sea level Nature Education Station are some of the city’s top views.

Essential Information

Things to do: nature walk, diving, city walk, feasting on seafood

Getting there: Air-conditioned buses run between Surat Thani and Krabi, Phuket and Hat Yai.  Surat Thani International Airport is around 30 kilometres from the city by road.

Kanchanaburi

Death Railway in Kanchanaburi, Image source: http://static.asiawebdirect.com/m/phuket/portals/thaiwave-com/homepage/kanchanaburi/attractions/pagePropertiesImage/kanchanaburi_attractions.jpg.jpg

Nestled in western Thailand, Kanchanaburi is a perfect place for travelers of all kinds, from history buffs to nature lovers. This is one of the must-visit top small towns and villages in Thailand.

The major attractions of the town are Kwai drift, Hellfire Pass memorial museum, Elephant’s World, Erawan National Park, Srinakarin National Park, and Wat Tham Sua.

Essential Information

Other things to try: Restaurants in Kanchanaburi serve popular traditional dishes like tom yum, sticky mango rice and much more. You must get into water sports and boat tours in Kanchanaburi.

Getting there: Bangkok and neighboring provinces are connected to Kanchanaburi by daily rail and bus services. There are trains from Bangkok Noi railway station two times a day for Kanchanaburi.           

So, if you are planning a trip to Thailand, make sure you include these Thailand’s top towns and villages in your itinerary.

[christinemaries]

tues

getting my writing in before the laptops gotta get plugged in. im really comfy in bed right now and unfortunately there is no plug close to the bed so when the time comes i have to sit on the floor. pillows are preferred and im in my onesie. i drank an entire carton of hazelnut almond cream. it was so sweetly delicious. i had the mega poops today so it’s ok to drink my calories like that. i also had lots of fruit and nuts and seeds yay. i took hunty and chev on a country cruise instead of going to the gym. we piled in the car because they looked so excited at me. i stopped to grab coffee which the girl promised wouldnt be cold even though there was a post it stickie note reading 7:30 am and now it was 10:30. it was cold. ugh the laptop has reached plug in point.we drove out a ways and passed a trail but i felt like going a tad further on the expedition. we stopped at a fairly busy intersection where a church with pretty shapely windows and corn field were. i admired the windows and the shabby brick. churches are usually such intriguing, nicely sculpted buildings. i realized we must look pretty crazy walking alongside a busy road and corn field. it’s all in my head. i gathered the boys back in and drove to where a sign pointed for a campground. there must be a trail or lake there i thought and i proceeded down the country road admiring the valley, trees, farms and silence. i reached the campground and pulled in. i went down the hill of a place covered in rvs, campers and cabins surrounded by woods. i went back and forth by an older woman in a golf cart. i decided to get out and thought the worst she could say was no. i walked the dogs over to her as she was coming up the hill again and explained i was wanting to walk the dogs. she said oh that’s fine. i asked her if i needed to pay which she dismissed. she said she worked there and they rented out cabins preferably to people for the whole summer. a dog who’s name was louie came out to greet hunter and chevi and i. his owner came for him and i asked if she was staying there all summer. she was. must be living the dream in the woods. you’d have to find an alternate source of income or drive in but living in the woods camping style is always very appealing to me. i felt fairly comfortable there in my hat and sweats. the lady working there said nice hat and enjoy. that i did. i took them down to look at the river and get a drink. it started to rain. not too hard and my phone was ok and rain wasnt going to stop me. i had just arrived and been brave to find a new spot. we went on a trail through the woods. it was so peaceful and quiet and smelled amazing. i remembered smell of nature must have a high vibration. the trail went up and led to the car. the car was safe and i didn’t need my rain coat anymore from it so i headed back and then went on the other part of the trail. i didn’t see any birds or animals except snails but really enjoyed myself. chevi and hunter did too. i also burst into song which often happens in the woods, partially out of fear to scare off any possible coyotes. the trail led to the road too much closer to the road we’d turned off on after seeing the campground this way sign. i stopped at an abandoned country house with a big barn and big piles of rocks where the house must have been. i checked it out a little bit but didn’t want to trespass too much. i’m cautious. i walked through many cobwebs on the trail and felt like i was releasing negativity by picking them off. i got back in the car with more tired dogs and headed home. on the way back i stopped at some antique farm machinery. i saw some cows and squatted by the fence watching them. i left the dogs in the car. they were beef cows and curious about me. they just stood and watched me after i’d seen them hopping on top of eachother. i started walking towards the car a bit and they followed me. i stopped and looked at them, they stopped and looked at me then they backed off. i walked away again and then they proceeded closer. i stopped and they ran off. ridiculous cows i laughed. i got home and got ready to go to orientation after eating some food. the london relief center. i went in and the receptionist looked at me as if i were an alien. she called someone asking about a dispensary meeting and said no wrong place. i used the bathroom and got frustrated and went back to my car. i texted the human resource girl who gave the address. it was downtown. she didnt give me the right address because i couldnt find it. i was getting angry and wanted to say fuck it and go riding. i should have. and know to next time if something like this happens. i parked on the street and started walking. i noticed it tucked in. 3 guys and a girl were there. i apologized for being late and he gave me paperwork to fill out. i completed it and he began the long boring reviewing of the work. i wish they had let us smoke something or had food. it was dull. i hate listening to people talk and talk when the paper is there in front of me. i asked a lot of questions and was there for a couple hours. there was no mention of pay and it’s risky and illegal. it’s definitely a place i will use to buy weed but i’m not sure about working there. it requires a ton of product knowledge which i am generally not that interested in. i like the idea of helping people through their journey and figuring out a solution for them but i dont think the herb is it. helping people on their journey is it though. just what... that is the mystery. that part of being a budtender is appealing. they want me to work tomorrow. there is no parking and that is frustrating. i am really lucky i didnt get a ticket. i stopped for vegetable rolls on my way home. walked chevi and it was too late after chatting to daddy to ride. i painted and am relaxing to music. tomorrow!!!!!!!!

[bobbewhite]

Wtad.com-white Pages-6.09.17

MOVING STUFF: Boxes and Bodies

Bobbe White

We moved Korey to Washington DC. Let me say, moving is not for sissies. There are better terms, but let’s just call her belongings, “stuff.” In March we helped move her stuff from Denver. She sold her furniture; it was cheaper than renting the big honkin’ U-haul trailer, as opposed to the little honkin’ U-haul. Her stuff lived in our garage for three months. Last week, (queue Beverly Hillbillies song) we loaded up the truck and headed for D.C. -Washington, that is. Monuments, politics. All of the stuff was packed in the trailer. The back of the truck bed remained empty, in case of rain or theft. Except for one item: Korey’s snow skis – because one never knows when you can catch a quick ski run at Dupont Circle. Sixteen hours later, we pulled up to her building’s loading zone.

Within an hour, everything was moved to her fifth floor apartment. Next up: IKEA, also known as Disney World for furniture. IKEA has everything from couches to succulents. We loaded up new stuff into the truck and headed for Target for more stuff.

Moving stuff is a lot like buying a mega-load from the grocery. By the time you put it into the cart, take it out of the cart for payment, load it back into the cart, then out of the cart and into the car, unload it from the car and into the garage, set it down while you find your house key, pick the bags back up and carry them to the kitchen, you’ve handled the bags thirty-seven times. So it was, with Korey’s stuff. It wouldn’t have been such a workout, except for all the boxes of books. Books and more books. Big books. Little books. Hardback books and paperback books. This sounds like Dr. Seuss’ books. The girl LOVES her books. I kept wondering why we ever taught her to read. Just kidding…it’s a wonderful obsession. Korey’s other vice is artwork. The framed pieces aren’t all that heavy, but quite awkward in shape; there are no two frames of equal size.

Korey reserved the loading dock for 9:00 a.m. The ramp incline was about a 45 degree pitch. Work those quads! Her new friend, Maddie, kindly came to help. Wanting to appear like the ever-capable mom, I headed in with two Rubbermaid tubs and tripped on a three inch step. In degree of difficulty, Olympic diving judges would have scored my belly-flop in layout position, an 8. For athleticism, I’d have gotten a 2 and for klutziness, a 10. Ironically, I was wearing soccer shin guards, but that’s another story… What I really needed were knee pads. During the move-in process, I began to feel less like a clodhopper, because two others on team White House tripped. So there.

Our one fun activity after moving was a power mile walk to power yoga/Pilates class on the National Mall. It’s the big park at the foot of the Washington monument. Fortunately, it’s a huge space, as 500 people attended class. Forty instructors were positioned throughout the crowd for guidance. They pumped up the music. We pumped up our muscles. The sun pumped out major heat. In spite of heat and fatigue, class was fun. I decided I’d be done, when either my water bottle was empty or my arches had completely fallen (Class was barefoot), whichever came first. No wonder I was the oldest person there, by twenty years. This was the mother of all workouts.

Just when my spirit was drowning in sweat, a young boy, about three, found his mom/instructor right near me, and gave her a big hug as she hugged her obliques. We laughed. She did not shoo-fly him away. Before long, another boy (five-ish) found Mom. The two boys sat quietly. The smaller one then balled up beneath her plank position. She never missed a beat. The older one plopped her straw hat onto her head, a towel over her outstretched legs and she never missed a beat. Next, their toddler sister waddled to Mom. And she never missed a beat.

What a precious picture at the end of class. We needed a mental break from physical fatigue. I doubt I’d have lasted much longer, if not for the entertainment.

Class ended. I told Mom how much we enjoyed her ducklings. Then we got to walk the mile back to Korey’s place. Yay. I prayed there would be no more stuff to move. There was, but just a bit. But I never tripped again.

      Moving Stuff: boxes and bodies Wtad.com-white Pages-6.09.17 MOVING STUFF: Boxes and Bodies Bobbe White We moved Korey to Washington DC. Let me say, moving is not for sissies.

[symbianosgames]

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

We recently got back from the Reboot Develop conference in Dubrovnik, where we showcased our first public demo for Yaga. There was quite a bit of anxiety about the whole thing in our team but it turned out pretty well. We’ve had our share of hiccups and “a-ha” moments, so we thought of sharing our experience with the world. You know what they say, it’s better to learn from history than from experience.

First, a few words about Reboot: it’s an annually-held event where people in the industry meet and share knowledge. During its three days, people have the chance to attend and/or hold talks, showcase their game or their business, look for talent or just find some like-minded people. There are both indies and triple-A developers, publishers, artists, musicians, basically anyone who has an interest in the field.

When we decided to go, we set two main objectives: gather feedback and show our game to a few potential publishers. We also wanted to gain knowledge, meet fellow game developers, experiment with some basic marketing strategies and play some freshly-baked games, but these were mostly secondary. Overall I’d say we were reasonably successful but we could have done a few things better.

What went right

People were pretty excited about our game. There were many who wanted to try the game and give us their impressions. We also noticed that approaching people who were just watching tended to get them involved. Even the ones who didn’t end up playing the game had questions or feedback. A simple “Wanna play?” usually gets the conversation started.

Our booth looked pretty sweet for the small amount of resources involved and caught the attention of people.

The mask seemed to help garner interest

Our community manager suggested that people tend to ignore or throw away flyers unless they has some value in themselves. You also have to give people an incentive to visit your site so they don’t immediately forget about you. That’s why we decided to make an origin-story comic and split it in two:

The first three pages (+ a cover) which were printed and which we would hand out to people. The third page ended in a cliffhanger and had a link to the continuation.

The last three pages are available online, on our landing page for the game, hoping that people reading the comic will want to learn more (or at least see how the comic ends) by visiting our site. (If you’re curious, you can check the whole comic here) .

The demo build was surprisingly stable, yay! We had it running for about ten hours a day for three days and there wasn’t a single crash.

We made a lot of contacts - not just publishers but also sound designers, localisation experts, media representatives and so on. What proved useful was writing down some info about those contacts right after meeting them. Otherwise you just end up with a bag of business cards and no clear memory of who they are and what they do.

Our booth configuration was flexible, and we managed to fit all our stuff on the assigned table, even if the space was smaller than we were informed beforehand. Always make sure you know the size of the allocated space, and try to keep in mind that this might change at the venue.

Going to talks. Reboot had an awesome set of speakers and dev-oriented talks, and it’s a great learning opportunity. Based on talks that sounded interesting, we took turns at the booth from time to time, so while one of us managed the booth, the others could go and learn new things.

What could have gone better

We started working on our marketing strategy and materials a bit late. It was better than our usual “wait, that’s three days from now?”, but we still had to do some crunch-time (I’m sure our artist who had less than two weeks to make a fully-polished six-page comic can attest).  Unfortunately this also meant we had to give up on some ideas we wanted to try. I guess there’s always a next time.

Our SquareEnix Collective campaign happened to start very close to Reboot. As with any other campaign, the first few days are crucial in gathering attention and engaging the community. We had to juggle between constantly replying to feedback and comments online and showcasing our game at the conference.

Research your trip options beforehand:

We took the plane instead of driving. Traveling by car would have meant 14 hours of driving while the plane-ride ended up being about 11. The time improvement was small and we also had to carry a lot of marketing stuff in our luggage, send a few things by car and walk a lot. We also had a hard time finding a monitor to rent at the conference - grabbing one from home would have made more sense and would have allowed us to decorate it a bit.

Make sure you have the whole trip planned. We had no idea how to get from the airport to the hotel and wasted two hours and some money going the wrong way while dragging our luggage around.

Networking is still not our best skill. Trying to approach people at the afterparties proved more challenging than we thought. We’ve had more success by talking to speakers right after their talks. This also gives you a starting point if you meet them later on.

What went wrong

There were some elements in our game that were confusing to the players.

Some of the first things you got to interact with were just placeholders that were supposed to hint at additional content. These should have been removed. On the second day we created a new build to fix this but we ended up causing more problems so we reverted to our safe build.

People just missed out on many of the features. We had no tutorial, as people usually don’t spend that much time at a single booth, so there were many cases where we had to explain “you can heal if you press Y”, “there are more hammers you can try”. I’ve seen one team had a printed page explaining the controls but it doesn’t feel like  a great solution

Some things were hard to understand without proper context. For example, we have a crossroads system in place but the choices seemed meaningless if you only got to play for ten minutes.

A fail-safe for when people get stuck would have been nice. Not necessarily cheats, but at least a way to revert the game back to the latest checkpoint. Replaying the whole game from the start because of a bug can be a turn-off.

We lacked proper branding.

We made t-shirts but somewhere in the process we forgot to add the Yaga logo.

We had a small banner on our booth with the logo but it was barely visible.

Our twitter account and devblog address were not shown anywhere and people kept asking for them. We ended up placing a hand-written stick-it note on the monitor with the twitter account, which was definitely not a proper replacement.

What we might try at the next events

Some of the other teams were constantly playing the game themselves. This works best if your game has local co-op and people can instantly join the game.

One of the teams had a bowl where you could leave your business card, and there was a lottery at the end to win some jewel thingie. Obviously the first part only works at events that are closed to the large public, but the lottery could work in all cases.

People had free candy at their booths. Provides that extra 2% of niceness.

There was one team who was cosplaying the whole time (nothing complex, just a hat and some glasses and so on). They were a lot more noticeable this way, and you knew they were part of the same team. I’m assuming at an event with public access this might work less, as cosplay is more of a thing there.

We might want to bring a second monitor that would constantly run a gameplay trailer, or have a sort of in-game demo mode that starts after a minute of inactivity.

What’s next

Overall attending Reboot turned out to be a positive experience. We’ve learned a ton, started some conversations with some publishers and made a few friends (Doublequote Studio and Exordium come to mind). All that remains now is to use the feedback and our observations of people’s reactions, tweak the game accordingly and start thinking about the next event we want to attend. Also going to an event that’s open to the public might be a logical next step, and we’re probably gonna give that a try, too.

This post was originally posted on http://ift.tt/2pvZZp9.