Tea Time

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I am completely obsessed with these items from Charlie Ccbb on etsy.

I'm obsessed with etsy in general at the moment. I suggest everyone go check it out! You can find some fabulous items hand crafted with love.
Also, I think someone should buy me this little set. Go on! You know you want to! I would love you forever and ever and ever.

Creepy!

Photo by sujathafan

Bangkok has a pretty big Indian population, especially around Nana where I live. Which means there is a lot of delicious Indian food near me! YUM! I also find Indian people very friendly and interesting. I'd love to go there one day.

But I have had a problem with some weird Indian guys here. It happened the first time in MBK (a huge shopping centre). I was just coming out of the donut store with snacks for myself and my friends who were in the adjacent store when this Indian in a turban (nothing quite as fabulous as the gentleman in the photo) approached me.

"Excuse me madam" he said "On the outside you look healthy and happy but on the inside you are not well."
I was too shocked to say anything and he kept going. "You are going to get very sick and die soon. Your heart is also not happy. Would you like to go take a seat and talk about your life."

At this point I managed to splutter out "No thank you. I'm with my friends" and went to walk away. But the guy blocks me and says "Excuse me but we are talking about your life not you friends". I got really mad and told him that I didn't feel comfortable talking about my life with a complete stranger and push passed him back to my friends. I got quite upset by it and rally creeped out. I calmed down by the next day and forgot about it.

Since that day, this has happened to me half a dozen times. Always young Indian men wearing turbans, always telling me I'm sad on the inside. I just shrug it off now. But as it turns out, similar things have happened to all my foreign friends here. It happened again to me today.

Does anyone know what these guys are about? They are seriously creepy!!! I'd like to know why they say this sort of stuff to people.

Nam Sooay Mak Marr

Mr A and I decided we needed a little jaunt in the country to get away from the hustle and bustle of BKK. After some umming and ahhing we decided on Kanchanaburi, about 2 hours North West of Bangkok. So we hired a car and took to the (scary) roads of Bangkok armed with printouts from google maps and pretzels.

We have both been to Kanchanaburi several times before, just for day trips to see the river Khwae and the tiger temple. It's very very gorgeous. But we had never really explored the place before. So we decided to take in the waterfalls, caves and beautiful scenery.

Our first stop was Erawan National Park and it's stunning 7 tiered waterfall. This place is super popular with tourist but it's also a favourite picnic spot with Thais too. This time of year is the best because it's the end of the rainy season and the falls are fit to bursting and at their most stunning. There are also less tourists (peak tourist season is November to March). It costs 200 baht to get in for tourists which will actually get you into any part of the national park for a day so it's not a bad deal! We trekked right up to the seventh tier which took about an hour. It's pretty slippery and the climb is a little tough so I would recommend wearing sturdy shoes. It was totally worth it (and made me feel better about missing the gym that day. Tehehehe). Nature at it's very best!





Here's a fun little guy. He's licking a wrapper. There were tonnes of moneys around the place, all sneaking off with tid bits from people's pic-a-nic baskets. Yogi bear has nothing on the sneaky Thai monkey. While we were there, some monkeys were fighting and one of them fell into the pool right near a Thai girl. Hilarious! He had to swim back and shimmy back up the tree. Feeling sorry for himself I'm sure.

One of the best things about the falls is you can swim there! The water is clear, fresh and clean. But....there are fishys. I hate fish. They are slimy and scary and EW. And these fish nip you. It doesn't hurt but it feels gross. They are trying to eat the dead skin off your feet. I hear they do this in Singapore as part of a pedicure. EW EW EW! I can think of nothing worse. I do not want fish eating me! So......I armed myself with Pokey: The Fish Pokin' stick.



It was taking me ages to get in the water. Here I am mincing around and squealing like a wuss "NOOOOO the fish will get me".

Next thing I know, I'm in the water because some Thai guy push me in! How rude! But I'm glad he did. The water was lovely and cool, just what we needed after the sweaty hike up the falls. The waterfall was great too. Standing under it was like getting a free massage!



Lovely! We were pretty whipped after the hike and the swim so decided to head back into town and find somewhere to stay. After a fruitless search through overpriced shitehouse bungalows and terrible toilets, we stumbled upon Apple's. The rooms were simple but comfy and ultra clean(and cheap! $10AUD for both of us!). The owner, Noi, was lovely and helpful. You also MUST eat in their restaurant. Then food is authentic Thai. Very delicious and very cheap! It's also right on the bar strip which means it's very easy to go out on the town. But even with Black Eye Peas thumping out of a pub across the road, Apple's is still amazingly quiet and serene. It has a really nice garden area where you can sit and think. But bring the mozzie repellent because there are quite a few of them around.

After a good sleep in and one delicious apple pancake courtesy of the delightful Noi, we decided to go to Lawa cave. There are heaps of lovely caves around Kanchanaburi and Lawa is supposed to be the best. We managed to get horribly lost as the signs stopped being in English and we went about 15 minutes past the cave. But the scenery was beautiful so it wasn't a bad thing.



We found our way back to the turn off and decipher the Thai sign to work out which way we should go. The cave was pretty amazing. It was still living which is unusual in Thailand. The usually get carved and turned into underground temples. And there were BATS!


I LOVE bats! I think they are adorable. I have a weird thing with animals in Thailand. I see a squirrel and I go nuts. I see bats and get super excited. I think monkeys are pretty cool. But I'm so blahsay when it comes to Elephants. I think it's because I see them every day on my street and they get soooo annoying sometimes because they block the street you need to go on so you can't get through. I've almost gone careening into an elephant butt before when I was running to get out of the rain. I've have friends come to stay and they squeal when they see one. I'm just like "Oh yeah!"

But anywho, Lawa cave was really nice. It was surprising warm. I always expect caves to be cool and wet. There were some really lovely rock formations.

After the cave, we had some lunch by the River Khwae and then head back to Bangkok. I would recommend it to anyone visit Thailand. The country side is beautiful, the sights are breathtaking and the people are friendly. What more can you ask for?

Gender Benders

Photo by Shambles Work & Play

I *heart* Katoey (known in the West as Lady Boys). They are an integral part of Bangkok's Gay and Transsexual community. They are also known as Lady Boys. They can be very very convincing and beautiful. They are always look FIERCE! There are some grotty ones but they are mostly in the really horrible seedy bars, strip joints and ping pong bars (which I have actually been to -perhaps a post on that later tehehehe).

Quite a few Katheoy are sex workers or hostesses in bars. This has lead to a lot of Farang (foreign guys being wary about picking up Thai girls (a lot of Kathoey still have their manly bits - not always desirable for the heterosexual male). They can also be very aggressive and annoying with their advances. But so can the regular ol' Thai prostitutes. Apparently they are responsible for of a lot of the bag snatching and pick pocketing crime here too, taking advantage of the gross, rich farang that congregate here like weeds, slipping their wallets out of their pockets when they are sloppy drunk.

But like anything, these generalisations do not apply to everyone. This is why I think Katoey are awesome. They don't want to hit on me. They just want to chat about girly things. They usually speak awesome English so are great to chat to. They can give you a really interesting insight into gay culture within Bangkok.

It's quite refreshing to be in country where people are so accepting of GLBT people. Generally anyway. Kathoey are not quite accepted as just being run of the the mill gay. Fathers are apparently very disappointed if their sons become Kathoey. Which is pretty much as good as it gets for some guys in Australia. I find it strange sometimes that Thais are so accepting of transgender individuals but can be unbelievably racist (I will write something on this soon). I think it may be because most Thais are Buddhist and are therefor very accepting of other people's life choices.

If you get a chance, go see a good Kathoey cabaret show. The costumes are amazing, the dancing is fabulous and the girls are stunning. It's a very unique cultural experience!

Stop! Clara Time!!

I am probably going to regret putting this up but what the hey! Every time I watch it I giggle at it's ridiculousness. So why not share it!

So the I have been reading the blog of the loveliness that is Queen Gilda for quite a while now. She is super lovely and stylish and funky. She has an internship at Patricia Field for gods sake! She makes AMAZING clothing. So when she announced a competition in celebration of her etsy store I just had to enter. It was for a pair of her sparkley hammer pants for goodness sake!

I initially meant to enter almost immediately. I wen t all around Bangkok looking for awesome 80's clothing. To my annoyance and frustration, there wasn't any. I couldn't even find any awesome 80's fabric to McGyver my own pair of hammer pantsy goodness. So I gave up.

But when Gilda put up the last call for entries, my pants wanting senses went into over drive and I HAD to enter. It was a force of nature.

I rushed round the house trying to find some suitable hammer-esque attire. I found the god awful orange snow jacket that Alex got in Japan (I hate it with the burning passion of a million suns). And for the pants I found some star spangled fabric in the back of my wardrobe that I thought would do just fine. I quiffed my hair into a faux flat top, pulled on my high tops and slapped on my aviators. To be honest the hammer pants felt like I was wearing a big nappy. I was safety pinned and all. And that jacket was daaaammmmm hot in the BKK heat!

After watching the video twice, I decided I had a basic knowledge of how to hammer dance. And away we went. A slightly grumpy Mr A was the director and cinematographer. After several take with major wardrobe malfunctions (i.e. the pants falling of) we managed to get one where the pants only fell down a bit and I looked a little less spazzo. And voila! There you have it. Clara Time! Enjoy! I don't think I'll win. Arabelle made ridculously awesome video that I think will have me beat, but I had fun anyway! Enjoy!

Houston. We have a problem.

Photo by telwink

Some bad news from the world of cupcakes. I suppose this does present me with a good opportunity to explain to me what I'm doing here in lil' ol' Bangkok.

Mr A got transferred here for work just over a year ago. He is an engineer for a company that requires him to travel a lot. I didn't move with him to begin with because I was a very bad time for me to leave Perth. We had only just gotten our first cat and I refused to leave her while she was so young (we got her and found out a month later that Mr A was leaving). I also had a few important opportunities happening for me in Perth. I wanted to see how they would pan out. Plus I was already planning to go on a trip to Japan and through Asia so I figured I'd stay for a few months in Bangkok. So that's what I did. I wasn't planning on coming back for so long but Mr A's contract got extended by 6 month so I figured I'd just get a visa and move for the rest of the time he was here.

It was a pretty huge decision for me. I had already quit my previous job (which was actually pretty good), left behind a pretty awesome spot in my burlesque troupe and most traumatically, my cat, Gretchen (as I have previously mentioned, we couldn't bring her to Bangkok for quarantine reasons). But it was a good decision. I love it here and love being here with Mr A. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Mr A's contract is up in January so there was a good chance we wouldn't be going back to Perth. His company was taking their sweet arse time deciding where to send him (which is evident in the fact they extended his contract here in Thailand by 6 month - they hadn't bothered to decide where to send him next). So he had been putting feelers out for Angola, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Angola would be month on, month off so I would have Mr A all to myself for a whole month and he would be earning the mega bucks. LA and San Fran would be just plain awesome. Plus I have friends in both those places. I had all these plans of working part time and maybe studying. Perhaps do a professional baking course. So when his company finally had a meeting about where they were sending the grads, I was so excited. So many options.

Here is where they want to send us: Houston. HOUSTON! The most boring city in Texas. At least this is what all my American friends tell me. They are all like "ohhh, you don't want to move there." Even people from Texas say that!!! It's so far away from everyone! No-one will visit me there! I can't visit anyone from there without is costing an arm and a leg. The weather is terrible for my cat and as far as I'm concerned there is nothing for me there. I am so mad at A's work for not even taking in his location preferences. Stupid corporate jerks.

So we are going to try and get his transfer changed to a different location. I flat out refuse to move there. I would have to completely start over and I seriously think it would be the end of me. I am not a Southern girl. I refuse! Cross your fingers for me!

Clara

xoxoxox

Swimming in the Rain

My lovely American teacher buddies came over for a swim in our lovely roof top pool. Sadly, the Bangkok weather had other ideas for us and issued a down pour of biblical proportions. Lightning and thunder too! It's the wet season here so the weather can be pretty unpredictable. As I am typing the clouds are gathering and I can hear thunder in the distance.

So after about 2 hours of sitting inside (and several G & Ts) we decided to hoof it up to the roof, with our drinks, in our togs and go for a dip. Even when it rains here it isn't cold so that wasn't a problem. The temperature was peeeerrrrfect. We took Mr A's Olympus camera up with us, which is actually waterproof, and of course that resulted in some ridiculous photos. It was crazy fun! Here are just a few of them. (Kim sadly didn't go in the water - she was scared of the lightning.)

Marisa, Morgan and Me in the rain!!

Kisses!!!!

Mr A and Nick - drinking and linking buddies!
My attempt at being "fierce". Mr A ruined it! Tyra would totally call me out for my left foot not being pointed anyway (I have developed a HUGE obsession with America's Next Top Model)

Gosh he can be a worry sometimes.


YEAH!!!!!

Circle of friends. Mr's A eyes freak me out in this picture!

Fun times were had by all. It was still raining when we left the pool. Once we dried off we had more drinks and played the champion drinking game of "Guess that Cover!" It was pretty hilarious. These guys are the best and worst thing about living overseas. They are wonderful because they are so so fun and great to go out with but I'll miss them like crazy when I leave!! I will be super sad!