Where you go?

Again, I will apologise for the obscure title for this post, and again, it will only be some of the Green Parkers that will understand! It's just too funny to not use!

The last five or so days have been amazing, sad, fun, and pretty much a couple of the best days I've had here so far. As most of you know, my best friend Leah and her awesome fiancee Shaun came to Bangkok to visit and that, coupled with the fact that we were all going to celebrate Helen's 20th birthday at Cabbages & Condoms on Wednesday night, had me bursting with excitement. Like a little kid on Christmas morning. Or a fat person with an unlimited expense account in a McDonalds.

After a long day at uni, I got to have a somewhat girly, squealing, excited reunion with Leah and Shaun on a Bangkok street underneath a BTS station on Wednesday night before we dropped my stuff off at our amazing hotel and headed to a restaurant called Cabbages & Condoms for Helen's birthday dinner. (If you haven't heard about Cabbages & Condoms, google it. Instead of after dinner mints, they give you a condom. And it's all in the name of an amazingly good cause)We were joined by one of Leah and Shaun's friends from their tour, Jen from New Zealand so not only did I get to see two of my oldest friends, I made a new one. And had a frozen margarita. Good times!

On Friday, Leah and Shaun had organised for us to go to Kachanaburi province where we went to a war museum and cemetery. Along with the three of us were several others from Leah and Shaun's tour, including Jen and Belinda and Hayden who had gotten engaged the night before! Nawwwww... Adorable!The amount of information on Aussie soldiers, including our very own South Australian Weary Dunlop, in the museum kind of surprised me. We don't often hear or learn about Thailand's involvement in World War II or the Australian soldiers who were here also. I found the number of graves of Australian soldiers in the cemetery to be a bit of shock also. They're so far away from home and there was so many of them. And I won't even get started on how incredibly disgusted we were by the Japanese tourists posing next to headstones. Peace signs and all. Kachanaburi is home to the River Kwai, and the famous Burma Railway bridge from the book and movie "The Bridge Over The River Kwai". The bridge was built by prisoners of war (forced by the Japanese Army)and was also known as the Death Bridge because during its construction approximately 13,000 prisoners of war died and were buried along the railway, while an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 civilians were also killed. And I was too scared to walk too far across the damn thing. One trip or stumble and you would end up straight in the Kwai, so Leah and I walked a little way and turned back to safety.

We had lunch at a restaurant right on the river and then it was off to the Tiger Temple. I had some reservations about going because of stories that you hear about the tigers being drugged etc, but the guide had assured us that it wasn't the case. When we got there (and after Leah had to buy a shirt that wasn't brightly coloured so she didn't get eaten), Leah and I were still slightly skeptical about the level of cruelty. The tigers were all lazing around like they were depressed, which I guess you would be if you were chained to the ground. A guide grabbed each person by the hand while another took your camera and then you posed for photos while the poor tigers just sat there. At one point, one of them started drinking out of his water bowl and was punished for not looking at the camera by getting squirted in the face with water. I was less then impressed and in my not-so-quiet voice let the perpetrator of said squirt know only to be reprimanded for raising my voice. Dude, you're the one flinging water at a giant cat. My slightly raised voice is not going to piss him of half as much as water in the face. I am ashamed to admit that it was kind of cool to be so close to animals that are so big and so rare. Plus, one of them kicked me in the stomach (accidentally I'm sure) and actually knocked me backwards. It's not every day you get kicked by a tiger. Afterwards we were approached by an Australian girl who worked at the Temple who again tried to assure Leah and I that the only reason they're so docile is because they get fed prior to visitors coming near them and that they're only on the chains for a few hours a day. I personally think that's a few hours too many, even if in the long run they're helping the survival of the species. Animals shouldn't suffer just so tourists can pose for a cool photo to show to their family and friends. I would be just as happy to see them from a distance if it meant they had more freedom.

After a long day of war museums, possible animal cruelty (we're still undecided) and a water taxi down a stinking Bangkok canal Leah, Shaun and I headed back to our hotel, showered and went shopping. For other people. If any of Leah's friends or family read this, I hope you appreciate the trouble they went to get you guys some gifts!!! All was not lost though when we headed to McDonalds for a quick dinner to discover they had cheesy fries. A-MAZING! Thank god we don't have a Macca's near the dorm or I would be even fatter than I am now. Seriously, Thailand is damaging my waistline with it's extremely cheap food!

On Friday we headed down to Khao San Road to do some shopping and meet up with Jen. After much shopping (DVD's, matching toe rings for us girls, clothes and enough nose rings to last Leah a lifetime or two) we stopped in at a pub, pretty much so Leah and I could use the bathroom, and it started raining. And it just kept going. Love the end of monsoon season. Out of nowhere the rain hits and it never ends. And its so damn heavy. But rain did not deter us from shopping some more for the ever-elusive quality designer replica handbag for Leah. Whilst we didn't find exactly what we were looking for we did see some awesome Armaci Vercedi bags. Which had us in fits of laughter when we realised they were meant to be Gianni Versace. God I love Asian-English translations. Oh and Leah, this one's for you "Shaun was wrong, he he was wrong"!!! 55555 (The word for number 5 in Thai is ha so 55555 is the equivalent of hahahahaha. Something that highly amused Leah and I). We had decided that we would go see one of Thailands infamous Ladyboy shows that night. Shaun had called to make a booking and was informed that he, Leah, Bel and Hayden would be charged one price and I, an MUIC student, would get a discount. Until they saw that I was not a Thai MUIC student, but a foreigner. All of a sudden, I too had to pay the same price as the others. This whole foreigners pay more than locals is a constant source of annoyance to me. I don't understand it at all and I don't think I want to understand it because I get the feeling it will make me angry. It seems... racist. But I digress. The ladyboy show was amazing. I did however spend a large portion of it staring at people's crotches, trying to work it out. Some of them were totally gorgeous with amazing figures and I reckon it confused the hell out of the guys in the audience! Afterwards, the performers all lined up to pose for photos which I thought was a bit weird. I realise we'd just paid to watch them perform but there was something about them lining up to have people take their photos that was a little zoo-like for me. It seemed kind of odd.

I felt kind of sad when we got back to our hotel because Leah and Shaun were leaving the next day which meant not only did I have to leave the comfy bed and shower with actual water pressure (!) but I had to say goodbye all over again. And of course when the time came, I cried like a baby. And not just until their taxi drove away but the whole way home. I stopped in a supermarket that they had found that sells Aussie and American food like Twisties and Pop Tarts, spent up big on junk food, had the sales guy give me strange looks either for spending so much money on crap or for sniffling my way through the store, continued to cry on the BTS and the bus home, fogging up my glasses in the process. On the bright side, I got to see two of my favourite people in the world, in Bangkok for almost 3 whole days, got to see some awesome new stuff and places, do things I never thought I'd do, and meet new friends. It was just so so so great to have my people with me, even just for a few days. I can't describe what a little familiarity does for a person!

So after a few days, hours of fun, matching jewellery, great food and an awesome hotel, I have to send a HUGE thank you and a ton of love to Leah and Shaun. You guys are awesomely amazing and I miss you both!!! Having you both here was the best birthday present ever! And if anyone from home wants to make my Christmas equally as awesome by coming to visit, please do!!!

xoxo