• Back in Brisbane

      3. tammikuuta, Australia ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

      Our fight was slightly delayed in taking off, which we didn't seem to catch up. This meant arriving in Brisbane a little after 9 in the morning. By this stage, Brisbane international airport was filled to the brim with people going through immigration. Finally after about an hour and a half we made it back home, that is until next time ...

      Next destination: To be confirmed ...
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    • Bangkok Part 2 - Day 5

      2. tammikuuta, Thaimaa ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

      Our final day in Bangkok was spent packing all of our spoils from Thailand. Our bags were bursting at the seams, so much so that I split my zipper on my bag. Jason was trying to reach his baggage limit but he had left just enough room to make a few more purchases at Platinum before our flight home in the evening.

      I said it was a marathon shopping expedition and Jason was not going to stop until either we keeled over or we ran out of time. My feet were killing me as I dragged them along the shopping centre floors and the streets of Bangkok. We’d done so much walking and dancing over the past fifteen days that I had a massive bruise on my inner sole. But that wasn’t going to keep us from bargain hunting.

      But it came time to finally close the purse and head back to the hotel to collect our bags and make our way to Suvarnabhumi Airport, a forty minute drive from central Bangkok. This time we were more prepared for the budget Jetstar flight and stocked up on some goodies.

      Next destination: Brisbane
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    • Bangkok Part 2 - Day 4

      1. tammikuuta, Thaimaa ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

      New Year’s morning was another slow start. We weren’t sure what shops were going to be open but we thought we’d try our luck at MBK. Once again we wandered the endless floors of shops without a purchase to be bought, so we ditched MBK and headed to Platinum Fashion Mall.

      After traversing most of the six floors of Platinum, we headed back to our hotel.Later in the evening we wandered back to Si Lom near the Patpong Night Markets. Next to Sala Daeng station was my newest favourite cheap shop, Don Don Donki, a Japanese chain. The song for the shop played on repeat. Most of the song is just Don Don Donki on repeat. The song plays throughout the store but the music isn’t synced so all you can hear is Don Don Donki. We stocked up on some supplies from the Don and then headed for dinner in the Night Markets.

      Apart from Don Don Donki, I’ve noticed that I’ve formed an obsession with train announcements. Jason has his doors and windows, I have obsessions with train announcements. Maybe it’s because we spend so much time on trains or maybe this is how I learn some of the local language.

      The Bangkok train announcements were made in Thai and English so it made it easier to learn some of the words: satarni rot fi Sala Daeng (the next station is Sala Daeng). In between the stations there were other random messages played advising passengers that they should not cross their legs or not wear backpacks during peak periods.
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    • Bangkok Part 2 - Day 3

      31. joulukuuta 2024, Thaimaa ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

      New Year’s Eve day started out slow. A late start to the day but Jason was determined to do some more shopping, just in case the world ended and the shops were closed on the first day of the new year. So we headed to Si Lom in search of bargains and street food.

      We started off with a few chicken skewers. One of them I’m not sure which part of the chicken it came from but it was as tough as leather. It definitely wasn't chicken ass though. The vendor told me all of the meat was chicken, and some of them were definitely hearts and livers. Then we went onto dessert with roti pancakes with banana and coconut and condensed milk drizzled over the top. Somewhere along the journey there was also an orange/passionfruit juice consumed.

      Tired and wary, we made a pitstop at the hotel for a quick kip, before going to Patpong Night Markets for dinner. After dinner, there needed to be a costume change so we traversed back to the hotel to get ready to go to Circus, a club in Si Lom Soi 4.

      We arrived at Circus as one of the shows was ending, so we quickly took our place before the next show started. The costuming was fabulous on all of the performers, all of them had great headpieces. The club features drag queens and kathoeys/ladyboys lip-syncing to songs with stripper boys, which they call coyote boys (rent boys/ money boys). One performer has combined being a coyote boy with a show girl, wearing only a pair of sparkly diamantes jocks and a Medusa-like headdress. Their performance was mesmerising with carefully choosen songs to accompany the costuming and choreography.

      For the midnight countdown, we thought that we would head back to the hotel to see if we could watch the New Year’s Eve fireworks from the rooftop bar. Unfortunately it was full and we couldn’t get in. But we had just enough time to quickly walk back to Si Lom Soi 4 before midnight. We had a couple of minutes to spare before the glitter bombs and confetti started to explode throughout the alleyway. We soaked in the atmosphere for a while and then trekked back to the hotel.
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    • Bangkok Part 2 - Day 2

      30. joulukuuta 2024, Thaimaa ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

      The following morning, before I could hardly open my eyes, Jason was champing at the bit to get back to the shops. There was no way he was going to miss out on a post-post Boxing Day bargain. And the thought that the shops might be closed over the New Year period didn’t impress little miss shopaholic. Jason wanted to make sure that he filled his broken suitcase. The suitcase was as good as new with some sticky tape from Mr DYI. MacGyver would be proud!

      The fear of a great shop shutdown meant there was no time for our usual nana nap. This was replaced with shopping, right up to the time we needed to get ready for the White Party at Siam Paragon. After pruning and preening, we got into a taxi to go to the event. This was probably our biggest mistake – we should have just taken the BTS. We got almost to the end of our route before getting stuck in traffic, just as we were approaching Rama I Road. We sat for about 10 mins without moving. In the end, we decided to jump out and walk the last few hundred metres. Jason was panicking that the fare would skyrocket if we stayed in the taxi any longer.

      We eventually arrived at Siam Paragon where the White Party was being held. There were no lineups to get our wrist bands. We went straight through. It was still early, too early to go into the event itself, so we hung around the shopping centre in our white angel outfits, sans wings and headdress. After a while we thought "bugger it" we’ll go in, top up our wristbands, because everything needed to be paid via our wristbands.

      There wasn’t a line up at security either. We were expecting an hour to get our wristbands and another hour to go through security. Maybe security had nothing to do, but this was the most thorough search, they even went through my wallet. When we went to the toilets to change into our full outfit, we got padded down again.

      As we walked to the photo area, an area set up with all kinds of props and company marketing backgrounds, we were asked to pose in the Gay Marriage in Thailand exhibition. As we started to head into the main exhibition hall, we were ushered by a photographer to pose on a throne positioned just outside. We both sat on each arm of the throne flanked by muscle queens. We felt like celebrities for a nanosecond.

      We had VIP tickets but at this stage of the night there were very few people in the arena. But by 10pm the situation had changed and the arena was almost full to its 10,000-person capacity. Before it got too crowded, we made our way to the VIP section, where we met another guy dressed as an angel. It was the holy trinity 😂

      The production of the White Party was next level. At times there were aerial acrobatics throughout the arena. Or a stage filled with scantily clad Adonises. Towards the end of the evening, Pangina Heals from RuPaul’s drag race performed, flanked also by muscle Adonises and flying high into the arena’s rooftop.

      We stayed until about 2am and then thought we’d try to avoid the crowd exiting at the end of the event. To get out, you had to take a lift or escalator from the top floor of Siam Paragon, a five level shopping centre. 10,000 people trying to exit all at once was going to be a nightmare.

      We made our way to the ground level as we prepared to walk the 40-minute journey home. We thought getting a taxi would be near impossible. So we decided to walk to the other side of the road rather than try to barter with tuk-tuk drivers outside the shopping centre.

      A driver approached us and we started the negotiation process. The starting price was 400 baht but we were firm that we were only prepared to pay 200 baht. He accepted the deal as we quickly jumped in the back of the tuk-tuk. He spun off a million kilometres an hour. These angels had their wings clipped but they were now flying through the streets of Bangkok in a tuk-tuk. As we turned the corner I thought we were going to topple over. At record speed, we arrived outside of Chong Nonsi station.

      The tuk-tuk driver dropped us off only a few metres away from our hotel, and as we stumbled to the hotel we were approached by two guys who wanted a photo with us. I mean with celebrity status comes some sacrifices 😂 😂 😂

      We were starving because we hadn’t eaten dinner prior to the White Party – we had to look our best for the camera!!! We stopped into our local 7-Eleven for the obligatory toasted ham and cheese sandwich with hamburger and chocolate milk. As we walked through the doors, the shop assistants all looked at us and said “suay mak” (very beautiful). With our goodies in hand, we headed back to our hotel to get a little bit of shut eye before another big night.
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    • Bangkok Part 2 - Day 1

      29. joulukuuta 2024, Thaimaa ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

      The next morning, Jason had a full itinerary of shopping on the agenda at Platinum Fashion Mall. It was going to be an ultra-shopping marathon over four days. The baggage limits from Koh Samui no longer applied. The sky was almost our limit. But first we needed to refuel to get us through the marathon. We headed across the road, away from the tourist priced vendors and mixed with the locals trying tender skewers of meat and other goodies along the street.

      Fuelled up the marathon began, going up and down the stopping centre aisles sifting through clothes and shoes, handbags, over the shoulder bags etc. Jason was like a hawke, poised to pounce on his next prey. Loaded up like pack mules we returned to the hotel, traversing the streets of Si Lom to Ratchadewi station and onto Chong Nonsi.
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    • Back to Bangkok

      28. joulukuuta 2024, Thaimaa ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

      We arrived late back in Bangkok due to delays with flights from Koh Samui, so we decided to get a Bolt/taxi rather than the train which involved two train line changes. During the course of getting back to Bangkok my suitcase had lost a wheel. It was running on three wheels only but still functional as long as it was balanced. When we got Jason’s bag from the carousel it had also been damaged, the handle had snapped in half. Battered bags collected we made our way to level four to meet our taxi driver.

      We checked into our hotel, which was located opposite the Chong Nonsi train station. It didn’t take us long and we were on our next expedition to Patpong markets for food and more shopping. Patpong was only about 800 metres from the hotel. It was in a perfect location to go between Patpong and Si Lom.

      After a bite to eat and a bit of shopping, we returned to our hotel for a costume change before hitting the bars. It was a Saturday night and there was a buzz in the air. The bars and streets were pumping with party goers. But before Cinderella’s coach turned into a pumpkin, we headed home.
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    • Koh Samui - Final Morning

      28. joulukuuta 2024, Thaimaa ⋅ 🌧 26 °C

      Over night the rain pelted down and it seemed maybe there would be another nahm tuam น้ำท่วม (flood) in Samui. We needed to get provisions for our trip back to Bangkok, so once the rain subsided a bit we dared to risk getting stuck in a storm. At least we had our trusty umbrellas!

      It wasn’t too long before it started to bucket down again. We stopped for some respite but we didn’t have much time to spare before we had to check out and head to the airport. We then got a message to say that our flight has been delayed by an hour. Others at the resort had their flights delayed until the late afternoon when they were meant to be travelling earlier than us.

      We ordered a Bolt taxi and waited for it to arrive. The time was starting to tick by and then when we got into the taxi it took fifteen minutes to get to the end of the street. Panic started to set in a bit, thinking that we may miss our flight. Due to the weather, all flights were delayed and the airport seemed chaotic. Somehow we were able to skip the queue and drop off our bags and get to the gate, only to be advised that boarding had been delayed until our flight time. We’ll eventually get to our next destination.

      Next destination: Bangkok
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    • A Night in Koh Samui

      27. joulukuuta 2024, Thaimaa ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

      Being a Friday night, the plan was to head out with the other Aussies to the Diva Cabaret show and then end up at Pride Bar, the only queer nightclub in Koh Samui. Jason decided to ditch the cabaret and instead got a massage.

      I met up with the other Aussies at the Diva Cabaret show, which is really aimed at the cis-heterosexual audience. Kathoeys/Ladyboys with their queer backup dancers lip-synced to an array of Western hits, even doing the French song from the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest. After the show, we stumbled a block to Pride Bar where we met up with Jason. With already a few drinks under my belt, I went straight for the bucket of gin and soda. Go hard or go home. But that was enough to do me in for the night.

      Around midnight Jason decided that we would walk home. We needed to convince the others with us, but in the end it was the best decision. A few others had left earlier and taken a taxi home, which ended up taking them an hour to get home and 700 baht. And that’s just to go less than 2 kilometres!
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    • Koh Samui - Day 5

      27. joulukuuta 2024, Thaimaa ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

      The next day we took a walk up to the pagoda near our hotel, Chedi Wat Khao Hua Chuk. The steep incline to the pagoda meant there was no need for leg day in the gym. At the top of the pagoda, there’s a panoramic view of the island. There were two Thai ladies who were taking in the views. They didn’t speak much English and our Thai is very basic but we were able to strike up a conversation. The clouds were starting to gather over the island so we decided we better make tracks home. We made it back to our room just before it started to piss down rain.

      Once the rain eased, we went in search for lunch, settling on one of the restaurants along Chaweng Beach Road. Finally, we got a curry that was nice and spicy. All except the Massaman curry that I had at the Patpong Night Markets in Bangkok have lacked any spice, despite asking for it to be Thai spicy.

      As we tried to find our way home, another British tourist asked us, once again, if we spoke English, the second in two days. She wanted to know where she could get valium or sleeping tablets, prefacing her question with “I’m not a drug addict, I just have a 16-hour flight back to the UK”. Throughout the conversation she repeated this statement, which made me question whether she really was a drug addict. We told her that you needed a prescription in Thailand for anything that she was after. She thanked us and we went on our merry way.

      After a few wrong directions, we made it back to the resort, ready for leisurely drinks by the pool. We had started another tradition of catching up with a group of other Aussies staying at the resort. We’d all meet by the pool and have a few drinks.
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