17-18nov:trat province

Trat province, a small and peaceful town, located at the East of Thailand is about a 5hours bus ride from Bangkok. I traveled alone (w/ ed's camera and lonely planet) to Trat after beach-ing in Ko Samet because my tourist visa was gonna expire. From Trat, I traveled to Had Lek (1hours bus ride away), a town at the eastern border of Thailand and crossed over to Cambodia. My visa was extended for another 30days(: After 30mins in Cambodia, I crossed back to Thailand(:

I've been to Cambodia once and my second trip there affirmed my dislike towards the inhospitality of the Cambodia people. Cambodia Immigration demanded 300baht from me because I didn't stay there for at least 1 day and when I asked to see this regulation on paper, a very dumb reply i got.. "it's in Penom Phen.."

*

I stayed in Trat for 1 night and I enjoyed my stay. You probably could cover the whole town in less than an hour. People were very friendly, pace of life was slow and there isn't much activity going on. The main attractions in town are the day market and night market which closes at night (9pm..)? A handful of internet shops that close at 12am with school students playing games...

Bookshop; Main Street that is empty at 8pm; merlion?; my guesthouse for 150baht

Road and river of trat, perpetually empty

The 2nd day I woke up early intending to rent a bicycle to get to a Wat Bai Khlong that is 2km away from the town but there were no bicycles for rent all around town. Took a motorcycle taxi there instead.

Then, I was lucky because there was some street procession in the late morning where students paraded along the streets of Trat for an opening ceremony for Sports Day. And then at 1130am, I headed over to Cambodia to extend my visa(:

In Cambodia just outside Had Lek

Had Lek was beautiful too. It is whole stretch of town that is along the sea.

121108: Loy Kratong Day @ Chao Praya

We started off by taking a river cruise from sathorn pier just beside saphan taksin bts..

The boat then stopped at Wat Arun where we could loy (which means to float) our kratong

Wat Arun

Our Kratongs

We were happy with our wish made. We then set off (on foot) for loy kratong dinner at Silom. Meanwhile Jianwei bought another Krathong, so we walked Lumphini Park after dinner to loy...

I just came back from ko samet, trat and had lek.. will update about my trip soon((:

LoFt membership

I am happy((: because I did buy-without-thinking or buy-whatever-that-makes-you-happy shopping.

I just became a Loft member (by spending 1600baht) about 5 minutes ago because my accounting class was canceled. I was diligently on my way to school when my friend called to say that class is canceled. So I made my way to Au Bon Pain for breakfast (current non-thai food craving) and then I shopped at Loft discoverrrry for almost 1hr? HAHA. It's a shop that sells wayy overpriced but nice to see stationery, display items, household goods, toys, etc but they are really cute and they make me happy(:

For Thai readers

...แต่น่าโศกเศร้ายิ่งนัก ในชีวิตจริงของคนเรา โดยปกติแล้วบุคคลสามคนนี้ไม่ใช่คนๆเดียวกัน
คนที่คุณรักมากที่สุด โดยส่วนใหญ่แล้วจะไม่เลือกคุณเป็นคู่ชีวิต
คนที่รักคุณมากที่สุดจะไม่ใช่คนที่คุณรักที่สุดเสมอไ ป
คนที่ร่วมชีวิตด้วยนานที่สุดกลับไม่ใช่คนที่คุณรักที ่สุด
และคนที่รักคุณที่สุดเขาเป็นแค่คนที่ได้มาเจอกับคุณถูกที่ถูกเวลาเท่านั้น เอง

The rest of the article can be read here: http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/showthread.php?t=23467 which includes abit of english translation for the other parts.

Som tum!

My current craving: Thai Papaya Salad (mai phet)

I had it for lunch and dinner yesterday and today and a few other times this week. HAHA. Just thinking about makes me real hungry again. I always order my som tum not spicy but a lot of times it is still so spicy. I love the peanuts too! It is very nice if you eat it with sticky rice-highly reccomended but i don't really do so because I think it is fattening, and with grilled fish or chicken-sometimes I do this((:

somtum w/ grilled fish

I don't think it is true that eating som tum everyday makes the thais skinny because when I see them do the som tum, they add HUGE (maybe 3 tablespoonful or more) amounts of sugar. I really hope it isn't secretly making me fat .

I also have been eating a lot of different types of thai salads this week and less of those noodles and rice. Jian Wei and I have a favourite salad- yam khai khiaw maa (thai salad with century egg)

perfect match: century egg with ginger and onions

I drove a taxi

haha. I wasn't drunk when I asked the taxi driver if I could drive home. He did let me do it.. and I thought maybe he was the drunk one! I decided not to drink any alcohol last night because I had way too much the last few days so when I left some club yesterday at around 2 am, I asked the taxi driver if he could let me drive his taxi and he did! But i only drove it for awhile at some road near my place. He was so scared and he kept saying ''baw baw'' (to ask me to step the accelerator softly) and ''yaa chon nah..'' (don't hit another car..) haha. stupid taxi driver!

so yay!! I drove a taxi in Bangkok!!