A great 3 days in Thailand during recess week with the craziest coursemates company ever!
One fine day in our Literature group chat, Jeremy whined about needing a break (OUR LIVES AS ENGLISH MAJORS ARE STRESSFUL TOO, OKAY!!! We've waaaay too many books to read!!! NOT COMPLAINING THOUGH, hahaha!)
.....And being the crazy, spontaneous Lit kids we are, we did. Phuket? Bali? Tioman? Krabi?
Krabi it was, for it was the cheapest destination and WE ARE ALL BROKE COLLEGE KIDS!!!!!! Anyway, we only decided to spend 3 days in Thailand because all of us had other commitments in school.. bleaugh (and we didn't want to feel too guilty for spending our recess week overseas...)
Okay, enough nonsense from me... let our adventures begin!
DAY 1 / สวัสดีค่ะ! Sawadee ka!
Our flight was around 10.25am, so we met early for breakfast at Souperlicious. There were 9 of us in total (two of them not from Literature) so I kinda made new friends over breakfast :D
Posing with Zhi Kai (this dude loves his Longchamp bag) so we could send a "BYE BYE WE'RE GOING OVERSEAS WHILE YOU'RE STUDYING!!!!!" message to all our Hall 7 friends HAHA!!! And just look at my adorable Adventure Time cover!!!! Hehehe :)
We checked in really late (like, last call... HAHA, what's new right?) so we all ended up getting split up in the plane, but it didn't really matter cause it was a short flight. Jaryl the idiot ended up sitting beside me!!
Mandatory view-from-the-window shots. This was our first glimpse of Krabi! Lots of meandering rivers and plantations.
^ this is Jeremy!!! We were the first to clear customs (no idea what the rest were doing) so I decided to try out my camera HAHAHA!!!
We got a van to drive us to our villa after that and.... OUR DRIVER GOT LOST.
This photo was taken when Jaryl and our driver left to get directions. The rest of us were pretty much convinced that Jaryl was in cahoots with this dude and they planned to sell us off HAHAHAHA!!!
We found our villa after a really long time, anyway. It's called Breda Beach Private Pool Villa. What a strange name. All of us soon discovered that this "villa" was no actual villa... more like a house located in the middle of some really random village that a rich guy decided to renovate.
^ the view from one of the rooms. I was so excited, HAHA it's even nicer than the villa I stayed in when I was in Bali.
Our solid beer collection.
BENJAMIN WAS BEING A TOTAL TIT. He asked me, "Tessa, do you want a beer?"
OF COURSE I DID.
So he handed me one.
And it was the WORST BEER I've ever tasted in my entire life.... cause it was freaking CHLORINATED WATER FROM THE DAMN SWIMMING POOL!!!!!
WATCH OUT BITCH!!! I'LL GET YA BACK.
After the excitement from jumping into the pool wore off, Jeremy and I wanted to walk around the village to discover a little. Jeanette tagged along too! I suppose you could say it was (sort of) a real eye-opener.
While walking along the road, I came across the happiest laughter I've ever heard before, and it came from these two girls who were so excited over their toy: a skipping rope made up of many pieces of rubber bands strung together. They jumped together and burst out laughing whenever one of them fell down. :) It's amazing how they're so content with something as dull as a rubber band while I'm over here whining about how I miss my iPhone when I have a perfectly fine Galaxy S4. Sigh.
There were so many odd shaped houses... this one was my favourite. Jems and I were so tempted to walk in to discover but we decided it would have been really rude. It did look abandoned, though.
There was a school to cater to the village children as well.
Baby on a motorbike!!! He was so adorable and just kept staring at us with this really confused look on his face. :)
Two sisters playing by a pond. They turned around and posed for us after, but I prefer this photo of the both them.
And then there were 3 little girls walking home from school... but they kept turning around to shout and wave at us while jumping! We just kept smiling and waving back to them. Sadly we couldn't understand what they were saying, but they chased us for a bit when we had to leave, and giggled whenever we turned back to say bye-bye for what seemed like the thousandth time :)
Goats crossing the road together!! I was so fascinated by this because, well, I've never witnessed goats crossing a road before. Pretty damn cool.
And Jems brought along his film camera!!! He got the first roll developed haha here's some:
Anyway, we decided to head out to Krabi Town to explore some more. We got this tuk-tuk kind of thing to bring us around for all 3 days.
Here's Charlotte in our tuk-tuk-van kind of thing! Looking as gorgeous as ever despite having stomach flu throughout the entire trip D:
View from the back of the tuk tuk. (When I showed my brother this photo, he exclaimed, "OMG WERE YOU ALL DRIVING AGAINST TRAFFIC????!!!" hahaha NO, we weren't!!)
Pancakes! It's basically plain pratas with the various toppings (like nutella and peanut butter) but I don't know why they taste SO GOOD!!!
We were trying to find this dinner place called Sala Bua / Lo Sputino or something, and whaddddaaya know???! We got lost again!!!!
We gave up eventually, and had to call the tuk tuk van to come pick us up from god knows where we all were. HAHAHAHA!!! The food was a little pricey but it was delicious. I forgot what I ate. I think it was fried rice... or something.
I didn't really care about the food (when do I ever?) and what really caught my attention was the sunset by the beach.
No photo will ever be able to do justice to what I saw with my own eyes. It was breathtaking. There's just something about sunsets that I really do love. Even in hall, I walk out of my room around 6.40pm every day just to look at the sky. (I think my roomie and level mates are annoyed with my outbursts of "AHHH! COME LOOK AT THE SKY!!!" every day HAHAHA!!!) It's difficult to explain, but sometimes it feels as if sunsets belong to me. The way the colours intensify and fade to nothing is a constant reminder that life is so precious, so beautiful. And so transient.
All 9 of us sat around and watched the sunset together in absolute silence, and then we came up with a poem together. I don't have it with me now (with Jaryl or something), but whoa, English majors. *rolls eyes* -_- HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
After dinner, half of them decided to go for a Thai massage while the rest of us went to discover what Krabi's nightlife had to offer.
We stumbled upon this sick bar (aye, I forgot it's name) and stopped to have a drink. There was a secret underground area with sofas and all that!
DAY 2 / ISLAND HOPPING!
Started out the day with a good meal at I-don't-know-where!
The rice is star shaped!!! :D This spicy beef basil rice was really good. It's one of my favourite dishes and I'M SO SAD THAT I CAN'T FIND IT AT 4 DOLLARS IN SINGAPOREEEEE :(
CALIBAN SMILING LIKE A FREAK!!!
CALIBAN EATING IN ACTION!!!!
"I have to eat my dinner now. This island belongs to me because Sycorax, my mother, left it to me. But you’ve taken it from me." ~ Caliban, The Tempest. [William Shakespeare]
Here's Cheryl (sociology student who SHOULD BE DOING LITERATURE!!!) and Jeremy!!! HAHAHA!!! JEMMS LOOKING ALL $WAG & d0p3!!!!
After awhile, we managed to find this package where we could visit 3 different islands for $12 SGD (I think! My memory on this trip is really bad, please excuse me HAHA) and we took a longboat!
Seeing the clear blue skies, watching the waves and feeling the wind against my face while listening to We Can Make The World Stop by The Glitch Mob... it's truly a feeling I will never forget.
That's Rachel (Y3 Art, Design & Media student) meditating throughout our entire boat journey. It was peaceful to watch her slip into a deeper state of self-awareness.. hmm, but I don't think I can meditate, I'm far too jittery/restless for that according to my friends :P anyway, that's my silly partner-in-crime Jeanette above ^!! She's the only one who speaks the language I do... probably cause she's a moron too ;)
Stopped at Chicken Island to snorkel! Uhhh... go ahead and examine the photo below, I've tried to use my wild imagination to picture a chicken, BUT I SEE NOTHING.
...maybe it looks like a chicken from the other side of the island. Oh well. It just looks like a disproportionate square shaped turkey to me.
Eh? Why am I not in the photo, you ask? CAUSE THIS IDIOT HERE CAN'T SWIM!!!!!
MY PHOTOGRAPHY SKILLS AREN'T TOO SHABBY, RIGHT??! (Zhi Kai better thank me for this future Facebook profile picture of his!)
^ I'm the only idiot in a life jacket. So uncool. *flips hair* but I really didn't want to die. Even with a life jacket on, the fishes were biting my toes and it REALLY freaked the shit out of me. I used to tell people I wanna swim with sharks but I kind of don't want to anymore. Not being able to see the sea bed is a really scary thing. It's interesting and to learn about what lies in the depths of our oceans but I sure as hell don't want to be the one discovering it myself. Haha. I didn't spend that much time in the water, which was a good thing cause I almost stepped on a sea urchin.
But someone else did.
"OUCH!!!!!"
"What happened?"
"Guys, I think I stepped on a sea urchin."
"OMG!!!! Are you okay!?!"
"It's quite painful.... [looks at me] EH INSTAGRAM, INSTAGRAM!!!!!"
None other than Benjamin Chew. (I'll show you guys who he is later, he's NUTS!!!)
Ben wanted revenge, so he grabbed a spear from the boat and went back in to kill ALL the sea urchins in sight. I think it was about 5 or 6 urchins. HAHAHA!!! EVIL BEN. But seriously though, the urchins chose to mess with the wrong person.
After witnessing the sea urchin massacre, we left for Tup Island.
And Ben found a sea cucumber.
HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!! THIS IDIOT WAS PLAYING WITH ALL THE SEA CUCUMBERS FOR 30 MINUTES. (Can you believe this urchin-killing-sea-cucumber-bully is Prince of HSS?!?!?!?!?!! [School of Humanities & Social Sciences] HAHAHA!!!!)
^ This is Jaryl. Our daddy for the trip, he took real good care of us :') He made sure everything was all settled so we didn't have to worry... and while everyone else was busy getting wasted during the nights, he stayed sober just so he could make sure we were okay & got us all into bed safely. ♡ YOU'RE THE BEST, PAPA JARYL!!!!!!! MUAH MUAH XOXO!!! ♡
Headed to our final island! (I forgot the name of this island HAHA. Okay, actually... I don't think I ever knew it.)
And then back at the villa....
"You know-- one loves the sunset, when one is so sad..." ~ The Little Prince
Our final night in Krabi was beautiful, because the night sky was just filled with a countless number of stars. The guys pointed out Jupiter to us. Sigh. It's not something I can put into words. I wish I could pull the exact memory from my mind and paste it here on my Livejournal, but since that kind of technology doesn't exist yet, take my word for it — it was beautiful.
“All men have stars, but they are not the same things for different people. For some, who are travelers, the stars are guides. For others they are no more than little lights in the sky. For others, who are scholars, they are problems... But all these stars are silent. You- You alone will have stars as no one else has them..." ~ The Little Prince
Infinite. Clichéd, but truly the perfect word to describe how we all felt that night. It was as though anything in the world was possible. I didn't want to go for this trip initially cause I planned to study during recess week, but Zhi Kai talked to me and told me that we have to do crazy things sometimes. We have to create our own memories.
It's nuts to think how so much happened in a span 3 days, and it's even crazier to think I went overseas with a bunch of people I've only known for a month!!!!!! HAHAHA!!!!
(There's no need for a Day 3, right?? Just know that we were late to check in again & almost missed our flight completely cause everyone overslept/snoozed their alarms. HAHA!!!!)
Also... when we touched down in Singapore, we quickly took a photo together cause this is our one and ONLY group shot HAHAHA!!!!!
Thank you guys for making this getaway happen, and for being awesome travel buddies (especially cause we all have the same idea of a fun TRIP HAHAHAHAHA)!! I guess it's true what they say about Literature students, we are truly the craziest, most fun-loving bunch of students around. Running off to Thailand to escape reality while other students were doing some hardcore mugging for mid terms... :') Let's hope we're still able to maintain a perfect GPA of 5.0, HAHA!!!!
And in case y'all didn't already know, I re read The Little Prince during my time in Krabi, and it just felt so apt. So I'll leave you guys with a quote from the book that I fell in love with.
“The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart.” ~ The Little Prince