Home Again.

I've made it back home! I wish I could tell you I had nothing to do but to sit around and be lazy, but I have lots of wedding prep for a friend to take care of, and no time to sit around to do nothing! But I think it's better this way, because if I had nothing to do I would wish I was back in Asia more than I do already.  I think I was ready to come home, but there's always a part of me that will always want to be somewhere abroad.  I loved waking up with something new to do everyday, some new food to try in every city, or new people to meet in every hostel. I ate more Pho and Pad Thai than I thought was humanely possible, and even more ice cream! haha.

The people in every country I visited were absolutely wonderful! So nice, so considerate, and so welcoming! (Well minus a few people in Vietnam..i.e. Mafia cabbie). It's amazing to see how resilient the human spirit can really be, especially after learning so much about the history in all the countries I visited.

I most certainly did not get enough of S.E. Asia and CANNOT wait to go back!! I've already got another trip out there planned, but since school will be limiting all of my vacation time now, I think I will have to stick to shorter trips close by until I get more time.  So, my next set of trips will be taking place in Latin America.  In the meantime, I'll read up on all the things that peaked my curiosity in Asia, and then I can start getting back into my Spanish. haha.

Thanks to everyone who kept up with reading this blog! It was great to keep you all updated on all of my adventures! I hope you found them to be as entertaining as I did! I'm happy to be home for a bit to spend some time with my family before I head back to NYC for school. It's almost as exotic a locale as Asia was, so if anyone will be visiting, please let me know! I've made a wonderful new group of friends from all over, but mostly Canada and England, and would love to have even more visitors!  In the meantime, the fishbowl blog will be retired again I guess. I hope it's not too long before I get to revive it though!! :)

Saigon to Some, Ho Chi Minh City to Others

Saigon is a city full of scooters and insane traffic patterns! It's easily the largest and most populated city of Vietnam, and it's capital, so it was no surprise when we arrived to the city we hit about an hour's worth of traffic because of heavy rain that had the streets flooded with water that came up to your knees. The downpour that we arrived in made us decide to hop into the first taxi we could find, which was maybe not the best idea but it seemed right at the time. haha. We knew we were going to try to stay at a hostel that was only about a 5 minute walk from the bus stop, so when our cabbie told us it would take about 10 min we got suspicious. He ended up driving us in a huge circle and his meter was rigged to jump up at an exponential rate! It was insane! After 10 minutes of driving our fare was $200,000 VND which was outrageous! We found our hostel and the lady there basically told me it should have been around $50,000VND so I knew we had been scammed for sure.  We refused to pay him the actual fare that he was trying to charge us and while we were in the street getting our bags he just kept yelling at us and swearing at us. A Vietnamese man walked by and I asked him if he understood English, which thankfully he did, and I explained what had happened to us.  I told him to tell the guy we knew he had tried to trick us and we wouldn't pay. The local guy told us we should have only been charged at most $20,000 VND, but that he couldn't really do anything because we had gotten into a "mafia" cab. Umm mafia? Really? That didn't sound very good to us, and the word mafia fit this guy's description once he started trying to close the trunk of the minivan on my head while I was getting our bags out, and when he did one of those "I'm watching you" finger movements to me before getting into his cab and driving off (we only paid him $50,000). Yikes. We had a hit put out on us from the mafia after only being in Saigon for 10 minutes. Great way to kick off our stay I think?

We spent our first day in the city visiting historic museums, one of which was the War Remnants Museum, formerly known as the Museum of American War Crimes. I think you can tell what this museum was like.  It was very one-sided account of how the Vietnam War played out, but it didn't change the fact that everything they were displaying that Americans had done during the war was true. It was the most depressing museum I'd ever been to, and after taking a few pictures on the first floor which was pretty neutral, I couldn't even bring myself to take my camera out because the pictures on display were so graphic and horrific. Words like napalm and agent orange are burned into my mind--I can't believe we used things like that against people, so many of which were just innocent civilians. The aftereffects of those chemicals are still very much apparent when walking through the streets of Saigon.  It was terrible. There's so much about the history of this war that I need to learn. I feel like it was never introduced to us in any other way except that it was a time when the draft was reinstated. But the actual politics behind it are still so unclear to me. New goal: Learn about the Vietnam War, and our military presence in the Korean War as well as in Cambodia and Laos. The United States really screwed up out here it seems, and it's really no wonder why so many other countries have problems with Americans. It seems as if throughout my travels the history of all the countries I've visited has been marred by some sort of American presence. It's a shame. 

The next day we drove out to a town called Cu Chi to see the underground tunnels the Viet Cong built during the war. There was a very one-sided movie that was played at the beginning of the tour where the US forces were labeled the "American devils," but after that it was pretty much just a tour of all the ways the Viet Cong went about killing the US Forces out in the jungles of Vietnam. The traps they laid out were so gruesome and grisly. Ew. Bamboo spears that would stab them if they stepped onto the wrong place in the ground--not an easy way to go.  The tunnels were insane! So tiny--I can see why the Vietnamese are so small. They moved so quickly through those tunnels, and they had about 200km of underground tunnels in just this one town alone! The tunnels led to meeting rooms, a kitchen, there was even an underground clinic and areas to make shoes, weapons and clothing. Very extensive.  And the coolest part of the day was that I got to shoot an AK-47!! I paid $3 to shoot two bullets at a pile of dirt. haha. I could have shot a machine gun or bigger guns, but I was okay with just the AK-47.  The first gun I shoot in my life and it's one used all around the world in war. Craziness. I was not very graceful either. haha. I jumped 10 ft after I shot my first shot because I had no idea what to expect. haha. It was pretty obvious that I had no experience with guns whatsoever.  

I spent my last day just relaxing and walking around the city doing some last minute shopping and such. Attempted to get a mani/pedi, but no one actually seems to know how to do one of those in Vietnam.  One of the girls working on me actually ended up cutting me, and I noticed her putting little bits of tissue on my toe. I was like, "Umm, am I bleeding?"  Her response: "A little yes. I'm sorry." Umm...ok? Definitely not the best job in the world, but for $5 I shouldn't complain I guess. 

I can't believe my trip is over!! The past six weeks have flown by so quickly!! It seems like yesterday I was first arriving into Bangkok, and now I have 30 hours of travel time to look forward to. Ugh. I need more time!  My next trip out here will have to be South Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines.  Too many things left to do, and so many that I want to do twice! Fingers crossed it won't be 5 years until I can travel again. :)

Hopefully I get some safe and on-time flights. :)  

Nha Trang: Beach Parties & Beach Brawls

Ohhh Nha Trang...what an interesting adventure you turned out to be.

As always, my story starts with my bus journey. They never fail to disappoint out here, do they? Once again, our bus was late. This time, we arrived to our pick up point at 5:15pm but our bus didn't arrive until almost 7pm. In between bus rides we had heard about how horrendous this journey was meant to be since it was supposed to be so long (about 13 hrs) and since there was likely to be a very stinky bathroom because of this.  And since we were Western that meant that the seats in the back of the bus near the bathrooms were for us.  Neil, Eden and I came up with a great plan to ensure safety away from the back of the bus. So while Neil was in charge of getting our bags onto the bottom of the bus, Eden and I were to get on the bus first and just grab the best seats possible to us. We got on, and luckily there was no toilet--so no stink--and we got some prime seats right by the tv screen. We thought we were starting out this trip with the right foot forward. Wrong as always...haha. We heard the worst news first: there were cardboard boxes full of dead fish in the cargo area of the bus and they were leaking stinky fish juices. Ew. Best part: The Western people's luggage was to be loaded in that section, not the Vietnamese luggage. Awesome. While we were digesting that information and thinking of all the horrible ways our bags and clothes would smell after stewing in the 90+ degree heat with the dead fish (which were NOT on ice), the driver came and closed the tv screen, so we realized long trip, no bus, and stinky fish were in store for us. Sweet. I didn't really think things could get worse, but obviously they could.  We actually drove out of our way and headed north for a good 30 or 40 minutes in order to unload the fish at some bus station.  Our bags were taken off the bus with the fish and then reloaded back onto whatever fish juice was left that wasn't wiped away by the makeshift mop that they used to clean some of it up. We also proceeded to pick up plenty of Vietnamese people who payed way less than we did to get on the bus, and were given priority for all of the seats in the front of the bus and on the bottom bunks.  Some guys from the back tried to move to the bottom bunks and they got yelled at by the Vietnamese workers until they moved back to their crappy seats. Apparently they threaten to remove your luggage if you don't move. They don't mess around when it comes to saving the best seats for their own.

So after a long stop, we finally started heading down the coast.  The next problem was that try as I might to fall asleep, the bus driver was completely over aggressive with his horn, and he pretty much had it pressed down for the next 3 hours. It was so hard to fall asleep with all the noise he was making--it was like he was trying to make a song or something. On top of that, we pretty much stopped every hour to pick up more passengers even though the bus was full.  The bus can legally seat 40 people.  By the time we stopped picking up passengers we had 53 in the bus, including the driver! The extra 12 people slept in the aisles between the seats. So now I'm in an overcrowded bus, my bag is likely soaked in fish juice, and to top it all off, only the Vietnamese passengers are given a blanket and free bottle of water. Now things just seem ridiculous.  How can that possibly seem ok?  Ugh. So annoying. I managed to get a blanket from the guy which was nice, but ended up being wholly unnecessary because at about 2am the air conditioning cut out.  Actually, a funny smell started to come from the vents and the bus driver thought he would just turn the AC off while we were all sleeping and we wouldn't even notice. We noticed. It was as if someone had a massive blow horn in the bus--all of the Westerners woke up like clockwork as soon as the AC had been off long enough because the temperature of the bus sky rocketed.  We drove for an hour with people from the back of the bus yelling up to the front for the driver to put the AC back on.  The Vietnamese people weren't too happy with us, but no one cared since we were all sweating like pigs.  The only thing they could do was open the emergency exit latch on the roof of the bus to let some air in. After about an hour of no AC and random pullovers to find a mechanic, the bus started to make some ridiculous alert sound, which was probably telling the driver that we needed to fix something asap. It went on for a good 30 minutes before the driver finally pulled off the road in the middle of nowhere. It was 3am.

There were 2 other buses that had broken down that were there as well, so we were third in line to be fixed. The driver and his helpers turned the bus off and just left us all in there without any explanation.  Pretty soon we were all sweating buckets. Finally, my friends and I couldn't stand it anymore so we climbed through the emergency exit on the roof of the bus to go sit outside on top of the bus. It was probably one of the most amazing feelings in the world to put my head out into the air from the bus.  It was at least 10 degrees cooler outside than it was in the bus.  We sat out there until 5:30am, by which time almost 10 people from the bus were sitting with us enjoying the cool air.  We figured it would be a good idea to try to sleep while the bus wasn't moving considering our driver's obsession with the horn, but it was still way too hot in the bus--my back was covered in sweat within 5 minutes of laying down in my seat.  Plus, people were going in and out of the bus to start walking around the town since the sun had come up, so every time someone passed my seat, they managed to touch me somehow because they were trying to avoid stepping on the person sleeping the aisle next to my seat. Every time I would start to doze off, someone would brush against me and I'd wake right up because I had no idea who was touching me. I might have slept 20 minutes before I gave up and just waited outside with everyone at a nearby cafe. We didn't get the bus fixed until 8:30am..what a nightmare. We were supposed to reach Nha Trang by 6:30am, but ended up getting in around 12:30 or 1pm. But we did reach there eventually!! And, our bags didn't smell like fish so we were a lot happier. haha.


Nha Trang is a really sweet beach spot in Vietnam.  There were plenty of tourists there to vacation, both Vietnamese and foreign. We spent our days lounging on some chairs by a pool and the beach, and went out at night to the bars, all of which had a "Happy Hour" which lasted from 4pm-midnight. Our first night out was the most interesting to say the least. My Canadian friends are a bit rowdier than I am, and after several drinks decided it would be fun to go swimming in the ocean. I opted out and just continued to talk to some English people we had just befriended on the beach.  At some point one of the girl's camera and money were stolen from her bag even though someone was supposed to be watching it.  This is where the trouble started.  They thought maybe this group of about 10 Vietnamese men knew where her camera and money were--and by that I mean they were blatantly accusing these locals of stealing the camera. I kept my distance from the altercation, but at some point one of the Vietnamese guys pushed one of the girls getting involved in the fight. So now her boyfriend was getting all worked up, and it was looking uglier and uglier as I stood by and watched.  And then one of the Vietnamese guys got a plank of wood and another got an oar. So now my Canadian friends were surrounded by this group of armed Vietnamese, and instead of walking away, they got even angrier that they were being threatened. Ay yi yi. One of the Vietnamese dudes got fed up enough with the yelling and pulled out a knife. Now it was serious, and I wasn't too thrilled to be watching this because once again, my friends were just more outraged than scared, and they continued to yell at the Vietnamese and accuse them of stealing the camera. Ugh. The English guys I was talking to suggested someone should go over there and pull the Canadians away since the weapons were coming out, and obviously I was the person who had to go. So I had to walk over there and step between the knife and my yelling friends and pull them away.  Not cool. We managed to walk away from the situation unscathed, but yikes. I was definitely not excited about getting involved in that fight. I'm just glad no one got hurt.  :)

The next day and night were much more relaxed to say the least.  We wanted to rest up for our final bus ride down to Saigon which would be happening the next morning. Hopefully it goes better than the one down to Nha Trang!

And last, but not least: HAPPY BIRTHDAY NINA!! Sorry I didn't get to call--that bus breakdown really screwed my plans! haha. Hope it was amazing!!

Hoi An: Where All of Your Fashion Dreams Come True!!

Holy cow Hoi An!  A tailor's curse and best fortunes in one place all wrapped around the obsession Westerners have with tailor-made clothing. Did I mention we could get ANYTHING tailored to us? ANYTHING. Coats of any kind, pants, jeans, shoes, dresses, 3-piece suits, shirts, shorts....ANYTHING. It was madness!! But, before I get into all of the craziness that is Hoi An tailoring, my bus ride down must be told considering it almost never happened.

We started our morning in Hue ready to leave since there had been so little to see. So Neil, Eden and I were all ready to go when the bus didn't arrive on time at 8:30am. No worries--nothing in Asia ever runs on time.. The bus finally did arrive at about 9:15am, and when 11 of us crossed the street to get on, for some reason the driver only let on 3 girls who all had different bus tickets than the rest of us. We stood around trying to figure out what was going on, while the hostel workers tried to figure out how to get us on the bus by talking to the driver, but he wouldn't let the rest of us on. The best part about this was that the bus was only half full anyway. The group of us could have easily fit on the bus with seats to spare. Whatever.  The moment the Vietnamese hostel worker stepped inside to figure something out, the bus driver drove off leaving 8 of us standing on the side of the road with all of our stuff wondering if we were going to leave Hue at all. After sending a scooter to track down the bus, it came back but this time it was completely full. Only 5 seats were open now and since there were 8 of us we decided to do an 'all or none' stance on who got on the bus. I wasn't actually a fan of that plan since we were already spots #3-5 on line for the bus, so technically the seats should have been ours anyway.  And, I didn't know any of the girls behind me in line, and I didn't owe them anything.  It sounds mean, I know.  But when the driver kept insisting only 5 get on and the rest of us wait until 1:30pm for the next bus, my friends and I remained adamant about everyone getting on while the 3 girls on line behind us totally started to throw their bags on the bus to get on. Umm, really? Here we are trying to help each other out, and you girls want to snake our seats on the bus?? NO BUENO. In the end, all 8 of us got onto the bus, but Neil, Eden and I were forced to share 2 seats between the 3 of us in the back of the bus for the first 5 1/2 hours of the trip. By the time we moved up to normal seats, we only had about 30 minutes in them when we reached Hoi An. Lesson learned though: DO NOT try to be nice to fellow backpackers. They are cut throat and will definitely steal your seat if given the opportunity.

Right, so after settling in, we set off to explore Hoi An.  We went to our first tailor shop, recommended by our hotel, and we looked back. haha. The moment we arrived we were greeted with water bottles and massive books containing clips and pictures and magazine cut outs of clothes from EVERYWHERE.  It was like walking into a dream.  All we had to do was point and say that one and it was like magic! haha. No, I mean it wasn't really THAT simple--it was actually incredibly overwhelming! To have literally a million choices in front of you, not just in terms of style, but then to select color and materials and trim colors and buttons...holy cow was all I could think!

We spent 3 days in Hoi An between 2 tailor shops which were making our clothes for us. Neil had two 3-piece suits made and some dress shirts for less than $300! I got a winter coat made for myself and some dresses for Nina, and Eden got a coat and a really cute skirt she designed made along with dress pants and a blazer. I wish I could have had more made, but really, it was way too much. The cost was cheap, but we spent our days and nights just wandering through the town in the heat in between going to the 2 stores for our fittings for our clothes.  There is a sweat shop somewhere underground in that town. There has to be.  I ordered 4 custom dresses to be made and they were all ready for my first fitting within 5 hours of my measurements being taken. Neil ordered a 3 piece suit at almost 10pm at night and it was entirely finished by 9am the next day! And this is the low season! I can't imagine how crazy busy this place must be during high season. And the amount of money these shop owners must make is incredible! Man, I definitely need to go back to this place. I need to take a completely empty suitcase though. haha. If I had had space in my backpack to fit more I definitely would have; but I think the lack of space was good for my wallet. I definitely spent more than was necessary.

Next stop for me is the beach!! FINALLY.  I haven't seen a real beach this entire trip! Can't wait!

Hue is Way Boring

Hue (pronounced Hway as one syllable) is not so exciting. I'm not exactly sure why I decided to come here actually. haha. The bus ride down was as comfortable as it could be I guess, but definitely NOT like the sleeper buses in South America. The buses are 3 rows of two small beds set up like bunk beds. My friends Eden and Neil, and I were lucky to find 3 close to each other so we could chat. Once we saw the bus, we knew it was going to be a pretty long 14 hrs, and after doing the Halong Bay booze cruise, we were in desparate need of sleep since we were going straight from the bus back to the hostel on to another bus.  We were told the bus would pick us up at 5:30pm so when I finished showering and repacking my bag and it was 5:15pm, I figured I wouldn't have time for dinner, and I would just have to bank on the bus stopping for food like our hostel people said it would around 8 or 9pm at the latest since our lunch on the boat was at like 10:30 or 11am.  Well we did stop around 8 or 9pm, but it was NOT for dinner and there was no food.  Not cool. I was starving at this point but pretty much had to suck it up bc there was nothing I could do about it. I KNEW once I saw all the locals get on the bus with loads of food that I was going to be in trouble. The bus didn't end up stopping for dinner until 1:30AM. Umm. I got my butt up and ate though, and I had some of the best Pho Ga (Chicken Pho) EVER. So good out of a dingy little food place that seemed as sketch as ever. And so begins my Pho tour of Vietnam.  haha. I had Pad Thai everyday I spent in Thailand, and now I will sample Pho at every place I visit in Vietnam. I can't wait!

After arriving to Hue and dumping our stuff the next morning, we just wandered throughout the city taking in the sights and sounds of the market and the city itself.  We only planned on staying one night so we didn't do anything crazy since our next bus was at 8:30am the next day. We wandered through the Citadel, which was like a giant town for the Chinese emperors in the 1800s when Vietnam was under Chinese control.   Another set of cool buildings to see built when all people had were elephants to help them build collasol structures. The weirdest thing though was that there was a tennis court in the middle of this place. Like a brand new tennis court. The site wasn't as well kept as it could have been, but it was still a cool place to see I guess.

Next stop is Hoi An--CLOTHES CENTRAL!! Everyone goes here to have clothes made from scratch just for you! I can't wait!!! haha. It will be a nightmare for my credit card (aka my parents) but we'll see how well I can come out of this town without putting a massive dent in the rest of the money I have for my trip, which is rapidly coming to an end!! Ahh! How is my time up so quickly?? I don't even remember starting this trip, it seems so long ago! And now I'm down to my last 10 days, and no time to finish all the places I wanted to see!  I'm already planning my return though! :)

And last but not least,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!! Hope you have the best day!! We'll have LOTS of cake/snicker's/ice cream when I come home!! :)

Hanoi and Halong Bay! Mountains Out of Nowhere!

Good Morning Vietnam!!

I heard that's a movie--I just see it on shirts for sale everywhere here. Didn't spend much time at all on Hanoi. Missed the mosoleum to see Ho Chi Minh, which was really disappointing, but it was because I was booked to go to Halong Bay, a candidate to be one of the 7 Wonders of the World. Definitely worthy of the title. This place was AMAZING!! There are limestone mountains that just come out of nowhere from the Bay. Such a beautiful site!!

I took a 4 hour bus ride to the Bay with a tour of about 60 people from my hostel. It's a pretty well known tour that keeps things fun at night, but great during the day. We ended up parking our 3 boats in the middle of  the bay so we could take a swim, and then we got to go kayaking around the bay to a cave where we walked around the the pitch black until we came upon a lagoon to swim in. Kayaking was so hard! My arms were like jello, and  I was horrible at steering us! We ended up crashing into several rocks and a ship in the bay before we got the hang of the kayak, and even then, my arms are too short, so I kept hitting my fingers btwn the oar and the boat. Ouch.

The next day we went to a private island where we'd be spending the night in little huts with no AC and holey mosquito nets. haha. It was fun though. We had this little beach to ourselves, there was volleyball, more kayaking, and we had the option of going tubing via a speed boat, wake boarding, or rock climbing. I decided to give wake boarding a try since I've never done it and it was so COOL! I got up on my first try!! I don't even know how that happened!!  I did fall plenty, but I managed to get up 4 or 5 times out of my 7 or so attempts which was great! There was one guy on our turn that didn't get up at all, so I was really glad that I at least got up since I was the only person who was a first timer. My tan is pretty ridiculous right now, so I might have to start easing up on the beach before I get home. haha...or not.

We got back to the hostel, and I became good friends with a Canadian couple on my trip, so I'm heading south with them for the rest of my trip I think. On a bus at 5:30pm so we can get to the next place in Vietnam called Hue. The bus should be interesting since it's a sleeper bus, but hopefully it's kind of like the buses I rode in South America.  It's a 14 hour ride, so I really hope that's the case!!

Full Moon Madness for my 25th Birthday!!

Full Moon Party (def) 

   -noun
1. Crazy rave on the beach which occurs once a month during the full moon on the island of Ko Phangan, Thailand
2. An excuse to drink far too much in the form of beach buckets
3. Art show in the form of body paint, neon clothing, black lights, and fire
4. My 25th Birthday Party!!!

How to begin to describe the madness that is the Full Moon? Well for one, I have been hearing about this party since I went traveling to South America last year. It was legendary. Everywhere I went there, people were either coming from S.E. Asia to S. America and talking about it, or people had tickets over to Asia after S. America and it was on the top of their list of places to visit! I figured, I have to check this thing out in my lifetime. A party cannot be THAT amazing and not be seen in my lifetime. haha.

After 38 hrs of travel from Siem Reap on a combination of buses and ferries, I arrived to the island with the intention of meeting up with my first good friend of my trip--my Canadian friend, Giang (in my elephant pics).  That was the intention. I arrived to the beach bungalow she booked us into to discover she wasn't there yet, and that I was the ONLY person staying at this place. Not exactly the way I imagined started my trip to the island, esp. after I saw the room we'd be staying in, but I figured once Giang got there we could leave and we could figure out another place to stay. I showered, I ate, I lounged on a pretty unattractive beach for hours, and still no Giang. Now I was starting to get worried. I did NOT want to stay at this place but without Giang there, I couldn't leave bc I had no idea when she was showing up. There was no internet at this place, and it was a 15 min walk down a road without any lights. In the end, I ended up making the walk to try to find some other guys we had traveled with a while bc I knew what hostel they were staying in, but I was unsucessful in my attempt at finding them, got chased by some dogs, and ended up trying to get into bed at 9:30pm. I say try because there was a spider as big as my hand on the wall next to my bed, a lizard inside my toilet, and after getting over those 2 things, there was some sort of animal on the ceiling of my bungalow that started to make noises once the light went off. OMG. I spent the night sweating away under the covers praying that nothing would touch me or try to eat me or something. haha.

The next day, I made it to the internet to discover a msg from Giang saying she'd be arriving later that day. As soon as she got there, we booked it out of that bungalow (after some arguing with the owner) and we went to stay with a big group of friends she had made on the last island she had been on for 2 wks. They were all really great, but I was really hoping they would become friends of mine in 2 days so they could celebrate my bday with me, and I wouldn't have to feel lonely. haha. Spent the next couple of days getting amazing Thai massages for $8, and spent the nights just going out and getting warmed up for the actual Full Moon.  Two of my friends from tubing in Laos were also on the island so it was so great to hang out with them and see them!

The night before full moon was my actual birthday at midnight and it was great! The people I was with bought me a rotee (the GREATEST dessert ever!) with banana, nutella, and peanut butter. Then they surprised me with a cake from 7-11 when we stopped off for some snacks for them.  And THEN they bought me a sandwich from a chicken stand on the street called Mr. K's Chicken. OMG SO GOOD! haha. I ate all that in about 30 min though, so I had to be careful after that.

The beach party that night was just a warm up to the real thing though. On the actual night, we all got dressed in our new neon clothes and started the night off with a body painting session.  We finally headed down the beach around midnight and it was crazy!! During the low season (which is now) there are about 10,000 on the beach for this party! I can't imagine what this would be like during the high season. You pretty much just walk the entire length of the beach and go from bar to bar and there are so many DJs and different kinds of music playing at each bar. It's insane. Not to mention the fire limbo, the fire jumproping, and the fire  slide. I wasn't stupid enough to attempt any of those (the slide actually caught fire and got shut down before anyone did do it), but I heard so many horror stories the next day of unsuccessful attempts at each and the burns that came with them. Yikes. I actually ended up getting lost with one of the guys in my group because the crowd was so big. We spent a good part of the night just wandering down the beach seeing if we could find anyone and checking out all the bars. I ended up seeing all of the people I had planned to meet up with at this party from my travels without even trying! It was so lucky! I still can't believe that I managed to see these people in a crowd of 10,000. It was birthday luck I think. :)

Ended up finding everyone at our planned meeting spot for the sunrise at 6:30am. The beach was still jam packed at that hour, and people were still being ridiculous. I saw one guy spill his entire bucket over another guy's head from the top of a stool.  The guy kicked the stool in retaliation and the guy on top went flying. It was pretty funny, esp. at 7am. Had some breakfast afterward with the people who managed to stay out all night, and attempted to go to bed after that, but was the ONLY person basically awake on the entire island with the exception of the locals. All I could do was lay in the bed and pray that the people I was with would wake up because I was so awake. Haha. Didn't happen--birthday luck ran out.

All in all--amazing way to celebrate my 25th with 9,999 other souls on the beach!! I would have loved to have my Laos friends around because we were much closer, but I had a couple with me and the people I was with were great, too, so things worked out! Definitely worth rearranging my trip for!

Now, I'm heading back on a boat to hop on a bus to get me back to Bangkok at 1:30am so I can sit at the airport until my flight to Hanoi, Vietnam at 6:45am. Can't wait. :)