Jess Goes To... Thailand?

Traveling, traveling, only worse. This is my favourite picture of John not being a morning person.

When we arrived at our hotel in Guangzhou, we for some reason all hopped in the same bed. I don't know.

(Hilarious Fact: A few hours after this photo was taken, John was jumping on the bed because he is a child. However, at some point during the bouncing, about 200 empty packs of Viagra spilled out from between the mattresses. Hmm.)

What?

In Thailand at last, here is a blurry photo of the infamous Khoa San Road. Despite the blurriness, this is a pretty excellent representation of anyone's first impressions of Thailand. Dark! Neon! Active! Asian! Wow!

I guess we went straight to partying. While I was running around sampling grasshoppers, someone took this picture of John, Ben (Marcs friend) and Marcus, a guy we met on the train.

Tiki bar, first night in Thailand. Wes, Jaime, Sara, and myself.

Hanging out at a Tiki Bar the first night. All I remember about this picture is that we were talking about England.

Marc tells an English anecdote, I guess.

John double-takes? What do you want from me.

Ah, buckets. Here is our collective first sampling of a 'bucket', a popular pastime in Thailand, which I look like I am enjoying a little too much. A bucket consists of Red Bull, Coke, and Rum in a literal bucket.

Marc has a bucket to himself while I look on with disdain.

Class, this is what happens when you have a bucket to yourself.

This picture is terrifying in negative.

John, Marc, and Therese.

Yep.

I would give anything to know what Marc is looking at in this picture.

This was... interesting. We were wandering the streets around 1 am, and this little Thai kid just started bugging marc and john to... essentially play with him. Here they are playing catch or something. Or monkey in the middle. I assure you the kid was having fun.

...I'm pretty sure the kid was having fun.

This was pretty much exactly the theme of Thailand while I was there.

They just sort of... walked around.

An attempt at feeding the beast.

WHEN ELEPHANTS ATTACK

Khoa san road by day, the ultimate backpackers haven. No elephants in this picture, but I assure you, THEY WERE LURKING.

...Noodles?

One of the views leaving Bangkok. Even though I didn't particularly enjoy the vibe of the city while I was in it, I have to admit that it looks extremely exotic and beautiful from a distance.

Ronald McDonald is Buddhist apparently! He thanks you in Thai.

Here is a picture of a cool rock formation from a boat! Prepare yourself for more of these.

Half-moon party, I think on Ko Samet. Half moon parties seemed to occur monthly, along with full moon parties. They involve fire, drink, and dance.

Fire dancing! (Also at the half-moon party)

So gorgeous. Maybe one of my favourite Thailand photos.

Ko Samet again, from the water.

A picture of Yanni, my favourite disgruntled Welshman, and "Bee", a Dutch model we found.

Yanni, myself, and Liz (Yanni's traveling companion). This picture serves as proof that I don't tan OR burn. I look like a zombie.

The bungalows on Ko samet.

Not our bungalow, but our bungalow looked a lot like this. Just without the nets. It's fun to take chances with Malaria!

I used to sit here a lot and have banana pancakes. Ko Samet.

Therese, Myself, and Yanni. Instead of smiling, I am trying to instruct Bee in using my camera.

I love Therese. This is a celebration of her birthday, where she latched on to this muscle-y guy for most of the evening.

Here we now are in Ko Pha Ngan. I was most excited about this room we rented, because it came with a HAMMOCK. It was then I learned that Therese was scared of hammocks. To prove to her that hammocks, specifically this one, were completely safe, I allowed myself and all the luggage to be placed in it at once. This plan probably could have gone horribly wrong, but it didn't and now Therese is not scared of hammocks anymore. Everyone wins.

Another bungalow, another island, another view.

No, THIS is my favourite picture. Can you imagine living here? Man.

JC, a chap we met on Ko Phangan. Most of you know him from the mushroom shake story, where after ingesting a mushroom shake, he kept leaving our party, only to return half an hour later, soaking wet. We later found out he was standing in the middle of the ocean, talking to himself. Later, he informed us that we were not really in Thailand, we were somewhere in the Mediterranean.

Oh JC, you card.

Marcus, whom you may remember from Bangkok. We met up with him again completely by chance on Ko Phangnan. Also: That bird on his shoulder is real. Marcus is a suave mother.

This is basically the worst picture of me ever taken, and for that it should be documented. Note how evil and gargoyle-esque I look.

Me looking slightly better, with Marcus. Ko Phagnan.

A picture John took of one of the most beautiful beaches um, ever. It seems to me they filmed "The Beach" here.

I love Marc.

And I wouldn't expect anything less from him.

...Thailand has ALL KINDS of drugs for you to sample!

...No really. It does. I think this is Marc's self portrait on some bad weed.

...more rocks! While everyone was out dancing and drinking and trying various substances, this is what I was looking at.

God, I'm boring.

I did not take this picture, but it amuses me greatly. It seems to me this was taken under the sly pretense of Marc taking a picture of Ben, but the plan was to take a picture of breasts. I think they succeeded admirably.

Yeah, they followed her around for a bit.

Another picture that is not mine, but it's just another example of how glorious the scenery was. If you think this is merely 'okay', I would like you to pause and consider the fact that it was January when this was taken.