I LOVE FOOD, BUT FOOD IS MY ENEMY!

Song for the day : Linkin Park "Faint"

Friday was a total waste of a day. I wasn't able to go in to the office to continue designing the new shirt for OPENaid International. I was in so much pain that I didn't even realize I was crying. Everywhere in my body hurt. I was scared. Luckily for me I had the AFRICAN CHANNEL to keep me entertained. I was able to catch up on GREY'S ANATOMY, PRISON BREAK, was able to watch Beverly Hills 90210, Charmed, Everybody Love's Raymond, Seinfeld and I am now addicted to this new show called WEEDS. I haven't watched television in sooooooooo long because I lost interest and I simply never had the time. Now with the African channel, I think my couch potato days are back in effect! Reena and I find it quite amusing that the African channel have all Caucasian TV shows.

So after much rest and much drugs I was able to get myself together in time for ISLAND SATURDAYS. We decided to go to the islands every Saturday to enjoy much needed fun in the sun. We hopped onto this ferry boat, that leaves every 2 hours to KO LARN ISLAND. They piled so many people on the boat to the point where I was kind of scared because of all those stories I heard about ferry's sinking. The boat was really rocky and I didn't get a seat because these 3 tourists (I won't say where they are from because I wouldn't want to offend anyone) were taking up all the space! I felt like my stomach was turning and I actually wished I had to throw up because I so would have loved to throw up on those 3 seat hogs! But my bitterness towards them quickly changed (WARNING! BEFORE YOU READ ON, THIS IS A REALLY CORNY & FULL FLEDGE BOPPER/HIGHLANDER-LIKE STORY, SO YOU CAN MOVE TO THE NEXT PARAGRAPH IF YOU FEEL LIKE YOU CAN'T HANDLE THIS) because I saw this really gorgeous guy. He was the first good looking, normal guy we've seen since we first arrived in Thailand. He looked like a younger Olivier Martinez. I quickly turned to Reena to tell her about the eye candy within a few steps from us but she saw him too. We were both in awe of his perfect, chiseled body! It was as if we've never seen a perfect body before and it is kind of true. Back home we're constantly exposed to perfect bodies wether it'd be on television, in magazines, advertisements and even our own friends! We've been here for over 2 weeks and all we see are UFOs EVERYWHERE, EVERYDAY! So this guy was definetly an eye opener for us. We were giggly and felt like we were in high school again going crazy for the Backstreet Boys! I told her it was best if we spoke to eachother in French since most of the tourists on the boat were American, German, Swiss, Russian, Japanese or Chinese. We shortly found out that the gorgeous guy and his friend are from France and understood EVERYTHING we were saying! This is how we found out....We were about to arrive at the port so "Olivier" had to tell his other friends on the boat who were sitting a few feet away from us so he had to make his way through the crowd and ended up scaling the wall where I was standing. He had both legs spread open and his hands pressed on the wall between my head and his bare body brushed upon mine and he said with the nicest smile ever "Excuse moi". I was blushing so much, that if I were white I'd be red! Before I was able to regain composure, he came back and did the same thing! I felt like I couldn't breathe. The funniest thing about that, was that Reena told me there was plenty of space for him to have walked past us without having to scale the wall. So that made my day in an instant and I felt like my spirits were up again.

So we get off the boat and we felt like celebs. We were greeted by a huge line of Thai scooter taxi men all screaming and fighting with each other for the tourists getting off the boat. So Reena and I asked how much it would cost to take us to the beach and they said 20 Baht. So Reena and I laughed and said we would walk. In Pattaya a 20 Baht ride is a 10 minute walk so we decided to be ghetto and walk despite the heat. So we started walking and these 2 guys wouldn't leave us alone. They kept harassing us to hop on their scooter. We were adamant about not caving in because they were so annoying. We decided to just walk towards where the other tourists were heading. We tried to act like we knew where we were going but we really did not have a clue. They kept coaxing us and said that the beach is really far that they will take us. I replied back saying "We love to walk, so just leave us alone". They cussed us out in Thai and drove off. So were happy to finally get them off our backs but then we realized we were lost and we did not see any signs of the tourists we were with on the ferry. On KO LARN ISLAND there are 4 different beaches. So then we started cussing because we should have just taken a scooter ride! All the fuss for only $0.60 cents! You may think that is cheap and yes it is but we have Thai mentality now so to us it is quite pricy! So we were just taking a break on this dirt road in the scorching heat and luckily a truck filled with Thai people pulled over and we hopped on. They took us to the beach. The car ride was about 10-15 minutes. We would have never made it to the beach. Well we would have but then half our day would have been ruined and we would have been in a bad mood.

So we get off the truck and we just looked at eachother with tears of joy because we made it and the beach was so beautiful and picturesque. It was mother nature at her finest! I thought I had died and went to heaven! We made a quick dash for our beach chairs. Took our clothes off and ran into the beach. The water was so blue and the surroundings was so serene. All you see are mountains filled with lush green trees. Ever watched the movie THE BEACH? Well that is what it was like. While we were swimming, Reena was actually quiet for a few seconds and was starring at the shore. I was like what are you starring at?! (WARNING! ANOTHER BOPPER MOMENT! GO TO THE NEXT PARAGRAPH IF YOU WANT TO AVOID CHEEZINESS! KEEP IN MIND, CHEDDAR DOES MAKES IT BETTER) So I turned and I saw "Olivier" in his tight speedo like briefs, bending down and intensely looking down at the sand collecting seashells by the seashore. It was like everything and everyone had disappeared off the beach and it was just him. He looked so perfect and I felt like I was dreaming because I never seen someone so perfect that close! I finally snapped out of it when a wave came in and I was choking on the salt water. "Olivier" must have heard me choking on the water because he looked up at us and smiled. We were thinking he is probably teasing us and was pretending to collect seashells to see if we would look his way because once we did he walked back to his friends. We were thinking his friends were probably having a good laugh at us going all ga-ga over their friend. We stayed in the beach for over an hour until we were pruny and ran back to our chairs where we were greeted by a Thai woman who asked if we wanted to eat or have a drink. We decided to splurge and I went for the Virgin Strawberry Daquiri. We also had a fantastic Thai meal that was served to us and she had put a nice flower in my hair. Then this Thai man came and asked if everything is fine. He was speaking to us in Thai and we said we do not understand. So he asked where we were from and I said we were from the Philippines. I did not want him to think we had money so we didn't mention Canada at all. So he said Ooooh you two look Thai. Everyone here thinks we are Thai so it's perfect because they do not harass us until they hear us speaking English! Then when they hear us speak English they think we are Thai snobs who think we are better than our "own" people. A lot of Thais think I am from the North East and they have a good laugh about that. Most people in the North East are Farmers who are dark skinned and poor. I am so dark now, that I don't think I can get any darker! I don't even think it is possible for me to get any darker!

On our way back to the port we realized we did not have enough money to get on the ferry back to Pattaya. We splurged a lot on food and drinks that I was 1 Baht short (which isn't even a penny!) We didn't bring a lot of money because we felt it wouldn't be safe to leave money around while we were swimming. So while Reena and I were arguing on the taxi truck about being short of funds a nasty British UFO stepped in and gave us all his unwanted change. We would have preferred not to have taken it but we had no other choice. His young Thai "girlfriend" didn't seem too pleased with us. So even though we hate UFOs he saved us from being stuck on the island with no money so we sucked up our pride and we were nice to him for the 15 minute ride back to the port. That night we felt we were on a high from the beach that we decided to hit the town and splurge on a $2 movie THE KINGDOM with Jamie Fox and Jennifer Garner.

The next morning I woke up feeling really paralyzed. I was in so much pain ALL over. I thought Friday was bad, but this time it was worse! I was scared and I wanted to get up but I couldn't. I had massive chills and felt so cold but I was sweating profusely. We were going to go to the hospital but I wasn't able to get up or even put on some clothes. Reena was telling me to keep popping my pills but I couldn't on an empty stomach and the thought of food did not (for once) seem appealing to me. She kept telling me to go downstairs to our "kitchen" (The hotel restaurant) to eat something. I was really annoyed with her because she didn't understand what I was going through. I told her it was not easy for me to just get up, that I couldn't even move! My head was pounding like never before, I was cold yet sweaty and my body ached. So she stepped out for a bit and I decided to just SWEAT IT OUT. I once heard that sweating it out is good for the body. I wrapped myself up, prayed for the best and just passed out. I woke up after 2 hours when she came back and it was as if a miracle had happend. My t-shirt, blanket, bedsheet and pillow was soaked in sweat but all my pain was gone. Not fully, but I was able to get up and put some clothes on and head down to our kitchen for breakfast (It was 2pm). After breakfast I popped my pills and felt even more better even though I had to make a mad dash to the bathroom to explode. For the past few days EVERYTHING that goes IN, GOES OUT! So as much as I love to eat the food here (they have the most amazing fruit stands with fresh pineapples, mangos, strawberries, watermelons wonderfully cut up for you for only 1oBaht which is like $0.30 CENTS) I can't eat anything fresh for awhile. For now and for the next week or so, FOOD IS MY ENEMY :'(

We then decided to go for a walk to get myself going again and we decided to stop into a Thai Massage Parlour. We decided to splurge and had a facial, neck, shoulder and back rub. It was an hour of pure bliss! At one point I fell assleep and awoke thinking I was back in my hotel bed until she slapped this cold cloth on my face and was smothering it all over my face. Then I realized where I was. We were the only female clientele in there. At one point, 2 Chinese men came in and one of them demanded that he wanted to be massaged by one of the Thai masseuses. One of the masseuses answered back saying that the woman that he wanted was busy with another client. So he said he would wait for her. I turned to see the guy and he was sitting on a chair like he was a king while he was unpurely watching the Thai woman massaging some other man. Damn UFO! Nonetheless, the massage was the best $8 I've ever spent and we decided to treat ourselves every weekend and make Sundays MASSAGE DAYS!

We felt disoriented after our heavenly massage that we decided to walk along the beach and hit The ROYAL GARDEN PLACE (The biggest mall in Pattaya). I decided to splurge and tap my $1.50 Blizzard at DQ! All was nice until we bumped into Justin and Rattana. We had too much togetherness with them that we wanted to actually have at least the whole weekend without having to see any of OPENaid people. I am beginning to think Pattaya is not that big of a city as we thought. We notice we always see the same people everyday. It is nice to see familliar faces but there are certain faces we rather not see all the time!

So today I played hookey and did not go in to the office. I did not feel creatively inspired and would have been useless at the office blankly starring at the computer screen. So I did some errands. I finally did a load of laundry! I've been wearing the same clothes at least 3 times already unwashed (knickers not included!). As you can see, I really did not pack enough or properly. I packed a pair of wool mittens! I don't know how that got in my duffel bag! We've been trying to find laundromat to do laundry but couldn't find any! Supposedly they don't have any here, what you do is drop your laundry at one of the service places and they do it for you, fold and iron your clothes! They charge per clothing item. 1 Baht per knicker and 2 baht per shirt or pants! It's cheaper than having to pay for laundry detergent, fabric softner and electricity! Well we are about to hit a really heavy rain fall so I am going to head back to shelter and tap the AFRICAN CHANNEL :)