Temples, Taxi Driver, and NYE

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On the bus back from Laos, I sat next to a 25yr old Aussie named Tony from the Gold Coast. We talked about new yrs and our plans but I had no idea if I was going to stay in Bangkok or head back to Phuket. I didnt even know my plans once we got off the bus or where we were even being dropped off. (a similarity in these bus rides is that they drop you off on a street..usually a side street with nothing familiar to give you clues where you are.. its a race who can figure it out first if your on a bus with a bunch of travelers but if your the only one on a bus with all Thai people its a little more tricky). Luckily we were dropped off close to Khaosan Road (a famous street w a lot of hotels and shops). Tony didnt know where he was going so I showed him down a few streets and decent places I knew about. As we walked, we witnessed a cop chasing down a British dude (mind you this was 6:30 am so he was probably still out from the night before). Once he picked a spot, I used the hotel shower, and went on my way. We made plans if I decided to stay in bangkok we'd meet at a cafe at 6pm, which never happened.

I started wondering and got a tuk tuk driver, named Ton, he took me to the center for tourism and travel bc they sell cheaper tickets than the travel shops on the street but they were sold out of tickets to Phuket for the day. It was still early so I decided to worry about it later and he took me to some temples. The driver was 23 yrs old and it was his birthday. He said he wanted to ring in the new year with good luck and that he wanted to pray. So we went into the temple together and he showed me how to properly pray on your knees, then kneeling your head down to the floor 3 times. We had a lot of fun together!

He took me to the bus stop that takes you to the bus terminal. So I took the city bus and headed to the bus terminal which luckily had a ticket to Phuket that night. I had a few hours to kill but the station had loads of food and cheap shops. It was jammed with people bc of the holidays so I found a spot on the floor to sit down and this guy sat next to me, Ray, from Brunei. I had no idea where Brunei was located and he was shocked..oops! There was someone else sitting to my left who had smelly feet so Ray pulled out some soaps that he just bought for me to smell. He said "I love soaps for some reason"... "nice...yeaa soaps are cool" thats all I could think of!

I got to Phuket, New Years Eve, with no plans.. I was feeling kinda lonely bc all my friends went to the islands! I had dinner at the restaurant right by my house. And the cooks (Noy, Apple, Gayle (prounced gay owl), another Noy, and others I didnt catch their names) brought me over a beer. This turned into a 5 hr long celebration, full of food, Thai whiskey, moree food, lanterns, fireworks, and then these Thai guys ive become pretty good friends with showed up for a meal before heading to Patong Beach (the vegas of phuket..crazyyy place). I almost went with them but I felt bad ditching the party with the cooks. (side note: the cooks knew zero English.. so my talking was limited.. it was just mostly dancing). It was a great New Years night!

This is not a joke. I woke up and remembered I left my bag of apples at the restaurant. So I went down there this morning and asked Apple for my bag of apples. I laughed to myself.

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Photos

Ton and I
Best friends! haha

come at me bro
This was in a shop at the bus terminal... the shirts in Thailand are hilarious!

music car
This car supplied the music for the night and it had a karaoke!