I paid 450 baht from some Thai woman to batter my body!

Yet another gruelling day in training, tonight we decided to get a traditional Thai massage. 2 hours of some chick twisting my feet, legs, arms and back. Nudging her elbows into my back, pushing her foot into my thighs... is this suppose to be relaxing... I could feel my face scrunch up each time she did something. She did kinda get the knots out of my back though. I think I still prefer the Swedish massage or aromatherapy.

More icky roadside food... yummy and tummy still safe

After the massage, we ventured to Bangkok's Chinatown and had some seafood at some roadside stall. I have to say I have been extremely adventurous in my culinary intake this trip. I keep thinking at the back of my mind, damn, I dont beleive Im eating here.... I actually had a kick out of it cos I was eating by a road side. Like OMG, I'm not even thinking about all the filth! But I couldnt help notice the freakin trash bin that was right beside us! Ha Ha!

The food was pretty yummy, the tom yam soup was absolutely superb, we also had more friend chicken, some pepper crab. I downed the food with my Singha beer, maybe thats what kept my tummy sane. And to end it all we each had a bird's nest soup dessert.

I want a real one!

After a long tedious day in training, we decide to head out to the Siam Centre and MBK area. Again lots of little stores that sell clothes that are way too small. Some random shoe shops. And in MBK that sells the fake Balenciagas, Chloes, Guccis, etc. From they look too fake to be a fake to there no way in hell I could afford a Balenciaga, it has to be fake. Ha Ha Ha!

Bangkok for the week

Arrived in Bangkok Sunday afternoon, after checking into the Shangri-la Hotel. The girls and I cabbed it to Chatuchak Market. It was hot hot hot! Right at the front of the market as you enter from the train stations theres a store called 'On Sugar' that sells the most fabulous accessories and all kinds of pretty stuff, sequinned flower brooches, fabulous beaded earrings and rings, pretty home decor stuff and some pretty skirts and blouses. I bought a couple of rings, brooches and hair ties with the dangly beads. Too cool. The front end of the market looks like the higher end (as higher end goes in Chatuchak), also bought a couple of nice stainless steel keychains, one was a cat and the other a dog bone. Think I'll give the cat one to Kel and keep the dog bone for myself.

Venturing throught the nooks and crannies of Chatuchak we find lots of stores selling clothes, which are all too small cos they are Thai sizes, like goddamit, I'm a large for crying out loud! I bought a couple of black sleeveless T-shirts with a beaded butterfly. Again one for me and one for Kel.

The rest of Chatuchak which didnt interest us at all were more household stuff, nice wooden bowls and lamps, etc. And some random junk stores here and there. The afternoon sun was bearing down, the humidity was horrendous, I dont think I've pespired quite so much at one stretch that didnt involve gym gear. We decided to try one of the food stores to get some food. I have to say not to be a wet blanket and deciding to be a little adventurous I decided to try the food. My stomach must be on my side these days because I actually didnt suffer from it after. Which was good cos the fried chicken was spicy and crispy and yummy and sinfully bad for you.

Elaine's Birthday Party

9:00AM: We wake up in the morning still kinda groggy from our night out. Must be getting old cos the alcohol and staying out late is just zapping at my energy. I make some coffee with the little satchets of coffee and the hot water boiler they have in the hotel room. The mug is too big and our coffee ends up being too weak. Mornings like this you need a power packed coffee to get the engine going.

10:30AM: We decide to head down to Causeway Bay to do a little shopping even though we probably only have like an hour to shop cos we have to be at Queen's Pier by Noon. To our disappointment, all the shops in Island Beverly are still closed. It was almost 11AM and the shops are closed? Like what the hell??!! We walk down the queit streets a little more and snoop around the little streetside stores. We stumble onto one shop selling clothes that I wouldn't be caught dead in, but they seem to have a pretty funky selection of bags. Cheryl and I end up buying a couple of bags each. I bought one huge white one that I can use for travelling or just genereal shopping. I mean its so huge its almost as if I could fit in there. I but anohter sportier looking one in pink that i can use for the gym and just your everyday throw all your stuff in there type of bag. We're happy, least we bought some stuff.

Noon: We arrive at Queen's Pier, Elaine and Thomas, Cynthia and Jacob, and some other people are already there. The boat is pretty large and decent, its not some luxury boat and no where as big or cool as the one Raj and I went on in Phuket, but it was decent. We pile on with our big bags full of swimstuff and our shopping bags. There must be enough alcohol on the boat for the next 5 birthday parties.

2:30PM: The boat travels out from Queens Pier out to some islands two hours away. Theres about 10 other boats docked out there with the little speed boats too. The boys decide to jump off the top deck of our boat while we set up for lunch. Highlight of lunch was having yummy brie and tomato with pesto bruschetta watching Stephan, Thomas and Jacob manage the configurations of Banana Boat seating. The appropriate centre of gravity obviously resided with Thomas and after moving from the middle seat to the front seat, they finally settled on putting the rear power at the end of the Banana Boat. Ha Ha!

8:00PM: After an entire day of fun in the sun and sea, we headed back in the evening. I dozed off on the way back, its been a long 24 hours. We now needed to go back shower and get pretty for dinner at the Russian restaurant Elaine's booked for dinner.

10:00PM: Cyn, Jacob, Cheryl and I are the first to arrive. We're at Balalaika at the top of Lan Kwai Fong in the LKF Tower on Wyndham Street. Arnaud has brought some frenchies with him, who sit at the other end of the table talking to themselves in French, what else. Typical! We start out with some yummy bread appetisers and I share an Oxtail soup with Elaine and a Fish pie with Cheryl. We're completely stuff from all the food, and top it off with Haagan Daaz birthday ice cream cake. I so need to go on a diet.... oh well guess it will have to wait till next week (i hope).

The guys bought like 2 bottles of Vodka and went through one of them halfway through dinner... I have never seen Jacob talk so much in my life. He's actually funny. Ha Ha!! Stephan and Thomas are starting to sing in Russian along with the musicians... with enough Vodka in your system... you can actually start singing Russian folk songs. By the time dessert is here, I'm struggling to keep my eyes open. For some reason, i feel land sick... i get up to go to the bathroom and the room seems to be rocking. And i havent even had any vodka. Damn! The night ends with all of us leaving the restraurant, think some of the guys carried on to the bars, but I head on back to the hotel, watch some tellly for abit and fall of to sleep. On the whole an excellent BIG 30 for Elaine!

Hong Kong for the Weekend

8.25AM: I'm late for my meeting (as usual), I'm wearing my very retro Stuart Weitzman green sandals, beige pants and sleeveless button up white shirt... tugging my trolley bag up the extremely crapped elevators to the 10th floor. Scrambling to my desk, I leave decide to leave the trolley bag right in the middle of the aisle between my desk and the partner's office... DOH good move Kyra... lucky for me Wendy moved it for me. Thanks you Wendy . Wouldn't want a newly made partner to trip and fall over my trolley bag cos of lil ol me.

3:00PM: I've been running around the office all day, in meetings and out...finally slam shut the laptop and hop into a cab to the airport. Its been a crazy day, I almost fall asleep in the cab, my phone rings, its Cheryl... she's at the airport.. having a smoke outside while she waits for me. Right on time...

5:10PM: China airlines is one of the smallest planes i've ever been in besides those Silkair planes that we take to Phuket . Hopefully, noone smelly sits beside me. Wooohooo.. its just me and Cheryl, so we got the extra window seat empty beside us

9:30PM: We arrive in Hong Kong.... Yaaaaaaayyyyy.. safe... no major dramas on China Airlines. And theres Elaine waiting for us at the airport. We ran into Lionel on the plane up so we're gonna try hook up with him later tonite.

10:30PM: The hotel is pretty decent... thanks god... I absolutely hate dodgy hotels. Its the Cosmopolitan Hotel on Queens Road East, WanChai. The rooms are nice and pretty new so we're happy.

Midnight: Lionel says to meet him at the 7-Eleven in Lan Kwai Fong at 11.45, of course we're late. So we hike up the slopes to Dragoni to look for him. The door bitch, is well a door bitch and wouldnt let us in unless Lionel comes get us "Members Only"...pfffftttt... Lionel isnt in Dragoni... He's at some other club called Volar... jeeez... so we suck it in and descend the stairs in our 4 inch heels back onto the main strip of Lan Kwai Fong, in search of the much elusive Volar.... after being harrased by fat beer butted English dudes and rounding a couple of irish bars, I spot the sign for Volar, infront of a solitary black door with 2 huge bouncers and an anorexic blonde door bitch. After waiting for like 20mins, we finally get in with some help from Lione's friend Fonnie who is a member. The chick must be a member at every club there is in Hong Kong.

Volar has a nice layout to it, theres 2 main rooms to the joint, the first playing some sort of retro electronic music and the other more house stuff, if my memory serves me right. Cos we were in there and decided that hiking the hills of Lan Kwai Fong left us a little bit thirsty and we managed to quench our thirst with 3 vodka tonics before we decided to head out of Volar to Club Hay Hay. Hay Hay is at the backend of Lan Kwai Fong, so it was a trudge up the hills again, and located one the 3rd or 4th floor (I dont remember obviously) of some building. We get there and teh place is packed wall to wall. Its belting out your mainstream hip hop music and its amazing to see some of these local Chinese chicks get ghetto sluttish to the music. We hung around for abit and decided it was all too exciting for us NOT! Not a single cute guy in sight might I add, and head home to the comforts of our icey cold hotel room.