Damn, ladies! Back at it again with the blog posts... Yes, I referenced it and no, I'm not sorry. Apologies, dear friends, for the delay in writing these posts! The past few weeks have been quite enlightening (and entertaining), indeed, so let me try to summarize as best I can without boring you to tears.

I suppose I'll just start on a little background to this trip as I'm sure many of you are probably wondering whether Negar and I have plans to ever get our lives together and join the real world and my short response to you is... YES... In a few months. Before leaving for this trip I wanted to have a job lined up for when I came back and I managed to convince Diageo that I would be good at marketing alcohol, and so I will be back in Ireland for good starting in September! Woot woot! Also, as I'm writing this Negar has been accepted to at least two masters programs (still waiting to hear back on the other two), so she will be continuing her studies while I drink all the drinks in Ireland. Sarah Jane has also been accepted into a masters program at UCD in Dublin and so we all asked each other, will we just go travel until September until those fateful days we have to rejoin the rest of the world in this place they call "reality"? YES.

That being said, in comparison to our other trip to South America, both Negar and I felt very unprepared for this one to Southeast Asia. We don't speak the language here (any of them), I only bought a guide book a few weeks before we left and had absolutely no idea what it is that one "does" or "sees" in this part of the world, I bought travel insurance two days before leaving for Dublin and got my booster shots the day before. I think my lovely boyfriend (shout out to bae!!!) was very concerned about me because I was so stressed out about being unprepared. I can't remember the number of times I vented to him about my stress (yet, I refused to start researching and getting myself together... Solid plan, Allison). But things seem to be working out! And we're alive and well so that's always positive.

Sarah Jane and I flew out of Dublin, Tuesday the 8th of March, and had a quick stopover in Helsinki before continuing onward to Bangkok. Also, if you ever find yourself deciding between airlines to fly from Europe to Southeast Asia... Finnair, my friends. Not only were the flights we booked quite cheap considering how last minute we bought them but the airplane was brand new. Like, our flight with them felt like the plane's inaugural flight - that new. SJ and I both had three seats to ourselves to "sleep", which I never managed to do, the food was very tasty and they had a vast array of movies and shows on demand. The only thing that was kind of weird was the endless propaganda on how great Finland is (which I'm sure it is), but they kept interrupting my movie watching experience to tell me so and showing me weird videos to prove it, which made me think Finland is, in fact, not so great.

In any case, we arrived bright and early Wednesday morning in Bangkok and after some slight confusion we managed to get our tourist visas and collect SJ's backpack before we wandered to the Skytrain, which is the easiest way to get from the airport to central Bangkok and to our hostel. We managed to get seats on the train as the airport stop was the first one on that particular metro line, and thank goodness we did because the train was packed full after passengers boarded at the next stop. I don't think I had quite prepared myself for the masses of people we were to encounter in Bangkok... Or the heat. When we exited the train I swear I was drenched in sweat within five seconds. Five seconds. And when I start to sweat uncontrollably without a towel handy I begin to panic. I don't particularly know why but I assume it's my body scolding me for taking it outside its natural home that I think it (my body) believes to be Ireland. Rain and mild temperatures are what my skin want, not 41 degrees Celsius with 90% humidity. Oh no.

Negar had arrived the day before us in Bangkok and was waiting at the hostel writing in her journal when we rocked up looking fresh-faced and full of life (read sweaty and very sweaty). After our big hugs hello and inquiries into how everyone's flights were we got some beers and caught up on the past few months. SJ and I figured we would just wait until 14:00 to do anything with ourselves as that was when we were able to check into our rooms and shower, and so literally that first day we did nothing but drink beers and plan the following day, as we were going to visit the Embassy of the Union of Myanmar so we could get visas. I think I passed out at about 18:00 that evening. Jetlag for me was awful... I think it was because I had stopped off in Ireland for a few days (5 hours ahead of DC) where I didn't sleep because there was so much party on and then proceeded to Thailand, which is an additional 7 hours ahead of Ireland (12 hours ahead of DC, now 11 because of daylight savings). Needless to say I had a rough initial few days in terms of sleep.

The following day we got up quite early so we could take the Skytrain to the Embassy of Myanmar. I'm half tempted to called the people Myanmese or something else completely incorrect because calling the people Burmese has the potential to be incorrect, as I think only 90% of the population is actually Burmese. In any case, we arrived without too much difficulty and filled out the document handed to us asking for personal details (including my Father's name?) and the address we were staying in Myanmar, which we didn't have so we turned around and asked the two guys behind us for the address of their hostel. With all of that sorted, we were called up to a counter and handed over our passports along with two passport photos and the document containing my dad's name. She pointed at the price it would cost in Thai baht for same day visa processing, which we all agreed would be easiest, and she told us we could come around in the afternoon to collect our passports with visas to the Union of Myanmar. Sorted.

Since we were quite far from our hostel we decided we would stick around that part of town until we could get our passports in the afternoon. The only issue was we still had six hours to kill and there was absolutely nothing to do. We sat and had coffee and breakfast in a cute shop for an hour. Then walked to a temple and decided to get some lunch at this place that had rave reviews on Tripadvisor (one review). The Friday before we left traveling, SJ had gotten fillings in a few of her teeth so that they wouldn't become cavities? Or something along those lines. In any case, she had been in awful pain the past few days and it hadn't subsided. So as luck would have it, with a mouthful of noodles in my mouth, I spotted "Care Dental Clinic" outside the window. Will we pop over?! Yes. Let's do it.

Inside the shop both the attendant and doctor spoke pretty good English and we explained what had happened. The dentist said she needed to examine SJ before she could give her any sort of medicine, so back SJ went for an examination and a few minutes later the X-Ray revealed what had happened. SJ's dentist in Ireland had put the fillings too close to her nerve and now her only option to alleviate the pain was to get emergency root canal surgery that afternoon. As luck would have it once more... The dental surgeon was going to be in the office starting at 17:00. I feel like parents know best in these situations (mom, will I die if...?) so after consulting her mom SJ decided to go through with the surgery.

We collected our passports back at the embassy at 15:30 and then meandered back towards the dental office. We took our leave of SJ, wishing her luck and promising we would be there to collect her in an hour. We got beers and sandwiches at a shop down the road from the dental clinic and reappeared to get her an hour later only to be told it would be another hour. So we wandered around the temple and took videos of ourselves doing weird things and looking pensive and such. Then went back to the dental shop only to be told it would be a little while longer and the attendant asked us to sit. She told us what Thai food we should be eating, places to visit in Thailand, etc. which was pretty educational and useful. And then an hour and a half later SJ emerged looking groggy and slightly swollen (in the mouth region, I mean).

At least it was over and she had survived! I believe two of the worst pains the body can suffer (although I've never given birth so that's not included on my list) are tooth aches and having to go to the bathroom. Absolutely awful. But thank goodness we were able to get it all taken care in Bangkok, which we later found out is actually renowned for its dental procedures/surgeries. No joke. Also, I think it was a bit of baptism by fire in terms of things not going to plan while traveling and being able to roll with the punches. I would say we've indoctrinated our dear SJ very convincingly.

As I said earlier, I made it a habit of falling asleep every night quite early. SJ and Negar usually stayed up for the craic and it sounds like they had fun but they also encountered a lot of morons. Exhibit A: an American (no surprise there) asking SJ what she thought of Ireland wanting to join the UK... Like, homeboy, are you confusing this with Scotland having a referendum on whether to leave the UK? I hope so but then I also don't hope so because that would make you a raging idiot. The only thing worse than him being a raging idiot was his response when he was questioned about his confusion: "well I can't know everyone's history, can I?" Well, you sure could try or you could also try to not be so smug about your stupidity.

The next day we did a walking tour that lasted pretty much all day. It was quite fun despite the ten miles of walking (although I definitely needed to work off the pounds of noodles and rice I was consuming daily). We took a few boat taxis through the Bangkok canals and visited a few temples, ate some noodles and spring rolls and walked some more. When we finally made it back to the hostel I imagine I crashed pretty hard and SJ and Negar stayed up to talk to more moronic Americans.

The day after that... We visited the Grand Palace which we had walked past on the walking tour. To enter one must cover both knees and shoulders, which I assume is due is large part to my extremely seductive shoulders that make men weak in the knees. I don't typically take the piss out of countries for strange customs and I do respect that Southeast Asian countries are far more conservative than Western ones, but I still can't fully grasp what it is about my shoulders that is so concerning that they need to be out of sight. It's a rhetorical question and I will survive with covered shoulders and knee caps although I might possibly faint one of these days from heat stroke. Stay tuned.

The palace grounds are very beautiful, though. Well worth a visit even at the risk of getting heatstroke... Afterwards we walked over to the (in)famous Khao San road to do a bit of shopping and to get some food. We returned to the hostel afterwards and I imagine I once again passed out very early that evening. I'm sorry jetlag made me lame.

The next day was our last full one in Bangkok and we decided to visit the famed weekend market. We took the Skytrain a good ways away from our hostel and followed the rest of the crowd to and through the rows and rows of stalls featuring food, clothing, jewelry, furniture, books, accessories, human heads, Arsenal memorabilia, etc. Literally anything your heart might desire could be found in this weekend market. For example, I purchased a bandana with the Texas flag on it, a cap with sheep on it and the word "LUCK" written across the front in bold letters, a leather bracelet, shorts with elephants on them, some pineapple, fried shrimp and a bottle of water. Literally anything you could ever want... And Negar and I are so excited to come back to it before we go home and purchase all the gifts... For ourselves. Then we went back to the hostel and I, at least, went to bed. You know the drill.

The following day, Monday now, we were set to leave for Chiang Mai on the overnight bus. So, we took our sweet time eating breakfast in the hostel and then we wandered over to Terminal 21, which is this beautiful modern shopping center very close to our hostel. It's about six floors in height and featured this amazing food court on the fifth story where one could get hundreds of different Thai dishes for around $1. No joke. And we ate there so often over the course of our time in Bangkok that I might have tried every dish once. But not really.

Anyway, I'm sure we ate a few dishes and then we decided to fill out last few hours in Bangkok by going to the cinema. The selection of films was awful. Like absolutely dreadful. I think our options were "London has Fallen", "Zootopia" (which wouldn't have been awful but the times were weird), "Kung Fu Panda 3", "Gods of Egypt" and the third Divergent film. I had at least seen the first Divergent film so I understood the main idea behind the series but the girls hadn't seen any of them. Naturally we decided that Divergent would be the best, or most suitable if you will, film to see. It was fine. SJ wasn't a fan but it entertained us for a few hours which was our main goal. We then went back to the food court to eat more food and eventually wandered back to the hostel for our last few hours of waiting. Once 20:00 struck we set out for the bus station and endured one of the most uncomfortable nights of my life on the most dreadful of buses. More to come on that, anyway.

So... In terms of a deep, meaningful conclusion for you, I can't say I have one just yet for Bangkok. Many hours were spent asleep and eating rice and noodles but I think it was a good way to ease ourselves back into the traveling way of life and I'm really looking forward to the adventures ahead. Stayed tuned, my loves!!