Day 7 - Koh Samui

by Bec 12:18 AM 7 comments brushes etude house eye shadow holiday MAC makeup maybelline nail polish

It's been a hectic week in Bangkok. I just have not had the time to post. I've been exhausted every single night and slept like a log even though the beds were extremely hard. As in we've put a blanket over a piece of plywood hard. It seems to have been quite good for my back though.

We spent a lot of time shopping. We ended up spending three days exploring MBK, which is the really big centre with over 2500 shops. On the first day we were there and only got through 2 floors. Seriously.

We also found the Siam Discovery building which had a Madam Tussuad's so we had to go in there for the corny poses. They also had some more upmarket makeup brands like Bobbi Brown and Shu Uemura. There was also the Siam Centre where I found a MAC store, Smashbox, Etude House and a heap of boutique makeup and skin care places that I went nuts in. I now have 6 new MAC shadows, another paintpot, lots of BB creams and related products, assorted eye shadows and an AMAZING Etude House polish.

At MBK I found lots of places selling fake MAC products and fake MAC and Bobbi Brown brush sets (actually, the Bobbi Brown brush sets were surprisingly good quality, but quite good brushes if you're not ready to plunge head first into expensive brushes). There were fake designer handbags and wallets galore and while you know they are fakes, they are also well made and with actual good quality leather so I couldn't pass up on getting a few of those.

There is also a Japanese department store called Tokyu which had a few brands I hadn't heard of so I ended up getting four shadows from there just to give them a try. I also found the most adorable limited edition Hello Kitty Maybelline Mascara that I just had to have.

The food here is divine as you would expect and I am getting used to the burning in my mouth and my lips going numb.

We went on a full day tour on Tuesday which involved riding elephants (and seeing baby ones!), rafting on a rickety bamboo raft and visiting the famous bridge over the River Kwai. It was a long day, but an incredibly memorable one. Our elephant was big on walking and snacking at the same time, which was amusing. Our driver man was really cool and grabbed my camera and jumped off and started taking photos for me, which was fabulous. Considering he'd never seen any kind of camera beyond a point and shoot before he did pretty well. And he quite enjoyed learning how it worked.

I went to a ladyboy cabaret and it was awesome. It was so camp and hilarious. The best way to describe it is to imagine a badly dubbed movie, thow in some ladyboys, sequins and big hair and that's the result. I don't have any photos of that since I didn't think I would be allowed to take my camera in, but I can tell you that some of them I would not have picked. They were stunning. Quite a few were mannish and in dire need of a wax, but all in all it was fairly impressive. I'm planning on hitting another cabaret before I head home, so I will endeavour to take pics there.

The grand palace in Bangkok. The only half decent photo I managed to get on the cruise.

Last night was our final night in Bangkok and we did a night cruise and of course, it poured torrentially with rain making it impossible to take photos. While waiting for the cruise to start we killed some time in the bar with cocktails and watched an Asian Elvis impersonator who was really quite good if not under appreciated by the somewhat snobbish clientele.

We flew into Koh Samui this morning and are staying at the Outrigger, which is breathtaking. I've got so many photos that I have taken today, but I will just pick my faves. There are three pools here. Our room overlooks one of them and we have our own private spa on the deck which is awesome. Now, if we could just figure out how to work the damn thing....

I've just had dinner and it was incredibly tasty. I had stir fried chicken with cashews in a spicy brown sauce and Kim (my housemate/ travel buddy) had Massaman Curry. It was tasty too. Oh, and the most amazing smoothie which had yoghurt, honey, banana and pineapple.

There is a tropical storm going on outside so we are staying in tonight after a day of lounging on sun lounges, swimming, sitting in the spa and of course drinking cocktails at the swim up bar in the infinity pool. Ah...it's a hard life, but someones got to do it.

That's it from me today.

Be awesome to each other.