Or the latter part of 2007 either it seems. I've been a very bad girl.
So, I'll sum everything up by highlighting the exciting parts and leaving out the less fun stuff.
November --
At the end of November I went to Thailand and Cambodia for about 9 days. My school was giving me crap about taking time off right when the mid-year conference was supposed to go on, but there was nothing they could do because (a) they had approved the leave before I bought my plane ticket and (b) they failed to alert me of the mid-year conference dates.
Still, it being Japan and all, they kept insisting I come back a day earlier and I kept insisting that my ticket was unchangeable. So, as expected, when I failed to show up for the first day of mid-year conference, they called me and asked where I was. Kansai International Airport, I said. Just like I told you I would be and just like it says on the copy of my itinerary.
Anyway, Thailand was wonderful. I stayed mostly in Bangkok though at the HI Sukhumvit youth hostel. This place was amazing. The rooms were clean, there was AC, clean bathrooms, washer and dryer, and it was about a block away from the BTS station. I did lots of riding on the back of motorbikes, zipping through the city like some badboy's girlfriend or something. It was fun.
I tried to go to Koh Samet island, but that didn't work out. I wound up in Ban Phe at about 9PM with no other buses back to Bangkok and nary a hotel in sight and lots of vicious dogs. The ferry place was open and was taking people across to the island, but only if 20 people showed up. Of course, 20 people weren't EVER going to show up at one time. I ended up staying at the seediest do-it-yourself motel in which I was scared to sleep on the sheets. Fortunately I had swiped the blanket from my flight and I slept on that -- with my Gerber knife in my hand. Lol. The next morning I inquired about a ferry across and got the same story. I don't believe anyone has ever taken the 20 people ferry to Koh Samed. They just pay the $40 to take a speedboat. I was pissed so I refused to get gypped like that. I took a bus back to Bangkok.
The trip to Cambodia was memorable and kind of horrible. Wanting to be adventurous, I decided to take the train all the way to the Thai/Cambodian border. That was 4 hours of wasted time. The train was sticky, old, and nasty. When I got to the border, I was assailed by offers to drive me to the "real" border and get me a visa. I had already purchased my visa so I didn't really need them, but I got suckered into paying for a chartered bus to Siem Reap where my hotel was. We were loaded onto a chartered bus, driven right to the border, then piled into a rickety van. No part of the road to Siem Reap is paved and much of it (if not all) is covered in the worse red clay. We were on this road for about 4 more hours. Then the driver tried to sucker me into staying at a "preferred" hotel, but I was so pissed I made him drive me right to my own hotel.
The hotel, like the train and everything else was coated in dust, full of mosquitoes, and sticky as hell. I immediately booked a flight back to Bangkok for the following night.
The next day I went to Ankgor Wat and that was very, very fun. My motorbike driver seemed like a nice enough guy, but he kept complaining about not having money. I took lots of pictures, got my hair felt up by almost everyone I met, and had a general good time. That night, when I was leaving, I left the driver a tip since I felt he had been quite nice to me. He then proceeded to cheat me out of $40 at the airport. I would have put up more of a fight about it, but my plane was already landed and I just wanted to get out of that place. Never again. Or maybe never, ever again in such a touristy place?
Anyway, I got back to Bangkok and went out to a girls club and had a really great time. I had forgotten how much more comfortable I felt in all girls clubs. I even got hit on quite heavily. Thai women are beautiful.
I also accidentally walked into a sex massage parlour looking for a legitimate massage. That was quite funny. And awkward.
After getting back to Hokkaido at the beginning of December, I proceeded to suffer from a very bad liver infection that I think I contracted in Thailand or Cambodia. I thought I was going to die. I also had my first brush with the nice, but not quite thorough enough for my tastes Japanese medical system. I'm still alive and it wasn't ridiculously expensive.
December
Christmas was kind of depressing. I stayed at home most of the time. I wasn't really missing anything or anybody, but the combination of cold and snow plus my lack of car made me feel like a prisoner in my own home. I did go snowboarding for the first time though and I LOVED it. I was glad when school got back in.
January
My birthday month. Worked on my birthday but celebrated it in Sapporo the following Saturday. So many people came out for my party and Jenny baked me an awesome cake (in the shape of boobies, lol). Lots of drinking I'm afraid and a stay at the wonderfully accommodating internet cafe.
My mom's birthday was also this month and I managed to send her a package from Japan and get her new luggage. The luggage was a hint that she absolutely would be visiting me this May.
February
Reaching the end of this month now. Nothing really awesome to report. Went to Sapporo for Yuki Matsuri (Snow Fesitval) 2 weeks ago. Lots of drinking and fun. Stayed at a friend's house this time instead of the internet cafe (thank goodness). Went to Niseko this past weekend. Intended to snowboard. Instead got caught in a blizzard. A friend fell and bashed her head on the ground and ended up in the hospital. Not such a great weekend. Now it's snowing like nobody's business in Tomakomai and my toilet froze completely solid this morning.
