Afternoon at Bangkok PaintBar!

Last Friday I treated myself to an afternoon at the Bangkok PaintBar! 

You guessed it...it's a bar...where you can paint! I saw it advertised on the F-book and thought it would be a fun experience and since I don't really know how to paint,  I might as well learn and as it has a bar - well - need I say more! It costs 599 baht (£13.60) for a 4 hr session, you get a canvas and are guided to paint the 'Painting of the day' which on Friday was a sky, grass, flower scene.

Before!

I got off to a bit of a slow start - realizing I know absolutely nothing about paining, but after some help to paint the 'sky' I was on my way! A glass of vino also helped the creative juices flow... before I knew it I had a sky and grass! Next was to add few splashed of colour...

After!

I spent about 3 hrs painting away and enjoying getting in touch with my artistic side! It was fun - but I think it would have been 'funner' going with someone else or a group of people. There were two groups there on a 'team-building' exercises. The first group had 40 min to paint anything they wanted and to add their company logo, the other group arrived just before I left and they were painting a 'Penguin family scene'.

Although not massively gifted in the artistic department - I was pretty happy with the result! The photo doesn't do it justice and it looks great in our apartment- adds a much needed splash of colour!  

My Masterpiece!

http://paintbarbangkok.com/

Day-Tripping to Nokhon Pathom!

Yesterday we visited Nokhon Pathom.

NP is about 50 km from Bangkok and a charming little place to visit for a day trip! We got the 9.20 am train from Hua Lamphong Station and the 1.5hr train journey cost us a whopping 14 baht (31p!) We had passed NP on our way to Khanchanburi in December and it looked like a great little place to visit , since we had the day off yesterday thanks to Chinese New Year, we decided to make the most if it and explore more of this amazing country! 

As soon as we arrived in NP, we could see one of the main attractions - the gigantic Phra Pathom Chedi! It boasts the tallest stupa in the world and can be seen from miles around - it's pretty impressive! There were loads of festivities going on around the Chedi (I have images of Luke Skywalker in the Return of the Chedi! hehe) thanks to the year of the Rooster there was an amazing food market, clothes market and plant market! 

Phra Pathom Chedi

  

Next we headed to the second attraction in NP - Sanam Chan Palace - or at least tried to! We got horribly lost thanks to Goggle Maps and ended up having to get a motorbike taxi to take us there! Turns out we walked right past it! It does not have good signage! Anyhoo, we walked in and as I was inappropriately dressed (shorts and vest top in 34 degrees is very inappropriate!) I had to purchase a scarf to cover my exposed shoulders and wrap skirt to cover the legs. (*note to self - whenever travelling around be sure to take a pash with for this very reason!) My new look only set me back 130 baht (£2.93) and as a bonus saved my shoulders from sunburn and the skirt was a good bum cushion on the train ride back! After dressing up in my new robes we were allowed to enter and had a lovely walk around! The Royal Family used to stay at this palace when visiting the area, the grounds are beautiful and definitely worth a visit if you are ever in NP - the entrance fee for foreigners is 50 baht (£1.13) and there are guided tours every 30 min.

Sanam Chan Palace 

After the Palace we headed back to the train station and stopped at the food market to sample some delicious nibbles before we head back to Bangers!  NP is a cute little town with lots of charm and I loved that we were the only foreigners walking around. 

Day-Trippers!

Aladdin and the Magic Lamp!

Last month I made my Bangkok stage debut as a member of the Chorus in Aladdin - the Panto!

Finally that Drama Degree is paying off! 

I joined the Bangkok Community Theatre a few months ago - thought it would be a great way to meet people and to re-connect with my love for Theatre! On the first show I helped out backstage and it re-ignited a passion deep within me and I loved being back in the Theatre action again! So, when they announced that a Panto would be coming out in December, I was dying to get involved and offered to help out backstage - turned out they needed an extra ensemble member... and before I knew it I was a member of the cast! O.M.G!

Rehearsals were super fun - took me a while to learn the dance routines - I have no rhythm! And as for singing - well...I decided to lip sync most of it and sing really softly for the rest! The costumes were just amazing, I love to dress up and was so excited I got to wear a brunette wig! (been thinkin gof going brunette for a while - so was nice to play around with it!! It was great for the show, but gonna stay a natural blond instead!) The entire show awesome and huge success! I had so much fun, met some amazing talented people and remembered why I fell in love with Theatre in the first place!  

The cast of Aladdin and the Magic Lamp!

Watch out for my next stage appearance in February - The Vagina Monologues!