PART SEVENTEEN: True Confessions of The Solo Traveller

Confession One
I slept with a 23-year-old Canadian boy, Justine, two days after I've known him. With Justine, in the same room at Mae Hong Son, coz it was 200 bahts per room and there are two beds inside. We had a great time chatting with two German gals who were teaching English in a nearby village school who were staying in the same guest house. I was greatly entertained by Justine's numerous "no thanks" and a Thai lady's persistent attempt to convince Justine to go to her house to spend the lonely night.

Confession Two
I followed three strangers on their motorbikes less than 20 minutes after we chatted on my first day in Pai and downed three shots of Thai herbal whisky, something I normally wouldn't even lay my hands on back home.

Confession Three
I drove the scooter without a licence. I had no clues how to ride a scooter. I befriended a 31-year-old Thai man while eating at the roadside stall and made him my "teacher". In Pai, they don't even ask you for your motorbike licence. All you need is 100-120 baht per day, and you'll get the motorbike for the entire day. You can do whatever you want and visit some of the nearby villages, hotspring or just cruise around the little town.

Confession Four
I drooled over my Thai rafting guide, secretly. With a neatly tied pony tail, tanned and atheletic hot bod, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the famous heart-throbber, Takashi Sorimachi, who acted in GTO and The Beach Boys, at least to me. I'm sure he will sell like hotcakes and will swoon many girls over if he's born in a different land, I thought to myself.

Confession Five
Muddleheadedness is a trait of mine that many close friends of mine would know. I left my favourite Nike trackpants in the Lahu village in the Northeastern part of Thailand after the two-day-one-nighttrek in Chiangmai. For one who had left my small haversack at the airport in Rome, after carrying my huge haversack and realising the "boo-boo" only 150 metres before I left the airport, and who had dropped my passport, without even knowing it, the loss of my trackpants during this two week break was considered a huge achievement. Hopefully, the tribal villagers would be able to put my favourite trackpants into good use.

Confession Six
I receive a marriage offer and an boyfriend offer, one from Mr Potato, a 60-year-old village man,and when told that I am single, he said, "how about you be my wife?" We had a good laugh and I confessed in an almost Thai-style fashion, "I like Made-in-Singapore, not Made-in-Thailand.

Nonetheless, I threw myself willingly into this arms, literally, as the kind Potato gave each of us a good Thai massage and literally tucked us into bed, under the comfort of the mosquito nets. The other marriage proposal was from an old Romanian fella, who asked "Hey lady, where are you going?" while I was walking along the street. "Going down the street, I replied. Are you looking for friends, a lover, or a boyfriend?" I said, "No, thank you, but minutes later, I was sitting around with them, chatting about the atrocities of war, the Thai people's culture and everything under the sky.

Confession Seven
I was offered to smoke marijuana by a South American traveller, who had been staying in Thailand for several years. I must confess that I was tempted. Drugs is a taboo in Singapore and I have no clues where to find marijuana in Singapore. But I decided not. I thankfully declined this one in a life-time chance for the heavenly puff.