Beat the Beast - Adult Snow Day

Turns out the weather man was right after all...

After making it halfway to work yesterday to be told to turn back due to the oncoming snow, I stupidly thought it wouldn't come to anything, but waking up to THIS was somewhat of a shock!

Our road has completely disappeared under a blanket of fluffy white snow. 

Our cars are buried to the bonnets, keeking out from beneath their marshmallow toppings. 

And I swear we had garden furniture yesterday... 

How not to break an ankle

It started off like any other night out...


Edinburgh-bound for our friend, Kirsty's hen weekend, Siobhan and I cracked open a bottle of £1.62 cider from Aldi on the train, full of hopes and dreams for the night ahead. 
We were last minute additions due to previous work commitments, but super excited non-the-less to give our pal a decent send off into married life!
As you can probably already tell to the story, I'd been working non-stop quite a bit and this was my first night out in God knows how long, so I was determined to make the most of it with my best gals. 

Siobhan and I booked a hostel in the City Centre, halfway up Fleshmarket Close, which if you haven't been to the 'Burgh before, is like a "fuck-off" big hill wi stairs.
But for £20 for the night booked last minute, it was an absolute steal. Besides, we were hardly going to be in the room anyway..
The rest of the squad had an apartment booked further out of town from the previous year, during the time which Siobhan and I weren't sure we could make it. 

During the day was chilled. Perfect, even.
Cocktails were sipped, light shopping was purchased, conversation flowed and a nice dinner was consumed. 

The group parted ways to commence the ever important "getting-ready" stages of the girly night out. 
Siobhan and I put the "out out" playlist on and started beautifying ourselves. It was a small x2 bed dorm with bunkbeds which we managed to litter with our expandable cases containing everything we needed from buffing brushes, and hair wands to heel and outfit choices. 

                  


After a few insta shots and boomerangs, we were ready to hit the town.
We started off in Candy Bar for more cocktails before meeting the girls in the Opal Lounge for the dancin'. 
Here, I feel is where it all went downhill...

Free drinks packages and being on a hen night in general assists in the encouragement to just get completely and utterly (as we Scots say), aff yer face // oot yer tree // mwi. 
Especially being one of the remaining single ones, where no matter how hard you try to hide it, it does get emotional in the riptide between being happy for your friend getting married and knowing that you're not even close to getting married. 

It did not help that the hottie Canadian boys at the next booth supplied us with their bottle of Ciroq when tearfully telling them that ours was finished. 
Their generosity was beautiful and I believe in making international relations, as did Siobhan, but the remainder of the hen party had decided they'd had enough and left around 1am.
We (stupidly) decided against leaving and as an act of valour, we also decided to (stupidly) play the dangerous game of minesweeper and consume the remainder of everyone's drinks. In a way, I guess we thought we were saving ourselves money by doing this. 

Unsure if this is Canadian Boy, but if so, cheers for sharin' yer bevvy!

Fast forward to the end of the night where for some reason, drunk Stacey and Siobhan decided to have a romantic meal in an Italian Restaurant at 4am (thanks to the subtle facebook check-in reminder), instead of doing as normal Scots do, and taking the pizza and chips home and forgetting about them till the next day. 

I remember the uber back. 
I remember the careful walk down the steep steps of the lane and making it to the front door, pizza box still in hand. 
I remember falling down the little ramp INTO the front porch, arse over tit. The ramp the lady warned us about during  check-in. 
I remember a sharp pain in my ankle, as if I'd whacked it off of something solid. 
I remember Siobhan laughing hysterically at me and snapchatting me in all my drunken hilarious glory. 

Shaking it off, I hobbled up the stairs to our room, trying to shrug and laugh off the pain. I somehow managed to make it into the top bunk, and crashed out, forgetting about my pizza until that 6am roll over and it was like MERRY FUCKING CHRISTMAS TO ME!!! 

Never has a photo truly represented me as a person

The next day my foot was in agony. 
It had swollen into a Granny kankle it deserved it's own Granny name, which we had dubbed Bertha 2.0 (in memory of my opposite ankle being bitten and swollen in Asia last year).
As we walked into town to meet up with the girls, I had to develop a weird quick-step-push system with my foot in order for me to even move anywhere. I was going at a snails pace, which really annoyed me as my 6'2 strides seemed like days of the past. 

One of the girls was a nurse, and she recommended I go to A&E either asap or as soon as we got back home. I (stupidly) waved her off. I'm one of these (stupid) people who avoid going to the Doctor if they can help it. 
But alas, after the swelling continued and taking about an hour to walk a path that would have usually taken me about 15 mins, I decided she was right and took her up on the offer to take me to the Hospital where she worked when we got back. 

A&E is a rather unsettling place, but it wasn't long before I was seen and x-rayed by the Nurse.
As soon as he said the words, "It's broken", my face fell. 
My mind went blank. I couldn't process what he had said until he left the room. Thank God I had my Nurse friend with me to repeat what he had just said, but in English or words I could understand. 

I was taken to a room where my leg was to be placed in a temporary cast until the Fracture Specialist could see me on Tuesday (today). 
"I'll need to cut your jeans, Miss", the Doctor said.
ABSOLUTELY-FUCKING-NOT, my face said.
I'm over 6 foot. It's a rare miracle I find jeans that actually fit me, so you're not cutting my favourite acid wash pair, sunshine! Hell to the NOPE!
Thankfully, Chelsi (Nurse friend) ran to the car to retrieve my case where I had my PJ shorts in there from the previous night. What an Angel. I couldn't even speak to say thank you, my mind was still in shock.

 

The Nurse made the cast up to my knee (which I thought was a bit drastic- it's my ankle I broke, you know? All the way at the bottom). 
He also gave me a short lesson in "How-to-use-crutches", where it all hit me and I got tearful. I silently mouthed to Chelsi, "I can't do this", which she replied "YES YOU CAN".
And I'm grateful for that. 
It's a mantra which has slowly helped me get through the past few days in realising I won't be able to go to work for the next 4 weeks, I won't be able to walk, or get out much or do anything physical around the house. 

The fracture specialist put me in a harder cast today, which is bright neon pink.
Hey, if I'm gonna be in this thing for a month, I'm damn well gonna go for a bold-ass colour and at least try to look good when I'm healing. 

I can do this.

x4 weeks and counting...

Stace x

Ain't no Sunset like a Laos Sunset

No words, right?

This photo was taken atop of Mount Phousi, which is a viewpoint in Luang Prabang where people gather to watch the sunrise or sunset over the Mekong River. 

I'd definitely advise to go around an hour or so before the sun rises or sets, as there are 355 steps zig-zagging 150 metres up to the top, and even for the fittest person, it gets a little tough! Especially as there are loads of tourists to weedle past or through. But with plenty of resting places along the way and the Wat Tham Phousi Shrine to admire at the halfway mark, it bodes well to take your time, drink plenty of water and don't forget to wear mossie repellent! 
There is also a small entry fee of 20,000 kip (roughly £2) and drinks and snacks are sold at the peak.

The Golden Wat Chomsi Temple is at the summit of Mount Phousi, where you can enjoy a full 360 degree panoramic view of Luang Prabang.

My photos and videos don't do the view justice, it's truly an impressive and beautiful sight to be seen in person. You can actually see the sun going down quite fast and creating these gorgeous colours in the sky reflecting in the river. 

Stace x

Chasing Waterfalls

In Luang Prabang, there are two beautiful Waterfalls on the outskirts of town that I highly recommend visiting should you get the chance;
Tad Sae and Kuang Si. 

Kuang Si

TAD SAE

The smaller of the two Falls, Tad Sae is located within a Forest, giving the impression the land is flooded by small rock pools of water, cascading over the limestones to the larger turquoise lagoon below. 

Visiting Tad Sae was part of a tailor made package from a local travel agent, where we cycled the rough dirt roads for roughly two hours through town to the Nam Khan River, which we then kayaked down towards the Falls. 

This activity as a whole cost us 400,000 kip each (which is roughly around £34), but the travel agencies offer various packages best suited to your tastes, plus you can always haggle for the best price. 

Ours included a personal tour guide, stop-off to Phannom village (which is famous for it's weaving and craft production), the kayak tour down the River to the falls, the entrance fee, lunch and kayak tour back to town. 

In total, the tour was roughly around 4-5 hours with a well spent afternoon taking a dip in the refreshing falls and of course, partaking in an instagram-worthy photoshoot!

KUANG SI

Kuang Si is the larger and more popular of the falls amongst the tourists and backpackers. 

As we visited Tad Sae first, we had planned on enquiring at the same travel agents for a trip here, but were lucky enough to encounter a local tour guide with a bus-like tuk-tuk who was taxi'ing tourists to the falls and back for a price.

This may sound slightly bizarre and unsafe, but backpacking in Asia is all about the haggling for a cheaper price, and the various random ways you can bag a tour or an activity just by taking an innocent stroll down the street. 

As I was haggling with the gentleman, I (for reasons unknown to myself) offered him a deal that if I could fill up the tuk-tuk bus of 8 people, he would take us for 200,000 kip each (£18), wait for us and bring us back.

So, myself, Roisin and a girl we met at the hostel over breakfast scurried across the street to the market to find willing, like-minded participants and preferably backpackers like ourselves. 

Luckily, we found another solo traveller and a group of 4 girls. BINGO!

It was almost as if the driver couldn't believe we succeeded in our challenge but he was happy to take us and I joked that he should pay us commission! It's always advised to establish a good relationship with the tour guide/driver/fixer as they are super knowledgeable about the area and trustworthy people just trying to make a living themselves. 

True to his word, he drove us to and from the falls where we basked in the absolute glory of the turquoise blue waters for a few hours in the 30 degree heat, and hiked to the top of the Waterfall in our flip-flops (side note- PACK TRAINERS if this is something you want to do!)

Which, you definitely should do, as there's a beautiful lagoon at the top covered by a roof of forest trees with slivers of sunlight creeping in to create the most gorgeous reflections of light on the water. 

There's also a pretty cool swing in the middle of the pool where of course we enjoyed another photoshoot for the 'gram. 

Both are definitely experiences not to be missed if ever in Luang Prabang. Both Falls are an exotic jungle paradise in their own right.

Stace x