Thousand island dressing

Following my last post on how my dress sense goes a bit nuts when I'm on holiday in a tropical location, I was determined not to make the same mistakes this time.

So in packing for Thailand, I tried to pack things that more closely resembled what I would wear in my normal life - more plain black dresses, denim cut-offs, band t-shirts and black singlets and much less crazy, floral print dresses and sarongs.

And, for the most part, this was a success.

You can probably guess from the last photo though that, yes, I did still indulge in some fake tan action. But this time, I splurged a little and bought St Tropez self-tanning mousse and a proper application mitt and that stuff seriously works! I had read heaps about it before but never wanted to spend a lot of money on tanning gunk so always went with something cheaper. But the colour is gorgeous (even on my pasty-ass skin, it turned a gorgeous maple colour) and it didn't even smell too bad. Genius! Get on it now.

Another little bit of island-maddness that I ended up indulging in was this:

While I don't normally get pedicures, for some reason I thought it would be a GREAT idea to get a purple and silver french-pedicure with little frangipanis painted on top. I admit, it looked cute at the beach. But it looked fricking stupid when I was back in the city.

(In case you are wondering, they are now a lovely shade of red. Just like nature intended.)

I also spent a couple of nights in Bangkok - which, while chaotic, stinky and very hot, called for a more urban look. Thankfully, I remembered to pack this nice little Terese Rawthorne dress which was perfect for going out on a hot, Bangkok night.

This was obviously towards the end of the trip when all the fake tan had worn off.

During the days though, I was less interested in looking totes chic and more focussed on not melting into a big ol' sweaty mess. Or getting sunburnt. Or getting some kind of tropical disease.

This was my basic survival kit:

The most important things being the fan (seriously, I bought it on day one and it was the only thing stopping my flesh just sliding off my body into a pool of sweat), the Clinique Super City Block (SPF 40 and oil free? Yes please!!) and the antibacterial hand wipes (you get pretty excited when toilets in Thailand have toilet paper - soap is a serious luxury so you are best being prepared for the worst...).

I also managed not to buy anything ridiculous.

Ok - that is a lie. I now own two pairs of fisherman pants (in the very practical colours of purple and maroon), a pair of baggy cotton pants in a sort of tribal print, some multi-coloured harem pants and a pair of THE smallest denim cut-offs ever (which I managed to rip in a pretty major way when I decided to do a cartwheel on the beach).

But I didn't buy a single fake handbag or anything else fake (even though the fake Mulberry handbags were practically FLAWLESS and kept calling to me every time I walked past). And I also managed not to buy this little fella too.

I think it is an iPhone cover. See? I can resist temptation!!!!