Kayla Joleen

I'VE GOT ISSUES

More issues than Vogue. Instagram-stalker by day, magazine hoarder by night. There is nothing I love more than a brand new cover and the feel of paper pages under my finger tips - darn you Internet, destroying print publications.

You can imagine my delight then when I discovered Stack, the magazine subscription service that sends you a different independent magazine each month. You never know what you're going to get, which is something I need after being stuck in a magazine rut. The fear of wasting money on an insufficient magazine is one that cripples my life on a day to day basis. It's not easy being this troubled.

I was very excited then when I received my first delivery earlier this week. What could be inside? Travel? Food? Photography? Er..no. I received a gay men's magazine.

I'm not going to lie, I was initially quite disappointed by what I had been sent. Shouldn't they have a preference box that we could fill in? But as I began reading, I soon found myself enjoying the pieces that were inside. And did I mention there were NO ADVERTS. Do you know how special that is?

Reading articles from someone with an entirely different perspective to mine was refreshing. I was thinking about problems that I had never even considered before, like asking a stranger to take a picture of you as a gay couple (harder than it may seem). As I got further into the magazine, I found myself preferring it far more than the usual choice at the newsagents. And that's when I realised that that is what Stack was all about. Giving us something we wouldn't normally pick up and presenting the chance to explore new and diverse topics. What can I say? Don't judge a magazine by it's cover.

Photos by my good friend Charlotte Mumford as I cannot work a camera.

Share |

SHREDDED TREAT

Fashion 14:54

If you didn't know, my favourite past-time is stalking girls on Instagram. There's nothing as motivating (or depressing) as scrolling through images of beautiful girls with seemingly perfect lives. My current fashion crush is singer Liza Owen (@lizaowen), who's recently been posting images of her extreme ripped jeans.

Images: Instagram @lizaowen

I'm in love with them. But with a lack of funding, and also a slight fear of the cold, I chose to treat myself to these shredded boyfriend jeans from Missguided instead.

Sticking to my monochrome theme (check out my last post), I paired them a white jersey crop top that's also from Missguided. And as I always do in an attempt to appear more stylish than I actually am, I threw on my old trustworthy plaid shirt.

Here's hoping it worked.

Share |

BASICS

Fashion 16:10

Not a very exciting outfit, but you can't go wrong with monochrome. Well at least that's what I heard anyway.

I decided to invest in some wardrobe basics - tees, crops, jeans and trainers - all in black and white of course. A wise move if I do say so myself. Now I'm hoping that the difficulty of putting an outfit together in the morning should be gone. If I stick to the same colour palette then anything should go. No more running late then...

Share |

CHIANG MAI

Travel 20:18

There's a lot to cover about Chiang Mai. I'm going to attempt to condense it all into one paragraph before letting the pictures do the talking.

We left the islands and done a straight journey to Chiang Mai. 907 miles. By coach. That goes 10 miles an hour. It took two days. In fact it took one rocky boat, one coach, one minibus and then another night bus that was stopped by the military. And then a taxi to a dodgy looking hostel down a dark alley. The next day we found another hostel, the crazy arts hostel that is Bunchen, where it was the norm for live chickens to go by, cockroaches to be passed around as a snack and drinking games to take place every night. We tried Khao Soi, a dish of Northern Thailand, met up with old friends at the Night Bazaar, attended a ladyboy show, completed a cooking course, went kayaking in rivers where elephants bathed, ripped my trousers while jungle trekking, ripped my shorts while bamboo rafting, ripped my new trousers by falling off the roof of a taxi van, played drunken hide and seek in 7/11, went to a butterfly farm, visited a tribal village, started the party in a reggae bar, had a Thai massage, rode an elephant (which I'm actually very ashamed of), and took a dip under a waterfall. I think that just about covers it.

Bunchen

It wasn't just the hostel that was arty, Chiang Mai seemed to be a creative place in general and a lot calmer than Bangkok. There was lots of little coffee shops and vegetarian cafes.

The Thai back massage that involved a small lady crawling on my back. Unconventional.

The Night Bazaar

Nights out

Lady boys

Jungle trekking was the best thing I done on the entire trip, despite the fact that I was a nervous wreck. Our tour guide was going at a pace way too fast for a clumsy person like myself who kept tripping, slipping and ripping my trousers in half when climbing up some rocks. I also had my shoes half hanging off my feet due to blisters which wasn't ideal when crossing wet rocks and tree trunks over the water. My nerves weren't helped after seeing a giant spider. From then on I just kept my head down and tried not to think of all the bugs that were surrounding me. Of course, I was at the back of the group so I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked for fear of being left behind!

Riding the elephants were part of the days trek, where we asked before riding if they were treated well. After being assured that they were, we hesitantly got on. I couldn't enjoy it for both a guilty conscience and the fact it's extremely uncomfortable. The place we were at was an elephant camp where we saw them being treated well, but we were told by a hostel friend afterwards that any elephants that you can ride would have been treated very cruelly at a young age which made me regret my decision even more.