Well I do have to admit it was easier to write about the planning phase of this then it is to write about the actual event itself! It's amazing how quickly you adjust to things that to begin with are so strange. The flight here was long but i managed to entertain myself for 16 hours while watching about 5 movies and 8 hours of desperate housewives and entourage...neither of which i even enjoy! My travel encounters began early at the toronto airport when i was banned from entering the check-in with my tiny amount of yogurt. I was stuck in the corner to eat my breakfast where i met 2 philipino pilots who were also banned from entering with their herbal tea. I spent a few hours with them before the flight and a few hours again in Hong Kong. So that solidified my plans to go to the Philipines because now i have 2 families that i can stay with, which makes entering a new country much more appealing! So after my 16 hour flight to Hong Kong and my 8 hour layover and my 3 hour flight to Bangkok I arrived alive. Then came the actual event of immersing myself into the culture ... which came by means of a public bus that drove around in a circle a few times before actually going anywhere and was followed up by a taxi driver who had to be argued with to use the meter and not take me to whatever hotel his family owned so he could get a commision - all the arguing came with a sly smile and what i have already coined as the thai giggle. My arrival at Khao San Road, backpackers district, was just like i had expected, bars, stray dogs, and a million people trying to sell you something - yes even at 1am. My hostel was anything short of amazing, a hard wooden board disguised as a bed and a roll of toilet paper that so nicely came with my room deposit. but it was all i needed I suppose, since it didn't have cockroaches and it had a lock on the door i was not going to look any further in the middle of the night! Luckily I ran into a girl on the bus who was heading the same way so we ended up sharing the beautiful room but now we're off on our separate ways. I woke up excited to see the city ... ok that's a lie. I went to sleep last night with the intention of waking up and finding a way out of the city. It's fun and crazy and the shopping is so overwhelming that i think for that reason alone i have to leave or i'll be penniless in a day! So i think i'm going to head to the train station tonight and get on an overnight train to the south, i figure that's a good way to start to trip by hanging out on the beach .. considering i have no idea what else to do with myself!
This trip so far has confirmed that no matter where you go there you are. It's nice to always feel at home no matter where i am, because it's me, even if i am sitting in an internet cafe on the crazy streets of bangkok! which i am about to go and explore, because i guess at some point i'll have to start eating things besides the apples i filled by bag with before i left!
