Ah! It’s only been a few days and I feel like too much has happened to write! So I have to try really, really hard to just giving the basic idea, no more long detailed posts! Ok, so we arrived in Bangkok at about 4pm –after a 7 hour flight, a 12 hour day in London, and then another 11 hour flight. For the last hour of our flight I was having pretty bad anxiety, and I was nervous it wouldn’t go away—which made it worse! But once the plane had landed I had had enough water and deep breathing to be relaxed again. PHEW.
Once we were into the airport a relaxing wave came over me. “We are finally here!” The airport was warm and humid—but not hot, and I could here birds chirping! We made it really easily through customs and our bags had just came down when we went to pick them up. Soon after, among many people holding up signs, we saw our sign holder, holding a sign with our travel agents name! - Another sigh of relief. Our driver was really friendly and we went on our 1 hour drive to our guesthouse. For the first half hour was just like driving on any big-city highway—busy, and ugly. But there were great billboards, and it was different to see all the run down apartments with everyones laundry drying in the dirty, hot heat! After the highway though we started to make our way thru the more ‘neighbourhood’ type streets. My very first impression was COLOUR and MARKETS! There seemed to be markets crammed into every nook and side street as possible, selling all kinds of garments and fresh and cooked food.
When we got to our hotel I had yet another sigh of relief—it was really lovely. Right at the entrance was the dining area and pool. - All open air, no walls. Plants everywhere and birds singing, right in the middle of the city. And tons of travelers—at first I felt intimidated, I felt like noticeable fresh meat, but that didn’t last too long, because there are so many people like me.
Our room was great, pretty small and basic, but cleaned and well kept. White sheets and a beautiful purple silk scarf draped over the edge of the bed. It was about 6pm now and Dave and I felt exhausted. We went down to the guest house restaurant and ordered our first meal. I got stir fried veggies over rice. So far with every veggie dish I\ve ordered, I\ve been delighted to see that they DO NOT skimp on the veggies like most north American places do. All kinds—baby corn, cauliflower, zucini, carrots, tomatoes, brocoli, and quite a few more I do not recognize. And Davey doo got spring rolls, rice, and French fries! Hehe
After dinner we went back to our room and quite literally passed out within 15 minutes—then slept a full 12 hours.
They next 2 days were spent exploring the area and getting things sorted out. We took a taxi to a huuuge mall and got phone cards and numbers for our phones. But funny enough we ended up tiring of the mall pretty quick. Aside from two floors that were furnature and electronics, it almost seemed like 5 floors of the exact same things—cheap shirts, shorts, pants, flipflops scarves, and other common touristy things. After we left we decided to barter with a Tuk Tuk to get us back to the hotel, our taxi cost 80 baht to get there (100 baht = aprox $3) so we decided on 100 baht for the tuk tuk driver. Tuk tuk\s for anyone that doesn’t know are like motorcycles with a sitting area built onto the back—kind of like a carriage.—You usually decide on a price to get somewhere on one before you make the trip. We had to refuse so many rides because many tuk tuk drivers want to take you other places first before your chosen destination. The tuk tuk drivers usually make deals with tailors and merchants.—So they offer a tourist 10 baht to ‘take you anywhere’ but first they will take you to a merchant, and if you make a purchase the tuk tuk driver gets a commission. So we woul settle on a deal with a driver, then he’d say “ ok, just 2 stops” and they we\d have to say no and find a new driver. Anyway that was a ton of fun—to drive thry the city with the wind in our hair and be right in the traffic, observing all the crazy driving.—I actually am starting to feel like the crazy driving is what prevents accidents! Everyone is just so laid back and does what they want, and it all works out.
Yikes, this is getting long again, I’ll try to wrap it up a bit. After the mall we went and looked over the two main tourist roads. We bought our bus tickets to Koh Lanta as well. Walking around in Bangkok was my favourite! As I said Sooooo many stalls and markets. I loved just looking at all the food on peoples plates, and all the coloured fabrics for sale. And just watching the locals getting to and from they were going. Dave and I looked in used book stores and jewlery stalls, I bought quite a few pairs of Thai-appropriate clothes, - as I had only brought one pair myself. That evening we went to a pretty western friendly open air restaurant. We both got huge beers, and I got a vegetable green currie, mmmm. And by 8 we were exhausted again and went back to our hotel room to pass out!
The next day, our last day in Bangkok (for the time) we got up early again, but took our sweet time getting ready, packing up, and eating breakfeast. Then through out the day we walked the streets, look at the river, bought more clothes—I bought a purple sun dress! Around mid-day, feeling hot and needing a break, I went to change and get water at our guest house and Dave got his first pedicure, which probably cost about $3! After his pedicure I met up with him again and we got Thai massages.—Not what I was expecting! It was nice, but it was very rough! At first too rough I almost asked for the lady to be more gentle, but it got better, and near the end I liked it, she even cracked my toes and fingers! After massage we went for a drink at another nice open air-but shady restaurant. I had my first Bangkok pad thai here! Yum yum yummm!!!
After lunch we putsed around some more, it was closer to 3 and we were really hot and a bit drunk, and our bus was in a couple hours, so we didn\t want to stray too much, so we just ‘window shopped’ and made our way back to the guest house to pack up. We left to catch our bus at 5:30. I feel like the whole bus experience was more of a transition to Koh Lanta story, so I will write a new story on that in a bit.
I am in Koh Lanta now and am very relaxed. Once I’ve taken a break from this I will come update some more and add some photos. Hope all is well around the world!
