I can't stop singing "One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free..." It's a cheesy theme song for my first evening here, but it must be done.
My adventure has begun. After 31 hours of traveling, 3 airports, 3 TV lunches/dinners and countless glasses of water, I have finally arrived at my destination. The flying wasn't too shabby considering I strategically asked for the the exit row on my flights to Narita (Tokyo) and Bangkok and was delighted. Not only was there ample leg room, but I could have easily rolled out a few yoga mats for some high altitude vinyasa. Sadly, that didn't happen, but I did manage to sit through 5 movies. Yes, 5 movies. For those of you who aren't familiar with my movie-watching ability, I give myself an F.
I was easily distracted (yet still seated) during these movies by my new Argentinian friend who also got the isider tip to requesting an exit row. He had just flown out of Salt Lake City where he had worked at a ski lodge for a few months on a break from school...and was on a spontaneous trip to visit his girlfriend in Thailand. I love that traveling is so natural for everybody else in the world, yet as Americans, we tend to cling to what's familiar. I haven't even been in Bangkok for 7 hours but I can see why traveling is key.
My new friend, Thomas, and I landed in Narita and took a 2 hour, self-guided tour of the airport. I immediately grabbed my camera and stated snapping shots of the art, plants, recycling canisters...Yeah, I was that obnoxious tourist with the flash. As silly as this sounds, the best part of the airport was the kid's corner. If you all are interested, I am accepting students for: Paper Folding 101. I led a mini class on origami frogs, hats, sumo wrestlers...even the Japanese lady hopped aboard.
Enough about the airport...onto my hostel. It's beautiful. www.lubd.com is where it's at. Free internet, 24 hour bar, entertainment center and SQUEAKY clean! I attemped to get some shut eye around midnight but I just couldn't relax. The beds are fantastic, but how do you sleep when you've got an entire adventure ahead of you?! So, I hopped downstairs to the movie lounge in an attempt to be social and met some cool guys from London who I ended up hanging out with for the rest of the twilight hours.
I'm sure I will be relying heavily on coffee to get me through the next few days of jet lag, but there's so much to see and I don't want to miss any of it.
