Today started out good and ended up great. I was a little nervous whether the trip I had bought from a dodgy little travel center was bogus or not, but at about 7:10, a person approached me and asked if I was heading to Ayuthaya. I was really relieved, b/c I would have been pissed if I lost all that money.
On the ride over, I ended up chatting with this Malaysian guy who was also travelling alone. He was only in bangkok for a couple of days was was going back home as soon as the tour was over. Regardless, i was glad for the company.
Ayutthaya was really nice, especially having been in Bangkok for the past couple of days. It was a much more rural town and the temples were Cambodian in style, and therefore more like ruins than the well manicured palaces in Bangkok. It was nice to be away from all the smog, noise and people harrassing you to buy stuff. I got to see my first Thai elephants, amazing creatures, and one of the drivers let me pet one. Again I won't bore you with all the details of the place, just check out the photos.
When i got back, i was really considering trying to get a train out of bangkok that night. But, it was too late in the day. I had initially wanted to go to Koh Chang, but decided that I should head up north. I was spending a fair amount of money and time in bangkok, and i wanted to make sure I had plenty of both for chang mai.
I went out for my normal dinner and a beer, and noticed aguy sitting alone. After about half an hour of wondering should or shouldn't i decided to go over and ask if I could join him. I wasn't trying to pick him up or anything, just figured I'll never meet people if I don't start being a bit more proactive. He was another english guy, here for a few weeks of vacation. We ended up having a really nice conversation, and I was so glad that I had had the balls to say hello.
After a few beers and a crushing thumb war defeat to a little thai girl (which cost me 20baht) a girl tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Don't i know you." I immediately recognised her as leslie a friend of a good friend of mine. My high school friend Iris had moved to NY (Jersey to be precise) and about a year and half ago and I had met leslie a couple of times through her, but we had only every exchanged a couple of words. So it was CRAZY to run into her here in Bangkok. Iris had told me that she had a friend going to thailand for some dental work, and it turnded out that friend was leslie.
I told her to pull up a chair and we spent the rest of the night drinking and discussing life, travelling, religion and the randomness of having bumped into her. It was a great night and a perfect end to my bangkok experience. I am off tomorrow night to chang mai, and i am so excited to finally get out and see some more of thailand.
