Living in the lap of luxury... sort of

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This morning for the first time I managed to sleep in a bit and didn't wake up until around 7:15 rather than 5 like I have been the last couple days. So it was nice to finally get a full night's sleep. After relaxing for a while by the pool this morning I decided to take a walk to a mall that is supposed to be nearby. It's only about 15-20 minutes away and it actually has a really nice surrounding area. The mall was closed because it was too early when I got there so I walked around a couple of the streets nearby. There were a ton of vendors in the area and I found a pretty big outdoor food market. They had tons of fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, seafood, etc. Pretty much anything one would need for a nice dinner was there. After walking around for a bit I came back to the apartment because I was supposed to check out of my 1 bedroom apartment and move into the 2 bedroom one today because the other students are supposed to be arriving tomorrow. So I checked out, paid my bill, and moved into my new home for the next 7 weeks or so and this apartment is enormous compared to the other one. Both bedrooms are larger and the eating area and living room are much bigger as well. We have two balconies, but the view isn't as nice on this side of the building. One window has a decent view and the other window has a view of a giant green tarp that's covering the construction that they're doing on the building next door. I rearranged the beds, claimed all the furniture I want and took the cabinet space that I wanted for my clothes. Unfortunately for the other two guys, our apartment has 2 single beds and one double bed. So I moved the single bed into the bedroom with the double bed and the single bed is now mine. The other 2 guys can share the double bed. It looks like it's as wide as a king size so it size won't be a problem but I'm sure they'll complain anyway. I also think we may have an ant problem in the bathroom. I saw a bunch of tiny ants around the sink so I tried to flood them out. If they're still here in the morning I'll have to see if maintenance or someone else can take care of it. So it's an almost perfect apartment. Oh and there's also a small room in the apartment which really confused me for a while because I couldn't figure out why it was there. It's a small room, probably about 8x8 with a door with a frosted glass window and all it has inside it is a small sink and counters going around two of the walls. I had no clue (and still am not sure) what it was used for but after walking into it a few times I think it might be a laundry room. It's warm and dry inside and it doesn't have a clothesline but there's room for a drying rack if I wanted to put one in there. So that's my only guess as to what it might possibly be used for and I'm not even really sure if I'm right or not. So if laundry service starts hurting my wallet a bit too much I might buy myself a bottle of detergent and start doing some of my laundry by hand.

Switching rooms today was the first time since I've been here that I got frustrated because I was unable to effectively communicate with someone. The room change itself wasn't an issue. That went perfectly fine. After I got into my room the porter came with my bag (he originally took it to the wrong room) and also brought the modem and cables from my last room that they had given me because I purchased internet service in my room for a week. I wasn't sure if I paid for a full week or just for the couple of days I was in my room so I called the front desk to try and find out. I don't know if the receptionist fully understood what I was trying to ask and I don't really understand what she was trying to tell me. Either way I still have internet service in my room. I don't know if through my conversation with her I extended my service or if I still have until Monday when I will have used up the 7 days I paid for. I'll just have to wait until Monday and see if the internet still works or not. It was just frustrating and annoying because it seemed like neither of us could properly communicate what we were trying to say to each other. Ultimately, I still have internet service and she was able to help me but I didn't get the information I needed from her. Oh well. I think I mentioned this previously but I expected the English of the employees here to be a little better than it is. It's good enough for them to get by and I'm happy that I haven't had a communication issue with them until today and hopefully it won't happen often, but their English just isn't what I had expected it to be based upon the impression I was given by the teacher who made my reservations.

After switching rooms I hung out here for a while and then went out to go back to the mall since I knew it was then open. I'm still amazed at how large the malls are here. I think it took me a full hour to walk completely through this mall and it wasn't even the largest one I've been in. It had a lot of nice stores but I was surprised that in the big department store inside, major clothing brands weren't any cheaper than they would be at home. It was still $20-$30 for a nice shirt and some jeans were up to $70. I guess when everyone talks about cheap clothing they're talking about street vendors. Although there was one little kiosk in the mall I went into that had some nice shirts and I ended up getting one that only cost me about $18. I originally did the conversion wrong in my head so I first thought it was only $10 and was disappointed with myself when I finally did the math right because I figured it wouldn't have been much more expensive back home, but I checked the website for the company who made it and if I had bought a similar shirt in the US it would have been $40-$50 so I actually did get a pretty good deal.

They had a small food stand selling gelato in the mall and I had to try it just to see how authentic it was. It was good overall but a little more on the side of ice cream than gelato. Jason, you'll have to try it when you're here and give me your professional opinion. After spending a couple hours in the mall I left and wandered the streets for a bit. There was a street vendor I passed that was selling large, Belgian style waffles, so I bought one since it was almost dinner time. When I finally got around to eating it I was a little disconcerted because there were crunchy things in it. I couldn't see it when I first started eating it but I think it was either a corn waffle, because it had corn kernels in it, or it was just a regular waffle with corn in it. Either way it was weird but tasted alright. I also bought a different kind of Thai beer, called Leo. It's very similar to Singha but a little more bitter. I think that they only have certain hours here that they are allowed to sell beer. This is only the second beer I've bought and both have been from 7-11 so it could just be a 7-11 policy, but on the case where the beer is they have some writing and hours on it. The hours listed are 11AM-2PM and 5PM-midnight. I'm guessing that you can only purchase beer during these hours because I was in there today outside of those hours and they had the beer case blocked off. I don't know the rationale behind this law, if it even is a law, but I thought it was interesting to note.

Today's other points of interest:

1) Thais seem to be an incredibly clean people. Particularly in the morning, but also throughout the day, I always see what appear to be city employees as well as street vendors and shop owners sweeping the sidewalks around their store and I've even seen people spraying the sidewalk with water or scrubbing it with a sponge. Despite how dirty the city seems and smells, it seems that they highly value keeping their place of business clean.

2) Today is the first day I've started to feel at home here. I think I'm beginning to relax and become a little more accustomed to my surroundings and I'm finally starting to enjoy myself here. Not that I wasn't enjoying myself previously, I just think that I was somewhat shocked and surprised because things weren't what I expected them to be. I think I'm beginning to accept Bangkok for what it is and fixing my misconceptions and am starting to appreciate Bangkok for what it truly is. Although that sort of comfort level is beginning to feel better, I still feel as though everywhere I go and with everything I do I am a complete outsider and I don't expect this feeling to change. This could just still be culture shock for me but I think it's just the fact that I know I don't fit in here because I still don't understand how Thai culture works and I don't expect to fully understand it and I think part of it is also just because of the way I look, I will always be perceived as an outsider and will feel accordingly. This is an odd feeling because I understand that I don't really fit in here for a variety of reasons and it almost makes me intimidated to walk into a store by myself or to sit down by myself for a meal. Today I started to relax with that a bit because I bought food from 2 different street vendors and had a meal by myself in a restaurant outside of the one here at the apartment but I don't know if this feeling will go away. I think it might when and if I am out in the city with the other students who will be here, but I'll just have to wait and see. Don't think that I'm complaining that I don't fit in here because it may seem that way. I'm not complaining. I'm just setting out what I think about my place here in Bangkok at this moment. It may change, it may not. One of my reasons for agreeing to come here was to experience a culture completely different from that which I know and grew up in. So I think this outsider feeling will ultimately be a good thing for me and enable me to better empathize with others back home who may have the same experiences that I am having now. Ultimately I am glad I came here and still think that no matter what my experience here has been or will be in the next 2 months, it will be a learning experience and if I can learn something about myself or about Thai culture, then this trip will have been worth it.

3) Bangkok seems to come alive a bit more at night. Today was the first time I was outside while it was dark (even then it wasn't really dark, it was twilight and just beginning to get dark when I got back here) but it seemed like the streets were much more crowded than usual and there were more vendors. I even passed what I think was my first cheap clothing or counterfeit clothing vendor on the street. It was a guy selling a bunch of Lacoste polo's for I think 199 baht. So even though I haven't seen much of the cheap clothing I've heard and read things about, it could be just because it's more of a nighttime phenomenon and I haven't really experienced Bangkok after dark yet. I'm hoping to change that at least a little bit tomorrow (maybe).

4) Strawberry Fanta may be the most delicious soda ever. And it's only 27 baht for a 1.25 liter bottle. I'm going to have to struggle to not drink too much of it because it's so good.

I think I've exhausted my thoughts for today. I was just re-reading what I wrote and some of it is a little hard to read. When I write these things I do have a couple of thought out things I want to write, but most of it is just coming out in a stream of consciousness so I'm writing as though I were talking to someone. That's why I have so many run on sentences and why my grammar isn't that great. I'm not trying to write this as a formal writing entry, I just want this to be like I were telling it directly to you and I think that's how it's coming out so far, so I apologize if that makes it hard to read at times but I think it's better if I'm just writing things as it comes into my head so I'm going to continue to do that. Also, sorry if these are taking you a long time to read, but writing in a stream of consciousness doesn't really lend itself to brevity.

Tomorrow 's potential plans: Relax for part of the morning (maybe), take a cab downtown in the late AM/early PM and walk around and see some of the temples and other big tourist attractions I missed on Wednesday when I was downtown, then maybe hunting down a street market after dark to see what sort of counterfeit stuff I can find.

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Photos

Morning Haze
This is the haze that hangs over the city that I've mentioned a couple times. This is the worst I've seen it but I think this is part smog and part fog.

Food Market
Outdoor food market I found today

New Living Room
My new, larger living room

Eating Area
Larger eating area in the new room

New Kitchen
Kitchen in the new apartment. Kitchen is about the same size but notice the empty space on the wall to the left. There's about 15 feet of empty wall between the end of the kitchen and the next door.

My New Bedroom
New bedroom. My single bed and the double bed for the other 2 guys

View from other new balcony
It's a beautiful green tarp, isn't it?

Comments

[cassie]

you're new apartment seems excellent! although the single/double bed situation (which mostly looks like one giant bed) is a little interesting. will you guys be on the same schedule getting up in the morning? if not...i think it will be tough sleeping in and whatnot...