We're in Bangkok

Hi everyone! We've arrived, are safe and are having a blast so far!!! Our flights were fantastic (thanks Laura and Carole!)-we got to sit business class on our first flight (which according to Matt was like being Thai royalty!). We stayed at Peter's condo the first two nights which was very convenient and helped us to adjust quickly as well as get a taste for the real Bangkok (before heading over to the tourist mecca of Khao San Road (KSR)-which is like being back in South Beach, times ten).

We've already mastered the public transit system of Bangkok: we've taken the metro, skytrain, a bus, water taxi (during which Megan almost took a swim in the canal, but luckily escaped with just slightly bruised knees-imagine boarding a boat that's moving, with twenty other people moving as if there were a million dollars on the boat they are trying to get too all from a floating dock, and with 40 lb backpacks on our back!), a regular taxi, a tuk-tuk and a lot of walking!

Food is incredible! We've eaten only from street vendors, except our first lunch at MK Trendi (where the waitresses had palm pilots to take orders and everyone watched us eat as we obviously had no idea what we were ordering-luckily that has been by far our most expensive meal yet and only amounted to about $7 for a multi-course meal.) There is tons of fruit and smoothies everywhere-Megan's heaven! and everything is ultra cheap-most of our meals amount to less than a dollar each.

The city is super clean, the Thais are very orderly (they actually pleasantly line up to get on the metro), and everyone is very well dressed. We've been surprised at how few people speak English out of the tourist areas, which gives the place a very endearing and exotic feel as well as amounts to some comical hand gesturing.

We moved to Khao San Road from the condo yesterday and found a super cute guesthouse with garden courtyards (and a great massage place-we had a $6 1 hour massages yesterday afternoon-and the massage ladies thought Matt was David Beckham!) KSR is like one giant discount shopping mall with everything you could every imagine for super cheap. (does anyone want a Low Alpine or North Face backpack-40L for about $15 and 70-90L for about $45!-we're pretty sure they're authentic too!) We're (meaning Megan) is trying hard not to shop now as we'll be passing back through here in a few months!

We're going to spend another day or two here, then head north to Chiang Mai. We'll write from there. Hope everyone is doing well. We miss you all already. Love, Matt and Megan

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Part of trip: SE Asia Adventure

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