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Published: February 24th 2009
After 2 overnight flights and a short layover in Doha, Qatar, I made it to Bangkok at 7:30am Friday. The first thing I did after checking into my room at Suk 11, was head down the soi to my favorite massage place and treat myself to a 2-hour Thai massage. Cost? $25 with tip! Love this city! My goal was to keep going as I had plans with some friends tonight for bowling and karaoke. But after sampling some delicious street noodles, I was too hot and tired and headed for a nap in the A/C room.
By 6pm, it was time to get up and I headed back onto the street to find some dinner. Now, I've been to BKK many times and always stay at this Guesthouse, but never have I seen an elephant heading down the sidewalk! I feel so bad for these elephants in the city, but the mahouts need to feed them and they know the tourist will buy the bags of food in order to 'feed' the elephant. The mahout had fashioned blinking lights all around his seat in order for the elephant to be able to travel on the road and for the
cars to see him (elephants are quite dark, you know!) at night.
It was quite a site to see walking down busy Soi 11 on a Friday night!
I tried in vain to make it to my friend Jessica's house on the other side of BKK, but due to Friday night traffic jams, not a single taxi would take me there. I even went to the skytrain and tried to take a taxi from one of those stations--but it was a bust. After one hour of trying, I was hot, tired and feeling the jet lag.
I headed back and was in bed by 10pm. Right as I turned the lights off, I heard the elephant trumpeting. Only in BKK!
The jet lag is always hardest the first couple of days and I woke up at 3:30 am only to toss and turn. Finally at 5:30 I gave up and just got on with my day. I figure in a week at the retreat I'll be getting up at 4am, so I might as well get used ot it now. I decided to head to Lumphini Park. While it's no Central Park, it is a green oasis in
Lumphini Park
Old ppl doing aerobics at 7amthe middle of BKK and full of elders exercising at 6:30am. Running, aerobics, tai chi you name it! So different from our parks where the old people just sit on the bench! Much healthier this way, I think. I walked the whole park before eating breakfast and thought I might pass out by the time it was 8am. When I do the retreat I will have 4 waking hours that include over an hour of yoga before breakfast. I might die.
The rest of Saturday I spent with an old college friend, Wes, who has lived here for 10 years now. We just chilled out at his house with his wife and new baby. It was such a great day and wow, you can have a really nice life here as an expat! I really loved just being in someone's house and seeing how a local lives. We also took the baby out to a nice Moroccan restaurant for afternoon tea and cakes. This is inside an old mansion and it was gorgeous. The setting was perfect for the baby to just run around the garden and we adults could relax. Their goal was to keep me awake all
Lumphini Park
Chinese pagoda day, so I spent 9 hours with them! Goal accomplished!
I made it up till 11pm last night and now am feeling refreshed and jet lagged free! Off on a train to Khao Yai park now for some jungle trekking....
The entire guesthouse has been taken over by a group of ultimate frisbee players...very fun group of people. I thinking of you Sara!
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