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Published: April 7th 2008
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Sunday night I left the US for the first time since 2003 and again crossed the world; this time to Thailand. I left Sunday night, arrived Wednesday afternoon.... a long flight. With spirits high, I hopped a plane from Seattle bound for a 14 hour flight at 1:30AM. Tapai, Tawan was the next stop and from there strait to Bangkok. On neither flight did I sleep much, maybe 3-4 hours off and on but it was comfortable and there were personal screens on which to watch movies or shows of my choice.
I finally got into Bangkok at 1:30 in the afternoon and went through customs and immigration then went outside dreading what I would face... taxis. I was not looking forward to jumping into one of the craziest cities in the world on my own and getting somewhere but I was determined. I successfully got past the first scammer who wanted 1500 baht to take me to the city and found my way to the metered taxis. Tom's friend had written instructions in the Thai language for me and I showed this to the taxi driver hoping that for April fools day the instructions didn't say to drop me
Van Service
This was taken looking out the window of the van as I waited to be taken to Maik Lek. This little family stand, like hundreds of others were beneath the overpass and was basically the family business. You can see they have a little convenience stand as well and it looks like the whole family is here. off at a Thai prison or something 😊 They didn't and I made it to phase 1, Victory Monument, the center square of the city. From here there are probably a hundred of private vans parked beneath the highway overpass. Each are privately owned and will take you to specific locations. I found the one bound for Mission College and boarded. The family also had a tiny food and cigarette cart at their little spot and between that & the van was they made their livelyhood. I waited for maybe an hour before they had enough people and we finally left for the for the village of Mauk Lek. A couple people on the bus spoke ok English, a first since arrival and I had a pleasant conversation for a bit. The air con was barely keeping it about 80 degrees but I was grateful to finally be on my way.
Bankok is absolutely huge. Take the skyscraper section of Seattle and multiply it by 10-15! I swear that is all I saw for almost an hour between the taxi and van ride. Of course it is a varied city, amongst many very nice buildings are
A little look at Bangkok
This is a little view of Bangkok from the taxi ride to the van terminal. This is really all I have yet seen of Bangkok but I will see more soon. absolute dives or residential areas and there is really no appearance of planning. From the highways you see the modern city and billboards bigger than you have ever seen but from off of it you see the real Bangkok with the little markets, street vendors and tuk tuk drivers that you would expect. Once away from the building giants we were far from being out of the city. Nearly the entire 2 hour drive to college seemed like constant city business with endless tiny businesses on the side of the road. My eyes actually began to hurt from taking it all in. I was the last person to be dropped off and was taken clear to the mens residence where I found someone with a cell phone who called Tom. He met me 5 minutes later. I had made it alive and with all of my stuff, what more could I ask. I was pleased. Without understanding the language I had actually paid nearly twice what I should have to get to where I needed and I knew it but even so it only amounted to $20usd and I had just wanted to get there without any hassle.
Even though I arrived at about 4:30 in the evening it was still very very hot. I got my bags to his room on the 4th floor and took a cold shower. The room is quite small and un-airconditioned but it has a small balcony with a screen door and a ceiling fan on steroids that really pumps the air. I had already met several people and just as usual when I travel, everyone is much friendlier and easy to get to know than at home. I had time for a quick cold shower and it is a good thing that I did because I woke this morning to find that the entire campus is without water as the dry season is in full swing and apparently they ran out, we have to pee on the plants on the balcony now (I am just sure you wanted that detail) and find bottled water to drink. A whole day without a shower is a long time here. Anyway, there was time for a brief overview of campus before dinner.
We went with 2 of Toms friends Toon & Lee to town, all 4 of us on a small motorscooter. Into
town. The ride was fun and in about 10 minutes we were on the main street of the small village. These little bikes are the primary means of transport here with only about 5 students having a car. It was market night with tons of people were out getting fresh food, we went to a little Vietnamese BBQ restaurant. Ahh, I was ready, finally I was about to eat good Thai cooking, a major perk of traveling to this part of the world. The place was typical small family run place but they are amazingly fast and cater to you nearly ever 5 minutes. There was a hole in the middle of the table and just as I was wondering what it was for they brought out a kettle of hot coals and put in the middle, just what I was hoping for when I already thought I was in a convection oven 😊 A little screen around that and over the top a special cover. All our food was brought out, seafood, noodles, rice, lots of vegetables all raw. Water was poured in the trough around a sort of mountain looking thing on the cover. The vegetables and noodles
were cooked to our liking here and the meat placed dry on the mountain. Food is all shared and we pick what we like off of here a little at a time onto the plate. It is not rude here to reach over the table or pick off of other peoples plates without asking. The food was delicious and we had all we could ever want. A gourmet dinner in the more expensive setting, the price $4 per person.
Afterward we headed back to the school and I got an experience I didn't think I would have. On the road out of town, in front of the police station the police had set out a watch and were hauling in those who weren't wearing their helmets. No one wears them here and that included us. This experience was very different than expected though. The Thai girls we were with were goofing off and driving irrationally as we pulled in and the police were smiling and making jokes. They would whisper to Tom right in front of the cops, of course a suspicious activity here, and that was no big deal. They took the key to the bike and
Typical toilet
Just to throw this in, this is traditionally the type of toilet here. You flush by scooping water out of the reservoir to the left and pouring it into the bowl. we went into the police station where they bargained a little bit and we ended up paying a 100 baht fine for the 4 of us, about $4. We left the office and went back to the bike and the 4 of us got on, the police were giving us a hard time because it is illegal to have more than 2 people on a bike but they smiled and laughed as we left and they went onto dealing with the line of people they had gathered by this time. I couldn't believe how the law system here is, the police were nice and jovial, they had basically just decided they needed more money because of course the fines go in their pockets and life goes on. I am told that this rarely happens, just when the police need some money. Still it was a very surreal experience and I still can't believe it. Well that was the first day. I went to bed at 9 on a sheetless bed very tired having been up for about 36 hours.
The next post will be about the college and my experiences of the first real day in Thailand but it will have to wait. And no I was not affected by jet lag. I woke up at 8 this morning feeling fine, I guess all those years of sleep inconsistency and the occasional 3-4 day work marathon have paid off, my internal time-clock has broken and you know what, I'm alright with that.
sawade krap (goodbye)
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Adam
non-member comment
Sweet
This is really cool. I look forward to reading the rest of them. Peace adam