Homeward Bound

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Hi Everyone,

My last few days in Bangkok were a lot of fun. The
second time around in the city was much better for me.
I talked with people and figured out where to go and
what to do. The shopping was incredible! I was like
a kid in a candy store. A lot of the clothing and
jewelry styles were European and I found some cool stuff.

One night I was eating dinner outside and there was a
spider about the size of my fist was jumping towards
my table (this part wasn't so fun). The waiter saw me
pointing at it (I took a picuture of it) and came over
with a pair of chopsticks. I didn't want him to kill
it or anything, I just wanted it the hell away from
me! He had obviously done this before because he
slowly went towards it and grabbed it with the
chopsticks in a way that paralized it while he put it
in the street. Phew.

I had been staying away from the street vendor food,
but I realized that I could actually see what they
were doing and what they were cooking with, as opposed
to not knowing what goes on in the back kitchens. I
ended up eating a few Thai meals from them at 20 baht
each (about $0.50) and it was the best food I had in
Thailand. I stayed away from the roasted
grasshoppers, magot-looking things, and other mystery
items. In a park, they were selling snake blood and
bile, which supposedly wards off illnesses and bad
energy or something. I'll take my chances, thank you
very much.

The people watching in Bangkok was great. There were
backpackers, hippies with dreads, lady-boys, little
old Thai women, prostitutes, foreign families on
vacation, or "holiday" as they call it...basically
random people from all over the world gathered in this
one area of a few blocks.

I was really sad about leaving Thailand. I was really close to extending my trip, but I didn't want to miss my family camping trip! I was on the curb waiting for a cab to the airport with tears in my eyes and up drove a HOT PINK taxi! That cheared me up 😊

I look back and wonder how I actually made it to each
destination. Traveling within the country was like a
whirl-wind of being shuffled from boat to bus to a
mini-bus to a train to another bus and just having
faith that the random Thai person telling you where to
go knows what he or she was talking about.

I'm at home now, safe and sound. Thanks for all of
your support and emails. Enjoy the rest of the
summer!

Love & Peace,
Nikki

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Photos

hot pink taxi
this cheered me up

jumping spider
I swear it was bigger in person!