Introduction to Thailand

---

Introduction to Thailand

I arrived in Thailand, the next country on my 1 year odyssey, with a sense of anticipation humming under my skin and absolutely no idea of what to expect. At the beginning of this trip, I had every minute mapped out and documented in a handy waterproof notebook. I had even colour coded the chapters by country and cross referenced relevant contact information. It didn’t matter that I never actually referred to this cacophony of information while traveling; it still existed as a sort of safety blanket in my backpack. However, during one of my luggage purges in Indonesia, I threw the notebook out and decided that I was ready to start traveling by the seat of my pants versus by a rigid itinerary. As a result of this decision, I arrived in Thailand with no idea who was picking me up at the airport, where I was supposed to meet them, or how many other volunteers would be there. To be completely honest, I wasn’t even 100%!s(MISSING)ure whether I was getting an airport pickup at all. When I came out of the terminal and couldn’t find any i-to-i coordinators holding a sign with my name, I started to think that maybe I should have paid more attention to the information in my handy notebook before I threw it out.

The airport had some internet stations and so I jumped on one of those to confirm that I was, in fact, getting picked up from the airport. Then I set out through the airport to try and my ride. After about 20 minutes of wandering around through this massively large and chaotic building, I met up with Tam who was one of the in-country coordinators for the project. He loaded me into a taxi and directed it to the KT Guesthouse which was a hostel on the Northern fringes of Bangkok. At first I despaired about the location of the Guesthouse, but when I realized that it came with an extensive breakfast menu (including grilled cheese sandwiches!), free wifi, a pool, and air conditioning, I decided that it was worth the 15 minute walk to the nearest subway station.

The first impression that I had of the other volunteers in this tour was when a girl rushed out of the lobby to go puke in the bushes due to over-indulging in some whiskey shots that night. I tentatively stepped out to introduce myself to the rest of the group. My fear that I was going to be traveling with a bunch of partying alcoholics for the next month was somewhat dispelled after meeting the other 20 people on the tour.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For the purpose of further clarification for future blog entries, here’s a brief character sketch of some of the key players on this tour…

The Locals:

Tam: Our main in-country coordinator. Huggable, sociable, and with a wide dimpled smile.
Tong: Our local party director. About 40 years old if you go by the calendar, but 12 years old if you go by his personality. So expressive and fun-loving that you can’t help but laugh at everything he says, despite the fact that his accent is so thick that you can barely understand anything that comes out of his mouth.
Toby: Our entry ticket to cheap booze at his place “Come On Bar” in Lopburi. His hair is blue…enough said.
Mon: Our Jamaican-wannabe tour photographer. Sweet and shy, with virtually no English at his disposal whatsoever.

The Fellow Canadians:

Bradley: I’ve likened him to a cross between Harry Potter and Peter Parker, but with a wickedly sarcastic sense of humour.
Lauryn: The Mary Jane to Bradley’s Peter Parker, and also from Edmonton.
Vitt: A friend of Lauryn and Brad’s who is joining them for the Thailand portion of the trip. I’ve determined that he is a kindred spirit of mine since he also loves tequila and does not hesitate to crack open a bottle at the slightest encouragement.

The Americans:

Tami: A true Southern belle who is quietly sweet and plans weddings for a living back home in Georgia.
Kate: A spirited lawyer from California who is so warm and friendly that it almost makes you want to alter your perception about the questionable reputation of those within this career group.
Laura: Kate’s older sister. Extremely friendly, fiesty, and quietly protective of her younger sister.
Lydia: Young, pretty, and loves to party. Has no compunction against dancing with ladyboys and is eager to squeeze every last drop of adventure out of her trip.

The Englishmen:

Laura: There are truly no words to describe Laura. She is definitely one of the most charismatic, hilarious, and outgoing souls that I’ve ever had the privilege to encounter. Strong, unapologetically outspoken, and unbelievably clumsy - if anything funny or traumatic occurs on the tour, you are guaranteed to find Laura at the heart of it.
Johnny: A friend of Laura’s and her match in off-the-wall antics, humour, and charisma. The two of them feed off each other like Bert and Ernie, and I could spend all day just listening to the special brand of English that they’ve managed to create between them.
Hannah: Kind, quietly hilarious, and endearingly sweet-natured. She has one of the most contagious laughs I’ve ever heard and is definitely one of my favourite roommates. We can (and have) exchange hilarity and embaressing stories until the early hours of the morning.
Sophie & Jo: An odd pair of friends. Sophie is blonde, petite, and reserved. Jo, on the other hand, reluctantly answers to the nickname of Hagrid due to her height and wild black hair. She has an outrageously dry sense of humour, and is one of the loudest and most outgoing girls in the group.
Gail & Fae: Friends from England who are taking 6 months to travel through Thailand before living and working in Australia. One of the oldest group in the bunch, but you would never guess it in their willingness to toss down rum shots and shimmy their hips on the dancefloor.
Anna: Quiet.
Tracey: More of an honourary tour guide then a member of the tour. She has been in Thailand since last June teaching and traveling.

The Aussies:

Amelia: Loves elephants and is passionately opposed to any form of animal cruelty. Left the tour early so I never really had the chance to get to know her very well.
Rosa: Her mellow attitude and laidback sense of humour screams hippie. I can’t imagine her ever being in a situation that would put her out of her comfort zone. Obviously a chameleon that can effortlessly adapt to any situation, and undoubtedly born to travel. She has one of the kindest smiles I’ve ever seen.

Miscellaneous:

Penny: Your first, second, and third impression of her would be of a quiet and thoughtful girl. However if you put some hard liquor in front of her she quickly shows her Scottish roots as she methodically drinks you under the table.
Natasha: Reminds me of Snow White through both her quiet kindness and creamy white complexion that only the Irish can claim.
Julia: From Germany. I’m not sure how old she is, but even if she was the oldest person on the tour you still couldn’t help but feel protective of her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On our first full day in Thailand, the group visited the weekend Chatuchak market for a serious introduction to Thai shopping. I had worked out my finances the night before, and after seeing how ridiculously over-budget I was for Indonesia, decided to buckle down and keep to a strict $15/day limit while in Thailand. As such, I managed to restrain myself from buying up the cheap clothes, shoes, souvenirs, and pets available at the weekend market. That night we went out to a Thai food-court for dinner where the coordinators passed out whiskey like it was water and ordered an assortment of Thai food for us to share amidst ourselves. I was proud of myself for bravely eating the local cuisine, until I accidentally stabbed a chicken skull with my fork…after which I decided to stick to the rice. We ended the night by going to a live Thai music bar, where the whiskey again continued to flow - and where I continued resist it. The locals were so excited by having a bunch of foreigners in their club that they absolutely refused to let any of us sit out the dancing, and were intent on teaching us all how to dance - Thai style. This involved a lot of circling our clenched fists and shimmying our hips like a go-go dancer. I quickly realized that the experience was not meant to be performed sober, and so when a local Thai guy challenged me to a chugging contest, I downed his glass of whiskey like a champ, to the accompaniment of hoots, cheers, and wide bright smiles. After that, they kept pushing glasses of whiskey on me all night. I did my best to keep up; until I noticed that the guy whose glass I was sharing was obviously sick with a cold and kept blowing his nose. After that I decided to stick to my safe and sanitary bottle of water.

The next morning, the ragtag and hung-over group was nudged out the door to spend the day out in the hot sun touring the Grand Palace, reclining Buddha monument, and Koh San road. The monuments were unbelievably ornate and stirred vague feelings of indignation at the thought of a third world country expending their wealth on religious monuments versus feeding and developing their population. But this indignation didn’t stop me from snapping a million pictures and gaping at all of the beautiful temples.

We ate lunch down at the pier and though the smell of the fish market was almost enough to put you off your stomach, the food was actually quite good. I learned how to use chopsticks, and though it was slow-going, persevered for the entire meal. However, that night I did succumb to the lure of McDonald’s for dinner. I decided to get my fill of Western food before we left for Lopburi in the morning; a tiny town that was guaranteed to be Thai-food only and where we would be spending 3 days staying in a Buddhist monastery. I’m looking forward to the authentic experience and am sure that I’ll have a lot of interesting stories to share shortly.

Signing out,
Jen

---

Photos

The Grand Palace
Glittering in the sun...

The girls...and Tam
Julia, Rosa, Anna, Penny, Amelia, and Tam standing outside one of the many temples at the Grand Palace

Statues...
...littering the grounds around the Grand Palace

More statues!
Even one freakier then the last...

Striking a pose...
...despite not even knowing what it means

More statues!
They're everywhere!

Striking another pose
And trying not to wilt in the sun

Thai food and Chopsticks!
I finally learned how to use chopsticks...and did pretty damn good if I say so myself...