Advertisement
Published: July 10th 2009
Hello Again,
For all of you who have been tirelessly checking for a new blog update, I appreciate your enthusiam and loyalty. For those of you who haven't...you will hear from me seperately, as I may be asking some of you for letters of recommendation after law school, and I don't want to say anything that may come back to bite me.
Also, special thanks to Hayley, Mary, Elana, Jon, Balaban, and Wonton for your thoughtful comments.
Now for the good stuff. I've been in Thailand for 3 days, and each day has been go go go go go stop go go go. I arrived in Bangkok on Tuesday morning where I met some people on my travel tour. The quick summery of the tour is that there are about 30 people, most of whom are under 25. However, there are 1 or 2 people over 30 (yes Elana, even older than you...can you believe it?!) For the mostpart, people seem pretty nice, but as it has only been three days, I have been trying (although it is hard for me) not to be judgemental and to keep an open mind. That being said, I already know who I will like and who I will not like.
Bangkok is like nowhere I've ever been before. Although there are some nice parts of the city, most of it is very impoverished, and it's hard to actually articulate how different some people's lives are compared to all of ours. Basically, we can all consider ourselves extremely lucky to live where we live/have what we have. On tuesday night, after meeting the group, we walked into the night market, where the ongoing joke is 'same, same...but different.' This means, that all the shit they sell is essentially all the same, but in a different place.
I would like to take this oppertunity to show off my baretering/negotiating skills. Please note that the conversion rate is 33 Baht to $1 dollar. I had left my 'fancy' watch at home, not wanting to lose it or break it on the trip, and i had assumed i would find something cheap once i arrived. I was not let down. In the night market in Bangkok, there was a cart that sold watches. When I asked the price of a water resistant digital watch, the lady told me it was 850 Baht. I said, 'what do you think, i'm made of money. i'll give you 150 for it.' She said no, so i walked away. I hadn't walked more than 10 feet, when i heard a shout behind me. "200," she said. (she did not actually speak english. the negotiating was done using a calculater with which we both took turns putting in numbers). I wouldn't budge, and i walked away with a wonderful watch for 150 baht (that's about $4.50). TAKE THAT SILVERMAN. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all my former co-workers (except for Hal) without whom i would never have been able have the skills needed to make such a fantastic purchase.
Moving on...we woke up at 6:45 on wednesday morning and saw the biggest and most well known temple in Bangkok. I will post pictures after the trip, but to sum up, it was quite beautiful and surprisingly colorful. Two things to remember: Never point your feet directly at the Buddah, and don't touch people on the head - it is a sign of disrespect. Later that day, we took a trip by boat down Bangkok's main river, along which were houses (more like huts and shelters) of many of the locals. Again, it was a moment that made me feel extremely lucky. After the boat trip we returned to the hotel and went to the train station to get on a night train to Chang Mai. The night train was fun. I got drunk.
The next morning, we arrived at our hotel, and took a bus through the city, which was much more upscale than Bangkok is, and has a populatoin of about 200,000. We visited a hill tribe, where they sold lots of cheap stuff (i haven't purchased anything since the watch) and then went to another temple.
Last night was one of hte highlights of hte trip. We took a Thai cooking class, each having our own stove and preparing 4 local dishes. I will be cooking for you all at my coming home party...
After dinner, we had a quick drink, and I went home early and got some rest (it was a very nice hotel...buttons control EVERYTHING!). This morning we got on a bus for 3 hours from Chang Mai to Chang Rai where I am right now. I haven't gotten much of a sense of the city yet, but as far as I can tell, the adventure has only begun.
Fun facts:
I eat noodles for breakfast EVERY DAY
I started a sing along on the bus last night.
That's it. Keep it real, and keep those comments coming.
Peace and love.
Hi mom!
Matt
Advertisement
Tot: 0.166s; Tpl: 0.009s; cc: 6; qc: 43; dbt: 0.1156s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Adam Kaye
non-member comment
Sweet
Sounds like a seriously good time. Keep up the good work with the posts. It's a fun read for us poor folk stuck at our desks. -Adam