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Published: October 12th 2009
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Plane
It's 23:58 and I have just finished the most unconfortable "supper" I have ever eaten. I feel like my elbows have been nailed to my hips, I'm sitting in a seat that was entirely miss-sold to me by the rather cute ozzy lady at the check out desk "window or aisle seat sir? " I coulnd't pass up on aerial view of bankok to set me up I thought- "there appears to be a free window seat next to the emergency exit, would you like that one?" awesome I thought, a bit of legroom aswell! Turns out the window is in the door about 2 foot in front of me which means if I can stretch my whole neck and body out I can just about get a view of the 50ft wide 747 wing, haha this I laugh off as just one of them Unlucky 'oh wells' I was bound to come across On the trip if only it weren't for the very large inflatable slide storage attached to the door that has taken up all my leg room plus some! see pics you can imagine what eating chicken and rice was like, trying to keep from elbowing the
girl next to me!
Bangkok
Arrive in the airport suitably scared outta my wits, I walked around arrivals for a good 20 mins as trying to work up the courage to enter Thailand for real. Got Some cash before walking through a gauntlet of Thai's remembering Alex's advice to keep Looking forward And ignore Everyone. I stepped outside and found myself in the middle of the most ferocious storm I'd ever seen, it really was amazing - I bloody love storms, nothing like natures fury! :-) So After chain smoking 4 cigs I decided it was time to take the next step - the taxi, best chance I saw was a que of People standing near the road, as I approached a guy stepped
into My path and almost gleefully chanted "taxi!?", perfect! I thought. it was raining so hard I never got a proper look at the outside of the car just noticing it was a silver merc but had no meter....... After 30mins in torrential rain we pulled up outside the hostel and i handed over 700 Baht. On walking into the hostel to my horror i noticed a sign advertising airport transfers for 150B !!!!
realising id just been severely ripped off by an unlicenced taxi i gave myself a bit of a grilling and told myself it wouldnt happen again.
First night
After summing up the courage I ventured out of the hostel into the busy streets of the khao San district, renound as the backpacker central of Bangkok. Khao San road, for those that haven't been is total sensory overload, After walking 100m away from the hostel following the sounds of loud music and the hustle of A million people I looked back And realised I had had made another school boy error - I forgot to take note of the route back to my hostel! Those that know me will now be laughing if they remember anything about my sense of direction or severe lack of it. Thinking to myself I was totally messing up my dreams of self reliant independant travel in the most basic of ways it was time for a beer! Yer its true, after losing my way in a maze of people in an unfimiliar city 5 mins from my hostel I decided to see if getting drunk would improve the situation..... After all, a good friend
back home had spent the past year engraving the phrase 'no matter what happens it always works out in the end' into my head (cheers andy) :o) it had worked so far so bugger it, I was here to enjoy myself! After a couple of tiger beers watching the hundreds of westerners chatting away in their little groups I began to feel very lonely, I can't remember the last time I had drunk alone! why the hell had I begun a year of travelling alone?! Most know I do love time to myself but a full year of it was a very scary thought. The little courage I'd had leaving England was now slidding down the gutter of the smelliest street in Asia (the smells can't be explained, only those that have sniffed it round here wil know what I'm on about)
This is not the way things are gonna go for the next year I told myself, I looked Around and noticed the only other person sitting alone in this street side bar was a girl sipping a beer staring out into the crowds. Now I Am definately not the most socially active person when it comes to meeting new people and one of my biggest fears was not being able to strike up a conversation with complete strangers. Then i remembered I'd learnt in new York a few years ago that my greatest asset in talking to randoms was that I was a smoker, smokers the world over as well as being the most interesting people also have the obvious addiction in common and asking for lighter is second nature. Luckily celina, a 22 year old traveller from Germany was just as heavy a smoker as me. She too had only recently begun her trip and was finding it just as difficult dealing with the fact you have to actually make such an effort to meet new people. So after borrowing a lighter from her the rest was pretty easy as her English was exceptional. I was so pleased to have made a new friend so quickly in my trip and I recon that if I hadn't thrown myself into it I would have had a much harder time settling myself in this crazy city.
Celina had found her budget not stretching as far as shed hoped for the week she would be in Bangkok and as taxi's were an expensive option, had walked quite alot of the sites and had more or less given up her tourist trail plans due to blistering her feet. Since I would be paying for travel anyway and really wanted some company we agreed to visit the major far off sites together the following day. A few tigers and jagarmiesters later i was enjoying my new friends company and was feeling alot better about all the travelling lark. I even managed to stumble my way back to my hostel with a little help from a suprisingly friendly and helpful policeman. They have tourist Police out here which is a very good idea concidering the amount of newbie travellers that use Bangkok as their first port of call.
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Jon Curtis
non-member comment
This is a great blog Nick. Got me thinking about my plans for the future too and the natural thoughts of apprehension that go with it. Keep up the good work, have fun and take care of yourself out there.