Nomadic Cat: First Day/Night: Bangkok, Thailand

Dear Support Group,

It's just before noon here, and I just woke up and feel much better rested thanks to my worth-their-weight-in-gold ear plugs. I am so relieved I was able to sleep because my last two nights in Portland I was much too anxious to get more than a couple of hours in- plus we moved Dave into a new apartment two days before I left. So needless to say, there was a lot going on. Which was good, it kept my mind off things, just not when I went to bed.

At around 6:30 this morning, right as I was finally drifting off to sleep, I heard a TON of birds that sounded like they were right outside my door- it sounded like a pet shop. I made sure my pajamas looked decent and walked out the open lobby doors and saw the sun was rising already. The sky was bright pink and orange- it was such a beautiful scene to start my first day. I couldn't see the birds, but it was the coolest sound to match the sunrise :) I finally was able to fall asleep around 7 am.

I will be heading into Bangkok today- the front desk guy told me I could go by bus or taxi- I asked which was cheaper- he smiled and said bus, but I would have to go back to the airport first. So, taxi it is then. Besides, I don't think I am ready for Bangkok public transit quite yet.
I am excited to get to my hostel today and hopefully meet some people. It is an all-girls dorm room, and I am hoping to meet more people doing the same things I am. I am sure that I will.

I guess I should pull myself together- check out is in an hour and I need a serious teeth brushing.

My room

Love- H

Night:

Day one has come and gone! I fell asleep at the early hour of 8pm. I slept like a freaking baby until about 330am. AKA 45 mins ago... I look forward to being on a sane sleep schedule again one day.

I made it to the hostel just fine, thanks to my taxi driver named Mr. Mana. Mana and I spent about an hour or so driving into the city to my hostel. He knew enough English to tell me about his 3 year old son and his wife. At one point he asked me if I could fix his phone because his son accidentally deleted the dialer shortcut, making it impossible to make any calls. Try as I might (and I was surprised because his phone was very similar to mine, English and all) I could not fix it. We then laughed about how his 3 year old is obviously very good with phones. As with my previous driver, I busted out my Thai phrasebook and did a little practicing. After a few phrases such as: "It is beautiful today," and "It is nice to meet you," Mana told me that since my pronunciation was very flat, I needed to speak slower. I feel like a child all over again. Mana also gave me lots of advice and even gave me the number to his taxi in case I found myself in any trouble with other taxi drivers. Needless to say, I was very thankful to have someone so helpful.

Driving into Bangkok I saw a lot of things. The outskirts of town seemed to be ruled mostly by stray dogs. The traffic was absolutely insane, people drive within an inch of each other to get by! I could have sworn one of the highways we drove over was actually a parking lot, with stopped cars as far as the eye could see. Among all the cars were motorcycle taxis, which didn't seem to have any traffic laws that applied to them. They weaved between any car or person as fast as possible, often with beautiful Thai girls on the back wearing dresses and high heels.

Once I got to my hostel, the front desk informed me that, yes, I had reserved two nights to stay there... starting tomorrow, not tonight. I'm going to go ahead and blame that on the crazy time change confusion on my part. I had quite a moment of panic, not at all calmed by the signs all over the front desk informing me that they were BOOKED SOLID for the night and they are sorry, but there is no room. But I needed a room. Any room! PLEASE I cannot go out into the streets and find another place for the night-iamnotaseasonedtravelerpleasepleaseplease-....after a few twisted and pained facial expressions from the secretary guy, he scanned his computer for an answer for me he said that they had one cancellation and he could give me a room, but all he had was a co-ed bed. YESTHATSFINEILLTAKEITYESYES. So I am here for three nights instead of two.

The first mistake I have made on this trip, I realized as I attempted to carry my luggage up three flights of stairs, is that I packed too much. I have so far seen 4 Thai men offer to take my luggage at the hotels and taxis, and every time the poor guys go to lift it, a strained grunt tells me that they regret it immediately. On that note, I am taking a trip to the post office tomorrow and sending some stuff back home to Mom and Dad. I am going to take it as a sign that I got free luggage checking on my flight, because I now will be paying to send things back. From what the internet has told me, it shouldn't cost too much, especially if I pick the "slow" mail, which could take up to three months. Fine with me.

After I checked in and picked my bed (the room had only three people in it, all of them napping) I decided that I really needed something to eat. Really. So I decided to take a walk around my "block." On my way out, I picked up a sheet from the front desk with food suggestions in the area. I couldn't find any of them. I walked past some street food vendors, but as much as I thought I would jump at the chance to eat street food, I was nervous. I walked past a few strange things and settled on trying a lady who had sticks of different colored ball-shaped meat things on a stick. Ev, I immediately thought of your story of meat on a stick. Don't ask me why, but I went for it. I asked the woman what kinds of meat they were but she obviously didn't understand me anymore than I did her. I asked "chicken?" (Don't ask me why, but at the moment, that seemed the safest bet on meat) and I think she pointed me in the right direction. I bought 1 small meat stick of "chicken" and she put it on a tiny little coal grill and then dipped it in the most wonderful sweet and slightly spicy sauce. She also gave me a bag of what looked like was mini sliced cucumbers. I paid 10 baht, which is something like thirty cents, and sat down on a step down the street to try it. It was good! Minus the few little bits of chewy bits mixed in the meat- lets be real, i don't think this was premium white breast meat. I am pretty sure it was chicken "bits"- but the sauce was delicious. The cucumber things were weird and I couldn't really get into those. But I was still hungry. I walked all the way around the block back to the hostel and decided to settle on a Thai seafood place that I had seen earlier. The menu was huge but had English subtitles and big pictures so I was good. There was all kinds of crazy fish and shrimp with heads on them (mom I thought of you) and decided on a glass noodle-shrimp-pork dish that my waitress said was "a little" when I asked if it was spicy. I also ordered a young coconut. The coconut came with a straw and I was very excited about this, since as many of you might know, one of my favorite things to buy in the US was young coconuts.

Then the food came.
At first bite, I thought it was delicious, and yes a little spicy.
Ok, maybe pretty spicy.
Ok, I can power through this, I am so hungry.
Ok, how am I going to do this.
Ok, i don't want to make myself sick on my first day from eating this.
Ok check please.
About 5 bites of food and a coconut down, I headed back to the lady with meat sticks on the street. This time I busted out my Thai book and asked for one chicken and one pork. I took my bag of meatsticks, and headed back to the hostel. I began to eat, but soon found myself grossed out by the previously acceptable chewy bits in the meat and decided to call it a day (it was only 5 pm) Better luck tomorrow I hope.