The Road to Thailand

Well, now I'm back, (almost) readjusted to Korea time again, and ready to blog. I plan to write four or five posts about my trip in the rest of this week, so stay tuned.

My travel was again pleasant, as I had hoped it would be. For me, travel is such a strange thing, it's like purgatory. We can be traveling half-way around the world, but are trapped the entire time in a tiny box. A tiny area to wait for the plane, a small airplane seat (especially when you're 6'4''), and a bathroom that can make one easily feel claustrophobic. But, awaiting for us often times is an unknown distant tropical paradise, heaven.

One good thing about my travel was that we had a small layover, and I took the time to make some new friends. I met two other English teachers, Paco and Travis, who live in Busan, Korea. It ended up that we were staying in hotels about a block away from each other, so we decided to split a taxi, check-in, and hit a club or two afterwards as a group. They only had one night in Bangkok as there were headed to Phuket, so they didn't mind me tagging along for the night.

The travel was going well until we got to the taxi queue at the airport. We went to a sign that said metered taxi, knowing it is important to do this to not get overcharged. We got a station wagon taxi, and jumped in with our backpacks. When we got in, we told him Khaosan road, where we were staying, and were off. Then, Travis noticed there was no meter in the taxi. He said "meter? meter taxi?" and the driver pulls over. He told us "Khaosan road, 450 baht." We finally said OK, just get us there. Even getting ripped off, we paid 150 baht apiece for the 45 minute ride, which is about $5.

After, we managed to find our hotels, and hit a few bars and clubs for some beer. I ended up meeting a girl named Eve who would later serve as my good friend and tour guide of Bangkok. More about her later.

Anyway, now for some photos....

This is Khaosan Road. Littered with foreigners, shops, and pretty much anything you can think of.

A small troupe of break dancing boys on Khaosan. They were really good.

These two children were at their parent's T-shirt shop. Cutest kids ever.

Some street food. On the left is coconut curry, which ended up being one of my favorite meals ever.

One meal I was eating and a woman came up to me. She had a sign that said "Deaf, I sell these to pay for living. 1 - 30 baht, 2 - 50 baht" or something close to this. I thought I could use one of these little keychain trinkets she was selling, so I went ahead and bought one. I pulled out the money in my pocket, and realized I only had 1000 baht bills. I looked at her and shrugged, and with a determined look, she nodded, grabbed the bill, set her stuff down and ran away. I thought, OK, there goes my money. She was very honest, though, she just left, made change, and came right back. I decided to get a picture with her.

On my last full day I decided to get a Thai massage. The picture above generally describes what you get. It's a lot of punching, beating, and getting walked on, but I felt a lot better afterwards. And, its only 200 baht ($6 per hour).

I got a photo with my masseuse, Walissa. She is standing on a stool.

I wanted to put in these cute little kitties who sleep outside one of the doors of my hotel.

Well, don't worry, tons more to come. Tomorrow I'll show the Grand Palace and Vimanmek Mansion.