Merry Christmas Eve! God I can’t believe it’s that time of year again! It’s weird to think that I’ve missed 2 Christmases now without the promise of one next year either! But then again, I don’t know if I’d trade this for anything! Because I’M IN THAILAND! Amazing. I’m so happy to be here! In such good company, too!
We had a really smooth travel day! We were up and out of the house by 5h45 and on the airport limousine (the nice comfy express bus) by 6h10. We arrived to Incheon International airport around 7h45, checked in, sat at a coffee shop for a few hours and got on the plane! And BAM. Six smooth hours later, we arrived in Bangkok. Surreal! Really! Even everything near the airport is just GREEN! We hopped a cab to get into the city! I went to go open the front seat passenger door and I got momentarily really confused when I saw a steering wheel!
The hour ride into the city was astounding. There’s so much green! The tropical climate is wonderful to see again! The traffic is pretty crazy with brand new cars, tuk-tuks, trucks, and pedestrians racing about while motorcycles dart through the middle.
We arrived at our destination of Khao San Road, one of the main tourist streets in the city. It’s awesome. There are tons of foreigners from all around the world here. And there are TONS of market vendors, selling REALLY CHEAP CRAP: shirts, bags, bracelets, skirts galore and tons of really cheap Thai street food! You can get a meal-sized portion of Pad Thai for 25 baht (about $.75, something that would cost you at least 10x that in America!).
The people at our hostel, KC Guesthouse, are incredible. And the accomodations are great!
Thai people are not only beautiful, they’re super friendly and really talkative and helpful, wanting to give us directions, ideas of things to see... It’s wonderful. There’s so much noise and so many different smells, people are talking to each other, always saying something. I feel more at home here in the not-even-24h hours I’ve been here than I have felt yet in Korea. There’s just something so appealing about the lifestyle in developing countries. The openness and the willingness to help other people, that open community aspect is just amazing.
Because it’s Christmas, we really wanted to hit up a church somewhere to see a service here. The amazing ladies at our hostel showed us where to go and got us a tuk-tuk and everything. Just awesome. After a long battle between our tuk-tuk driver and the traffic jams, we made it to this random cathedral that was having Christmas mass. Complete with Christmas lights, music, and jam-packed with Thais in their Christmas best. It was beautiful. We pushed our way into the church to listen to the Christmas story in Thai and hum along to a few Christmas hymns. Just awesome. Basically, I don’t want to leave. And I’m really excited to have another 8 days here! I could get used to this!
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December 25th, 2009
Day 2. Freakin’ awesome . Really great. I love the pace of life here. I got myself out of bed first to go up and spend some time journaling and basking in the beautiful weather on the roof garden. It’s awesome. We ate a leisurely American breakfast (French toast for the first time in a looong time) and showered, got money (finally), and headed out for a walk to see some temples. We took a tuk-tuk with some instructions from a man we met at the river. The first temple we saw, Wat Indrawiharn, had a HUGE (100ft) standing Buddha. It was pretty sweet. And as much as I wish I had a camera, I also like not seeing things through a camera lens. I’ve often thought of Navid’s sociology of images class.
Check out these feet!
We went to another temple that was really tucked back away and met a really talkative economics professor. Wooo. He sure had a lot to say. We grabbed lunch on the street – delicious noodle soup – and then slowly made our way back to our area. I also tried some fried bananas dipped in an amazing caramel sauce. Delicious. It was pretty nice to just relax. We got Thai massages. 1 hour for B250. That’s just over 8 dollars. Unbelievable. We bummed around a lot and then went to grab dinner – red curry! Street food for B30. One dollar. ONE. Amazing. So good.
We wandered over to Khao San Road,
the main tourist/backpacker area and caught a street performance of an African drumming group. It was just stellar. So much fun. There’s just something about that music that just takes me right back. Instantly. It’s just amazing. The group was super international—from all over the world. Just great. I went up to talk to the BAMF white guy... just great. I said I was teaching in Korea, and he replied, “So Thailand must be a nice change for you...” Soul peering. He just knew...
We went shopping for a bit, but then sat down for B80 drinks. That’s less than 3 dollars! Mmmmm. And then dragonfruit. Which, as you can see, looks really exciting!
It’s actually has an amazing LACK of taste. Surprisingly enough. At the end of the day, we bought some cheap Thai munchies and headed up to the rooftop garden before calling it a night. Beautiful first full day.
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December 26th, 2009
Today, we decided to head to the HUGE Chatuchak market, the weekend market that draws over 20,000 people to over 15,000 market stalls. It was incredible. We met this German girl named Stephanie who joined us all day. It was nice to have someone else along for the ride. We arrived in the late morning after taking the city bus... which seemed to me like a good mix between Senegalese and Korean public transportation. B18. $.75. Nice. When we arrived, we started shopping immediately. And bought tons./
After a nice lunch, we headed back in to see fun stuff again, saw the live animal section (like a Thai open-air pet store) and then the huge food/fruit section. We didn’t actually buy much food, but I was crazy to see! Just awesome. Sigh. I miss huge markets. Where you can bargain as much as you want. Awesome.
HUGE!
I made my way over to the park. There were boys juggling one of those hard, hollow balls and women doing totally BAMF jazzercise course. Haha. Awesome. Too intense and choreographed to just join in. For dinner, we sat down at a small street food stall with lots of tables along one of the canals in the middle of the city. It was awesome. No one spoke English. We just kind of pointed at stuff. Even when I just wanted to ask what the sauce was, they thought I was asking for it. Good thing it was tasty and I was with three other people who also ate the entire fish they ended up bringing us. Haha. What a wonderful miscommunication! Good chat over great dinner followed by even cheaper drinks. Pretty great and exhausting day!
1 comment:
ahahah. soul peering, love it.
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