I am trying to digest what I have seen in the past 24 hours as I sit here in the bus station for the next several hours of my life. I arrived into the International Airport of Bangkok yesterday morning and was immediately surrounded by the crazy hustle and bustle of Bangkok, Thailand. I cleared customs after about one hour of standing in a mass group of people that some how managed to form into organized lines. I claimed my bag and set out to find a reliable taxi service because you have various options of transport once you step outside and if you don't speak the language then you will more than likely get ripped off if you don't sort out a proper service. After locating what I felt was the most legit service I gave them the address to the school that I was hired through. They had no clue where to go, so I began to get a little nervous. I don't speak Thai and they certainly did not speak much English. They were very helpful though and offered to call my contact and for 850 baht or about $25 US I was off to the big city of Bangkok! I paid more than I should have, but I did not care at that point...just get me to the correct destination!!
The taxi driver was still not selling me on the fact that he knew exactly where he was going, so when he pulled up to a dilapidated apartment building in the back of an ally, I told him that I was not sure he got the address right. He did not understand me and I did not understand him, so I just started shaking my head back and forth to say no way am I getting out here! He called my contact again and sure enough...he was right and this is where I was to exit the car. I sat there for a moment thinking to myself...perhaps I will just turn this party bus around and head straight back to the airport and just pay the extra money to fly down to the southern islands.
Wow..is all I can say. There were clothes hanging all over the place on uneven lines, the building was practically crumbling down, there were stray dogs just lying around that looked as if they had not had anything to eat in days, garbage was strewn everywhere, it was about 95 degrees and it smelled rather unpleasant. The moment of truth...did I have what it would take to begin my journey through Thailand on my own or was I way out of my league here? The taxi driver sat there smiling at me as if to say: "get out of my cab you crazy American girl", so I said what the hell and flung the door open, grabbed my bags and thanked him for the lift.
Amy is the assistant to my only English speaking contact here in Thailand, so when she came out to greet me and help me with my bags I smiled and felt instant relief. I no longer cared about my surroundings because at least I was in the right location and there was someone here that I could communicate with. We walked into the tiny office for the recruiting agency that hired me and I finally got to put a face to my contact, Eric, from the school. He has been going back and forth between Thailand and Canada for the past 6 years. He seems to really like it here and is a very nice guy. He pretty much saved my ass when I got here because there are very few options to get out of the city for the next week due to the Songkran Festival, which is the Thai New Year party that lasts for an entire week. Eric went out the day before my arrival, battled the protesters and for the bargain price of about 500 baht, he bought me one of the very last bus tickets out of this crazy place. Without him...I fear I might have been stuck here for the next 7 days or I would have had to pay an arm and a leg to fly out. The only catch was that the bus was not actually departing until 7 PM the following day! I looked at my watch and figured out that I was going to be spending about 30 hours in Bangkok, which was about 29 more hours then I had wanted to spend. I was very thankful to have the ticket though and very appreciative that he went so far out of his way to help me. As I attempted to hide the panic that was slowly creeping back onto my face; I asked him for a recommendation of where to stay for the night.
Eric and his assistant, Amy, ( who I later found out was his girlfriend) both recommended that I stay in an apartment/hotel accommodations right down the street because it was only about 400 baht a night, which works out to be about $16 US. I reluctantly agreed seeing as I just wanted to get as far away from that area as possible, but Amy offered to give me a lift and show me around a bit. As it turned out, both Amy and Eric lived right above the office and I felt that being close to them would be comforting for the first night. We piled into Amy's truck and off we went to my budget accommodations in Bangkum, Bangkok! Amy ended up getting lost, which was totally fine by me because I was in no hurry to depart her company. We ended up driving around and she taught me a few things to say in Thai. She also explained all the markets that we were passing and the various malls. Finally we located the apartments/hotel and I checked in for less than you can get a good sandwich in LA. The room was clean and safe, so I was happy!
After Amy took off I decided to go exploring a bit. It is extremely hot here and there was pretty much no breeze in the city as you are just surrounded by big malls. They have a mall on every every other block and between each mall you will find the open air markets. According to Amy, the open air markets are where the housewives go shopping because the prices are way cheaper than the air-con malls. The air-con malls are where people go to hang out and shop for "nicer" things and are therefor more expensive then the open air markets. With the constant stream of people walking around and the massive amount of buses and taxi cabs swerving through the streets, it is a bit scary to walk around here. Not to mention the smell is stomach churning due to the heat, the stagnant water puddles and the garbage that is lying around the streets.
There are so many little food carts and stands that sell all sorts of things to eat for practically nothing; however, there is something a little unsettling about the piles of garbage, stray dogs, flies and crowds of people everywhere when it comes time to make your purchase. I opted not to eat from the open air market vendors just yet. Especially since everything is labeled in Thai and I truly had no idea what I was even looking at. I saw more types of meet and fried treats in a one block radius then I have seen in my entire life! There were entire chickens dangling by their necks right next to big steal pots of pipping hot soups. I think you can get pretty much anything you could ever want fried and any type of meet you like on a stick!
I found a little indoor shop where I had my very first fried ham and cheese sandwich because it was the only thing I could recognize. The entire sandwich is fried...the bread and all. I must admit that it was rather tasty, but I don't think I would make a habit of eating fried sandwiches as they are rather heavy and very unhealthy. I was starving though and that was the only thing that I knew for sure would not consist of some sort of strange animal. I also tried a chicken curry donut for about .25 cents US. This was not my favorite, but it filled me up.
This little stroll through the markets confirmed the fact that I need to sign up for a Thai cooking course ASAP!! Part of the course includes someone taking you into the open markets and explaining to you what all the delicious looking morsels actually are, so this will be first order of business once I get down south. Otherwise, I am pretty sure I will end up starving to death! They then take you back to the kitchen and teach you to cook various dishes with the ingredients purchased from the market. Yay!!
Once I had exhausted myself from walking around the open air market, I decided to walk into the mall that had air conditioning. Oh what a treat that was!! It was sweltering outside and the smell was starting to get to me, so the air-con was like a piece of heaven. My first order of business was to locate a phone store that would sell me a SIM card for Thailand. I successfully found a phone store, but that language barrier popped up straight away. I pulled my phone out, pulled the SIM card out and tried to communicate that I needed a new one. Thankfully and not so thankfully a guy who claimed his name was, Daddy, walked up and was able to help me make my purchase. He then wanted to go have coffee, so I had to weasel my way out of that. I claimed to be completely jet legged and explained that I was going back to my room to sleep. "Daddy" proceeded to walk through the mall with me and asked for my phone number. I gave it to him, told him I was going to take a nap and then shut my phone off and it has been off ever since. After my fried snacks, walking around in the heat and dealing with "Daddy", I decided that it was time to retreat back to my room.
Totally exhausted, I marched back down the Soi or small road towards my hotel, which doubles as an apartment building for the locals. I headed straight up to my room, closed the door and flopped down on my bed. After a few hours of watching the only channel they offered in English with the worst B movies ever I decided to get some shut eye. For I knew that the following day was going to be equally tiring. I had to check out at 10 AM, catch a taxi ( again not an easy task with the language barrier thing) and sit at the bus station for about 7 hours before boarding the 12 hour ride to paradise also known as Koh Phangan!
I now sit here at the bus station with 5 hours to go until I board my bus. I have checked my bag with all my clothes in it at a stand that is completely open to walk in and out of for the bargain price of 70 baht, so I hope that it will be there when I return for it! It weighs a ton and it is boiling here, so there was no way that I was going to lug that sucker around all day. If it is not there then I guess I am going shopping! I have absolutely no clue where to go to board the bus and all the signs just point you around in circles. I am going on a mission to find someone that can speak a bit of English and that will be patient with me while I flip through my Thai/English translation book! Hopefully I will be sitting near a beach next time I update this travel diary of mine! I can't wait to see what this 12 hour bus journey is going to consist of!! Oh what an adventure!!
Wish me luck!!
