Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Day 1

It's only day one and it feels like we've been here a long time. The three of us weren't sleeping much so we decided to get started early, around 6:30am. Breakfast wasn't scary at all, eggs and sausage, and the bathrooms and shower are all really nice.   So far so good.

We started wandering and it wasn't long before we began to attract attention.  A thai man came up to us, asking all sorts of questions, just begging to help out.  He taught us some thai phrases and ended up planning a tour of Bangkok's Wats for us.  He even hailed a tuk-tuk (motorcycle carriage) and bartered the fare ( $1 to have the driver take us to 6 sites).

Our view from the tuk tuk

The first wat we visited.  Giant Bhudda in the background....very giant.


Walking across the street in Bangkok is probably the most dangerous thing I've ever done.  At some points, pedestrians cross 8 lanes of traffic, aggressive drivers cruising at full speed and motorcycles weaving between cars.

We got tired of watting and so let the driver decide where we should go.  This was a mistake.  We ended up sitting in suit stores trying to convince the tailors that we had no use for a custom-made suit while chilling on the beach.  I guess the drivers get a commision if we buy things there.

Eventually we ditched that driver and started wandering again.  This time a thai woman came up to us, asking us all sorts of questions and giving all sorts of advice.  Then she hailed a tuk tuk for us and bartered the price on our behalf.  We didn't actually want to go for another ride but we had nothing better to do so we hopped on.  It was cheap, it was adventure, and we had no reason not to let strangers decide our fate.

We ended up at a government-run tourist help center where we put together the itinerary for the bulk of our trip.  In two days we'll be chilling on an island beach. From there we're going to battle some monkeys, run around the jungle, float on bamboo rafts, and eat tons of Vietnamese food. 

The rest of today was spent wandering around trying to find food that we could identify.  This was not entirely successful. 

3 comments:

  1. Always tempting the fates. If I know one thing about monkey battling is they're immune to "the Suitcase". You'll have to get creative.

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  2. What's the most interesting food that you've tried so far?

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  3. We haven't eaten anything too weird. Today I had chili-fried fish on rice and Jevin had an amazing red curry. I'm hoping to try some more 'out there' stuff before the end of the day. I can probably fit in two or three more meals today.

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