Bangkok!

We made it! So much has happened already, I don’t know where to start. Okay, plane ride. The plane ride was loooooonnnnnggggg. We flew Asiana, which was pretty nice, in my uneducated opinion. We had about 11 hours from Seattle to Seoul-Incheon airport, then a two -ish hour layover, then a 5 hour flight to Bangkok. Our first plane was super full, but the second one was almost empty; so we grabbed window seats. I slept pretty much the whole 5 hour flight, which felt super duper good. We landed a little before midnight; by the time we got through immigration, it was the 4th. So we pretty much skipped all of the 3rd, which is screwing with my brain. Anyway. We got through the airport, and our teachers from NU, Weldyn and Barb Houger, met us with the directors of the program. It was so awesome to have some familiar faces, and to get to see them again. We got to our rooms at about 1-ish, and got the tour. We are on Soi 42, off of Ramkhamhaeng road, in Bangkapi, Bangkok. Our address is obnoxiously long, but kind of fun to write. Soi’s are streets off of main roads, so the main road is Ramkhamhaeng, and we are down the side street. We are in what the call PenAsia towers, two buildings across the driveway from each other. Kelsey and I are sharing a room above the Bible translation center, and Kaitlyn’s room is above the PenAsia office. Our room is pretty awesome, we’re on the top floor (5 flights of stairs, no elevator, lots of bags!). Our room is big and open, with air conditioning (!), and then there is a separate little room with a bathroom and a kitchen. We have a tiny little balcony, which is pretty fun to go look at the city from. I’ll try to post pictures next time. We went to bed about 2, I was a little wound up from the fact that we were HERE! But once my head hit the pillow, I was out. I woke up about 6:30 this morning, and was wide awake. So I played on my computer a little bit (didn’t have the internet code yet) and then finally decided to just shower and start the day. We hadn’t planned on getting up until 9, so I was a little ahead of schedule- pretty unusual for me. The shower felt amazing, after 23 hours on an airplane. A little before 10, we all walked down the Soi with Barb, and had breakfast with her and Weldyn, while they told us about their travels this summer. Sidenote: There are dogs here called Soi Dogs. If you’ve ever been in a city in Mexico, it’s pretty much the same thing. Felt like Mexico while we were walking. They pretty much just ignore you, but I guess only rich people have dogs as pets, and when they do, they’re little dogs. Sidenote over. After breakfast we walked back, and met with Tammy, who is one of the directors of APSAI. She exchanged some money for us, about 3000 baht, for 100 dollars. Then she showed us around her house, and took us to the grocery store. For any youth group-ers out there: We rode to the store in a Speed the Light vehicle! Wayne and Tammy’s daughter is handicapped, so its a really awesome diesel van, with a wheelchair ramp in the back. The store we went to was called Big C, which they think is like Walmart. It isn’t. It’s pretty crazy. I thought it was more like a mall, because there are separate little sections of the store, and you pay for the items you got in that section before you go to the next one. So we went and got our cell phones first, then went to a different section and got them activated. It only cost about 1000 baht for a phone and 270 minutes; about 35-ish dollars. Then we went shopping, and got the low-down on shopping in Thailand. We found a whole bunch of “odd” fruit. One looks like a strawberry, but it has 1/2 inch long spikey things coming out of it. Tammy said that they are super sweet, and look and feel like eyeballs inside. Then there were similar tasting things, that were brown, dry-looking balls on a bunch of sticks. There was so much stuff in that store I can’t even begin to touch it, but I think one of the funniest/strangest things I saw was Seaweed flavored Pringles. We had lunch in the food court there, sooooooo delicious. I got Yakitari chicken, grilled chicken with a sweetish spicy sauce and rice. The food is really cheap, 45 baht for a huge plate, but apparently that is really expensive compared to the street vendors. There is one on our Soi that is only 10 baht for some of the best Thai food ever, according to some of the missionaries here. Now we’re back in our rooms, having some downtime. Tonight we are having dinner at Wayne and Tammy’s house across the driveway. She’s making Mexican food, which I found somewhat amusing, but it will be delicious.

Okay, I know I’m dragging on and on, but two more things, I promise.

1. I now understand why people always say “But it’s dry heat!”. It was/is about 93 today, with 88% humidity. It’s not unbearable, but it’s definitely an adjustment from the beach. However, almost everywhere we go is air conditioned, which feels spectacularly fantastically amazing.

2.They drive on the left side of the road here. Traffic laws are sooooo confusing, but because of the Buddhist culture, trying to earn karma points, nobody honks, and people let each other in. Motorcycles/scooters are huge here, they kinda scare me though, weaving in and out of the traffic. I’m really glad I don’t have to drive here, cause I would probably have a heart attack.

Okay, if anyone made it through that extremely long ramble up there… my apologies!

If anyone wants a souvenir, tell me what you want in the comments, shopping is a blast here!