We're Finally Here!
Busy in Bangkok
11.18.2007
0 °F
After over 20 hours of travel from Ptown to San Fran to Taipei to Bangkok, we finally reached our destination point! Nothing too exciting to report about our plane rides except that we felt eternally grateful for the fact that we had the only empty seat on the plane next to us during our longest flight. Yippppeeee!
Nicole's aunt and uncle, Pe Oy and Na Sadit, picked us up from the enormous airport where they had been waiting while we searched for Nicole's missing guitar, which she finally found in the oversized baggage area (unscathed thankfully). After a short drive in the chaos that is Bangkok traffic, we hauled our exhausted selves out of the truck and into a food stand/restaurant. We were full from plane food, but ate anyway: bu mee noodles and shrimp dim sum that Pe Oy and Na Sadit got for us. It was deeeeeeelicious!!!!!! Nicole had been craving bu mee noodles for the past three years, since her last visit to Thailand.
We slept for thirteen hours, from 3:30 pm until 5 am, when we awoke hungry, but unable to buy food seeing as we were only in possession of US dollars. We quietly left the house (we are staying at the house of Nicole's grandfather/ Pe Oy/ Na Sadit/ other family/friends) to find that the bank was not open on the weekend. We went home and scarfed down the crumbled sugar cookies that Katie's sister Jenny had given us for the plane ride. Eventually, we slipped out again (everyone was still sleeping) and pulled money out of the ATM in order to buy sapporoat (fresh pineapple) and other goodies. Later, Na Sadit took us with a little crew (including Nicole's adorable and smiley cousin Peter) to a humungous mall where we exchanged our money and wandered around in a tired daze. 
Then we took a LONG drive to Ayuthaya (the old capital of Thailand) where we participated in a beautiful ceremony at the main Thai temple there. One of the largest Buddha statues in Thailand resides there and was breathtaking. We drove back home after sitting at the river and eating too many snacks (Thai people are always trying to feed you and we feel rude not accepting)!
We awoke this morning to the sounds of a bird with a shrill call that has an uncanny resemblance to an ambulance. After blasting music in our headphones trying to drown out the bird's "song," we gave up and arose to enjoy more pineapple and bah-tong-gohs (these are amazing Thai donuts, which are not sweet but taste more like fry bread). Again, Nicole had been craving these for three years so her first bite of one was a truly joyful moment.
After a restful morning, we finally journeyed off on our own without the help of any of Nicole's family and jumped in a cab. A short trip took us to Jatujak, an outdoor weekend market, which slightly resembles Saturday Market in Portland, except that it is HUGE and sells everything from live birds to Bob Marley tees. We didn't buy much, but what we did buy we ended up getting at a teeny booth called Save The World that had tshirts with environmentally friendly logos on them. Go figure. This market is so big that we must have circled it 100 times and never hit the same spot twice. We literally couldn't find a way out when we decided to leave, but after a 1/2 hour of searching, we made our way out of the hot, humid, crowded retail mecca. Hopped in another cab and made our way over to Khao San Road.
Currently, we are sitting at an Internet Cafe on Khao San Road (an area that draws many young tourists). We just ate some amazing food and are about to head home to Lat Prow (where Nicole's fam lives). A tiring and lovely day.
We are planning to venture off to Chiang Mai tomorrow evening (for an overnight bus ride). If you would like to know more about what we'll be doing up there during our internship, go to www.punpunthailand.org
We'll post some pics soon!!!!
WE LOVE YOU!
nicole and katie
Posted by kate.nic 17:55 Archived in Thailand Comments (0)
