Thailand Day 1

Whew! We FINALLY made it to Thailand after a very, very long--all night long--drive from SLC to San Francisco. We only had two legs of buddy passes each & therefore had space to get to Hong Kong & back from Hong Kong.. theoretically.. but that's for later....

Anyway- make sure you get your immigration forms all filled out on the plane as the lines for foreigners can be quite lengthy. We didn't receive a form on the plane (I'm sure we were just sleeping) so we had to go find one from the airport customer service, then locate a pen, then stand in the long line... we finally made it out of the security portion of the airport & were immediately accosted by touts... someone trying to screw you out of a few bucks...they wanted us to take their taxi. Best way to deal with them is ignore them, don't talk to them don't even look at them.... completely act as if they aren't there.. It feels RUDE but it's much less annoyance that way. Go downstairs & follow the pictures of the taxis. There is a legitimate government run taxi service that should get you into downtown Bangkok for around 200-250 baht.... MAKE SURE any time you get into a taxi that their meter is on. If it's not, get out of the taxi. You will need to pay the tolls on the way in & out of the city depending on which way you're going. One toll is 70 baht, one is 45... or so if I remember correctly. We got into Bangkok pretty late & our taxi driver took us to the wrong hostel & tried to tell us the one we wanted was closed. Be firm, tell them the exact address you want to go. It also helps if you have the address written in Thai, or you can point to a map... English is not all taxi drivers strong point. After some pains, he finally dropped us off in front of Baan Hualampong our hostel, which was NOT closed... but was full (if you plan on staying anywhere that is recommended by lonely planet or hostels.com reserve in advance) so we went across the street to Home Sweet Home.. or Welcome Home.or Your Home....ok I was really jet lagged so I slacked at the exact name of the place but both are in a small alleyway directly across from each other. We chose this area because we were planning on taking the night train to Chiang Mai that night... which I would also recommend booking in advance here or you'll get stuck with a second class train & a second class bed... do yourself a favor, if you do get stuck in second class, get a bottom bunk. It's only a few extra dollars & SOOOO much better! I woke up in the middle of the night because the air conditioning splashed freezing water on my head several times.. and on the way back to Bangkok I got a cockroach falling from the ceiling onto my face. Other than that though it was OK. Tickets were 771 baht. Anyway, back to our hostel. It was ok, very clean & the staff was very nice. If you're not used to the heat/humidity/are not a wuss then buy the air conditioned room. The beds are hard in every hostel we stayed in & even in our "4 star hotel" so just get used to it.The hot water worked for our friend Drew because he's smart enough to figure out how to turn it on... I'd ask when you check in. The staff is VERY friendly & accommodating. Anyway, we checked in & slept..tried to sleep...bring tylenol pm or something because it's funky trying to get used to the 14 hour time difference. The hostel was quiet which was great too. They gave you a towel, linens & a thin blanket & the ac works great... a little too great...

Woke up, took a shower, had breakfast (toast, and a runny egg). Evan checked a few things on the internet (costs money) & I walked around & took photos of our hostel. They have a garden on the roof that was pretty sweet. They also let me use their phone (for a price) and I got a hold of my friend Nicole (she lives there for a bit) & we planned on meeting up at Lumpini Park. We walked two minutes to the train station (ignoring the "need tuk tuk?" questions because we could SEE it right in front of us), luckily got our tickets for the night train, bought a gofre (begian waffle... not sure if that's spelled correctly) and caught a taxi to the park.

I think this was my favorite park of the day. It was relaxing & very pretty but there were freaking monitor lizards just walking & swimming around! We got some cool pictures but didn't get too close because I heard somewhere they were poisonous... but now I've looked it up online & can't back that up... oh well, they were cool. Evan also found a huge centipede!

We met up with Nicole & took a boat tour of Bangkok, it was 600 baht for all four of us, total. Don't let them completely screw you because they will try to get 1000 baht out of each of you. Of course, we might have gotten screwed... who really knows? Anyway, here are some pics. PS little kids love to wave at tourists. Wave back!

After that we took the sky train (BTS) to NBK. It's the National Stadium exit. Cool place to go shopping & have a HUGE Thai lunch for a buck fifty. mmmmmm. Try the mango, coconut, passion fruit shakes, They're delish. We also got pad Thai.....mmmmmmmmm......look around at the neat shops. Buyer beware, it's all cheap crap from China.. for the most part. And the shoes I found were at USA Payless or worse prices.. but it was still fun to look. After that we said goodbye to Nicole & headed back to our hostel to collect our bags (they had lockers we could keep them in all day- how nice!) Then the boys were hungry again so we bought some food from the restaurant on the main street directly outside of the alleyway from our hostel. Don't be turned off by the looks of the place- it's some of the best Thai food I had all trip! Note to self. Bring cell phone next time for emergencies... like in case you get separated from your spouse in a busy train station in a country where almost no one speaks English, and your train is about to leave but you have all of the tickets, passports & money.... ya. Also, bring something to do on the train, paperback book, small deck of cards... something!

The train is an adventure, don't buy the breakfast, you'll be sorry. Brig granola bars & snacks... all of the food is nasty. The "sausages" are hot dogs... but funny tasting hot dogs. The OJ is watered down Tang... yyyyeeaahhh. Don't waste your money. Esp when good food is sooo cheap! Bring an eye mask too because those lights don't turn completely off.

Day one, done!