Bangkok-Upon Arrival

Once we got through customs, we went out to find a cab, and I stepped into Thailand for my first moment without air conditioning. It was like a wall hit you and you couldn't breathe. I later found out that the humidity was generally 80% while I was there, and the temps over night were usually in the 80's or 90's. During the day, a heat index of 110 was common. The humidity was so bad in fact that my earrings rusted after about a week, rendering them useless to me. Poor Rebecca was noticing that her gum was melted every time before she had even touched it. I can say though, that I never had dry skin while I was there, and my chap stick addiction became an unnecessary thing of the past.

After a kamikaze cab ride in which LeMing and I screamed twice, much to the annoyance of the cab driver, we made it to our hotel, the Tai Pan. On the way there, I saw on the window of a cab that we were passing a sticker that read "I love (heart) Farang". I later asked, and this word is referring to foreigners. I originally thought it simply meant white people, but it can mean anyone who is not Thai. It looked much like the picture on the right, which I did not take.



Immediately after getting out of the cab, I smelled it. Bangkok. It has it's own somewhat pungent smell that doesn't leave you or your clothes for quite some time. I'm not sure if it was simply worse at the time because I was standing directly next to the exhaust pipe, but the entire city smelled that way as much as I can remember. Our hotel was very nice, roughly 1100 Baht a night, which equates to about $34.00 a night. I can't complain there. In America, that hotel, with pool, would have cost roughly $115.00 a night.In the lobby, I was already impressed by the environmental aspect, as shown above.


The room was very decent, with beds that were incredibly hard (I shouldn't have tried throwing myself on it in excitement of being there I suppose) and the strangest bathroom arrangement.

One of the people on our trip had been wearing a "Mind the Gap" t-shirt, and I couldn't help but think of it again when I saw this arrangement for the bathroom. I stubbed my toe on this more times in the middle of the night than I care to share. Why on earth would you need and extra inch and a half between the bathroom and the main room?





Well, maybe this is why. Taking a shower with a nozzle that aims directly to the back tends to flood the bathroom quite effectively, we discovered. The gap protected the carpet from our blunder at least. Luckily, every single shower unit I used had a nozzle that was attached to the hose, allowing us to control where the water went. You get very good and figuring out ways to use your hands for shampoo and control the water flow at the same time in three weeks.

We got two bottles of free water and a pass for a free drink down at the hotel restaurant. To my delight, the water's logo had elephants!

I used the pass for my first experience with coconut juice.

Man, that was amazing! They even give you a spoon so you can dig out the fresh coconut. I found these all over from street vendors. The Principal of Nayao even gave us one right off his very own tree in his yard one night!






I also found the hotel to be environmentally friendly in the sense that the electricity only works when the key is in place.
The key sits on the wall and apparently attaches through a magnetic charge, and this contact is what makes it all happen. You can imagine how confused we were when we realized there was no actual light switch for the main room.


Another interesting thing is the difference between American hotel rooms and one in Thailand. We tend to have a bible in each room. Thailand is not a believer of god, but of Buddha, so instead, there is the a book on his word. I chose a chapter about nature, of course, to represent this.

After all this "discovery" for the night, it was time to get some sleep and head out to explore the city and the market. The 19 hour plane ride was enough for one day.