we are here. finally. :]]

We have officially arrived in Bangkok!

Well actually we have been in Bangkok for a couple of days now; I just haven’t found the time to document it yet.

The travel getting here actually wasn’t as bad as I had expected.  Our first flight out of Cedar Rapids was delayed three hours so we would have missed connecting flights, so thankfully they had to rebook us.  This turned out to be a blessing in disguise; instead of flying from Cedar Rapids to Denver, Denver to Seattle, Seattle to Tokyo, and Tokyo to Bangkok, we were able to hop a flight from Cedar Rapids to Chicago (about a 1-hour flight), Chicago to Tokyo (11 or so hour flight), and from Tokyo to Bangkok (6 and a half hour flight).

I was surprised to find that there wasn’t more legroom on these long flights, but I guess that is because we flew economy.  Looking at the business section of the plane things were rather different :]

They fed us so much on both flights, and surprisingly the food wasn’t that bad – it was pretty good actually.

We arrived in Bangkok late Thursday night, after midnight, and went straight to where we were staying – the Bangkok Christian Guesthouse – and crashed.

The rooms there were modest – which is to be expected – but still rather nice, and the beds were quite comfortable which is always a good thing.

Our first full day in Bangkok we all tried to sleep in (as much as our bodies would allow), enjoyed a delicious breakfast provided by the Guesthouse (they even had french toast!) and went out exploring the city.

We were fortunate enough to take a boat ride through the river that divides Bangkok; I guess the other side is called The Old City, and we were able to see why.  Drexler said Bangkok and the boardering city on the other side of the river are positioned similar to cities like Dallas and Fort Worth.

I also heard that Bangkok is supposed to be “The Venice of the East” – another thing I never knew.

The boat ride on the river was amazing, but definitely eye—opening. 

We saw tons and tons of houses built right on the river, with their foundations and main columns of support residing right in the water.  For some of these houses, I have no idea how they manage to stay together – they literally looked like shacks, pieced together with available materials that might holdup and withstand the weather conditions.

Next to those houses, of course, were huge estates, who’s construction you did not doubt for a minute.

It was incredible to see the contrast, which was so apparent, all the way up and down the river.  Although I suppose the same is true should you simply meander through the streets of Bangkok – or any major city for that matter.

One of the things that struck me as rather interesting was all of the Thai’s we would see as we were boating on the river; they were obviously conducting just another day in their lives, and yet here we were stealing a glimpse.

What was even more was when we would pass a Thai person or a group of Thai’s and they would take it upon themselves to wave at us first.  It made me smile every time, and wave back of course, but I couldn’t help but think, “These people see tourists just like us, all day every single day, and yet here they are, still waving.”  That to me, was incredible.

My friend Erin made a comment to me during our connection in Tokyo as we were walking through the airport about how we were about to be/are the minority.  A status we will maintain for the duration of our stay abroad.  The more I was able to think about her comment, the more I realized being the true minority for a while is probably something all people should experience at least once in their lifetime.

I could definitely see where it would give you an entirely different perspective on things, and perhaps be able to put yourself in another’s shoes more easily, in certain situations.

Our first stop on the boat ride was at Thonburi’s Snake Farm.  This was definitely not something I had seen or done before, so it was a worthwhile experience.  The main attraction at the Snake Farm was a Snake Show; quite a shock, I am sure.

The Snake Show was cringe-worthy but entertaining all the same.  We saw crazy men dance and provoke all sorts of different snakes; everything from cobras, to vipers, to a python!  It was quite wild.

There were also zoo animals at this Snake Farm.  Seeing the various animals was neat, but I felt pretty bad for the animals themselves.  Especially the black bears, they looked rather frazzled and hot.  There were a couple of beautiful peacocks there though, and some funny guinea pig-looking creatures.

After the amazing Snake Farm, we were off to our first temple of the trip.

It was Wat Arun Rajwararam, or the Temple of Dawn.  The design and architecture were both very pretty and intricate, and luckily we were able to climb up pretty high on the temple.  The stairs were amazingly steep too, but thankfully there were railings.

Outside the walls of the temple were many different people selling their various goods, and my friend Erin and I were able to try a real coconut for the first time.  We were given a straw to drink the coconut milk and a little spoon to scoop out the innards.

That night we ate at a delicious Thai restaurant, right by our guesthouse, called Bua.  It was wonderful.

On Saturday, we took the SkyTrain to a weekend market in Bangkok.  The market was humongous, and just as Bob warned us, “They sell everything in the world there.”

It was mind-blowing.  The market itself was like a huge maze or labyrinth; I have no idea how people navigate that market with a certain shop in mind, and actually have a devised plan on how to get there.  It was like Ikea, once you're inside, the only way out is to follow it to the end.

Another drawback to the market was that it was super hot; although if you were lucky enough to find shade, it made a definite difference.  One of the most unexpected things I saw for sale there were lots and lots of puppies, and even little mice or hamsters.

I bought a side bag and two watches.

Saturday night we ate at a more traditional or authentic Thai Restaurant, also just up the street from our guesthouse, and amazingly they had Taylor Swift playing the entire time we ate our meal!  It was so weird hearing not one TS song in Thailand, but her entire album playing in a whole in the wall Thai Restaurant.  It is rather shocking how much American music you hear  blasting from certain shops on the streets of Bangkok.
Saturday night, our last night in Bangkok, we went out to our first Asian bar experience and funny enough we ended up at an "Irish Pub" right up the street from where we were staying called Molly Malone's.  It was a pretty quiet night in this Thailand Pub, but we all had fun spending time together nonetheless.

Sunday was our last day in Bangkok and in the morning a couple of us went to a rather large park.  Actually, it too was huge.  We joked that it had to have been the Central Park of Bangkok.  The park was wonderful; it was lush and shady, lots of trees and grass.  It also had an endless assortment of meeting spots, picnic tables, pavilions and so on.  There were so many family and friends out enjoying the nice breezy weather and each other’s company.  There were old women singing, men playing what appeared to be some form of checkers, people actually ballroom dancing in one area, men practicing their Thi Chi, and even people just sitting together to chat and relax.  There were also walkers and runners, bicyclists and the sort, normal scenery in such parks I suppose.

Oh and we also saw kimono dragons at this park – three, to be exact!  Two were sunning themselves by the water, and one was actually swimming in the water.  One of the dragons was rather huge!  I can’t imagine going to the park and expecting to run into these creepy and massive reptiles.

After the park in the morning, we gathered as a group and set out for the day.  We went to two temples, both were located in the same section of Bangkok and were massive tourist attractions.  The amount of people and traffic and tour buses was astounding.  At the first temple we were lucky enough to see the likeness of a massive reclining Buddha, with mother-of-pearl on his feet.  This was an amazing sight, and I am so glad I was able to witness it in real life.

The second temple we went to houses a replica of Angkor Wat as well as the Emerald Buddha, which apparently was stolen from Laos.  I’m not exactly sure why Laos hasn’t come to recollect their stolen property yet…haha.

After all of our temple hopping, we headed back to the guesthouse for a bit to wait for when it was time to head to the train station.

We had an overnight train to Chang Mai to catch at 7pm.  The overnight train ride actually ended up being a lot of fun.  Drexler said he had never rode in the type of train (Indian-style apparently) for this trip which we had, but everything ended up working out.  We just hung out on the train, ate dinner, talked and laughed, until we got tired enough to call it a night.

I wasn’t sure how I would fair sleeping on a train, but surprisingly I slept great, and actually enjoyed the sleep set-up and accommodations.  I slept on the top bunk and had no problems at all, my pillow and blanket were even comfy.

The next morning, today (Monday), we arrived in the city of Chang Mai at around 11am.  Two individuals from the University were nice enough to pick us up from the train station and take us to where we are staying.  We showered (thankfully!) and got all settled in.

Chang Mai seems to be a pretty nice town so far.

More to come.  :]