I had the most amazing, smooth transition from Vancouver to Thailand. My mum had a few bumps... but we made it. I still cannot get over how I was able to remain so calm and composed through the whole thing and had really no problems at all sitting for the amount of time I had to on the 3 flights here. It was beautiful really ha! I would do it again in a heartbeat and most likely will be.
It's 630am on Monday morning and I am sitting in the hotel room in Bangkok. My mum is eating chips and we are waiting for Greg (her friend that manages the resort across the street from the resort we are heading to). We have actually been up since 3am... jet lag is a bitch. I woke up and shaved my hair off >>>>>
>>>>>>
with the 30$ set of clippers (they suck) that I bought at the MBK mall here and my mum played on her computer. We ended up walking to find some coffee and ended up at this Italian restaurant...we drank cappuccinos.......... Along the way I saw a ton of squished cockroaches, a cat about to pounce on a rat that was almost twice the size of it and inside the Italian restaurant a dude caressing his lady friends bewbasas. Going to have breakfast downstairs at 8 with Greg (he's staying in the same hotel as us) and then we are going to take the sky train to the water taxi and go up the river to Kao San road- Backpackers central. I am looking forward to getting out of this area, we have spent the last couple days in one area and it's time to branch out.
I am IN LOVE with this place. As soon as we landed I felt like I was home and maybe why I have always been drawn to this part of the world. The more I ventured through the airport and outside into the heat to catch a taxi, the more I felt like I was meant to be here. I foresee myself spending a lot of time travelling here. Its like everything that isn't acceptable at home is acceptable here. FREE is the word I would use to describe this place :) It feels like Thailand is game for anything and understands what is really important!!! There is an underlying respect that seems to keep everything running smoothly even though you can buy booze at every corner and set up any kind of shop wherever you want, whether it be the communal fear of thai prisons or the buddhist beliefs that run through everything and everywhere, it is a pretty beautiful thing. It is a mish mash of rich and poor... peaceful/serene and extremely stimulating and LOUD. People load their entire families on scooters and none of them wear helmets. There are stray dogs and cats everywhere, food vendors that are able to set up their own tables and chairs all along the streets, ghettos, Lexus dealerships, 5 star hotels and malls that only carry Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Prada etc. all mixed together. The entrance to our hotel is off of an alley and the front doors are left unlocked most of the night, the manager flips off his sandals and sleeps on the couch in the front entrance for the night :) why not, right? it works. Beer really is cheaper than water and the tourists are all sweating.
I have smelt some of the most horrendous of smells here... mostly from the meat cooking and the garbage. I have smelt some of the best smells... the flower stands are gorgeous. We went to Chatuchak Market the first day we were here. You can get anything there... even puppies. When we were leaving there was a man there laying on the sidewalk. His leg had been burnt so badly by something and there was so much skin loss, I could see tendon. It had also been pretty recent because he had a wound that was only partially covered with gauze and fresh blood that festered in the heat. Last night there was a man also laying on the sidewalk, on his stomach. He didn't have any feet... one leg had been cut off shorter than the other. He layed there with his arms stretched out, his cheek to the pavement and his hands grasping a container for people to put change in. Those two men ARE my reality check and I wish were a reality check for the people around me, a real reality check. In the moment people will make comments if they even decide to look down but it seems as tough they rarely let the experience be absorbed. Those two men do not know it but they have infused me with energy. Energy and the desire to continue on this path that I am. Not this trip, my path.
Breakfast time.
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