(Hello,
Bangkok.) It’s very strange to see all
the signage in these Thai characters.
Fortunately, most of the signs have an English translation.
On the morning of my
flight here, I woke up sick…..really bad timing, considering the 18 hours
of travel time ahead. If I hadn’t already been
sick, I probably would have picked up something from the numerous coughing,
sneezing people on the 3 planes I boarded during my journey. I set my foot in Sri Lanka on the way. I didn’t encounter one American on the entire
journey or hear anyone but flight attendants speak English.
I arrived safely in
Bangkok and took about the 200th spot in a line of people with
foreign passports who were waiting to get the stamp of approval from Thailand immigration officers. It was an important holiday
that day—Loy Krathong—and I had planned to go the river in the evening to watch
the festivities. People either make or
buy small krathong (floats) adorned with candles and flowers and float them on
the river to let go of bad luck and bad feelings and welcome in good luck and
feelings. I was too sick and exhausted
to handle the challenge of navigating my way there and back, but I was lucky
enough to have a distant view of the river from my apartment and saw some of
the fireworks.
I did nothing my first
three days here except take one trip to the grocery store to get some supplies,
because there was NOTHING in this apartment—not even a complementary roll of
toilet paper!
I felt a sense of
dejavu when I discovered that this apartment building is full of students, just
like the one I sublet during the summer in Ann Arbor. I had no idea, and it was a little
disappointing that this information wasn’t on the website. I was hoping to meet some people a lot nearer
to my age in the building.
The apartment itself
is quite nice….but a little stark. There
is no decoration whatsoever.
I won’t be
doing much cooking here, because all I have is a one burner hotplate and one
frying pan for cooking. Considering how
I felt on arrival, I was relieved to find a small restaurant onsite that
provides room service. The food is
decent and really cheap. For example, a
vegetable omelette I had for breakfast was only 50 baht—about $1.60—and pad
thai with shrimp is 60 baht--$1.95. You
get only 3 shrimp, so next time it might cost $3 if I ask them to double the
shrimp.
I slept for 14 hours
after I arrived. I’m in a residential
area with a mixture of houses and apartment buildings, and it’s relatively
quiet here. There is, however, the
loudest bird I’ve ever heard that wakes me up at around 3 or 4 a.m. every
morning. I made a recording of it on my
cell phone the third night and played it for the day manager of the
building. She showed me a picture of the
bird, which is about the size of a robin.
I couldn’t believe a bird that small could make such a big racket, and
it goes on for about a couple of hours.
Even with the air conditioning running and a pillow over my head, I can
hear this annoying bird. I think I’ll
need to try ear plugs if I want a decent night’s sleep.
Anyway, not the
greatest way to start my adventure in Bangkok, but…oh, well.
First impression of
Bangkok….it’s really hot and humid here.
No comments:
Post a Comment