Day Uno

March 4, 2010

After 20+ hours of travelling we were finally in Thailand. Thankful that I got my Visa, and rearing to go we stepped outside only to find it was literally a billion degrees with humidity of about 2500%. (Actually about 90 degrees and 90%, but still).

We caught a cab to our hotel which supplied us an address in Thai, and the driver quickly tried to rip us off by charging us 500 bhat without the meter (it cost about 300) and then yelling at Emma whenever she started to look at her little map, making us all the more suspicious that we were taking an extremely roundabout way.

We finally got to the hotel, which is a pretty neat place with an outdoor restaurant and bar, and a pretty cool location on Khao San road (the main backpacker aka tourist strip).

Fighting off jet-lag and sleep deprivation we rallied to the streets. Our first move was to the local Chabad house where we were greeted by a friendly isreali security guard verifying my jewish ancestry. The place was pretty cool, it was basically a restaurant downstairs, and an internet cafe and "synagogue" upstairs. I gave some tzidukah, snagged a couple yamikas and we were on our way, walking around the Khao San area, which has tons of street vendors, bars, and restaurants. Needless to say we were a little overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle, and I was continually told I looked like the suit type and I should come get some tailoring done. Go figure.

We decided to not venture out much as we were both pretty tired, so we found a little food cart to eat at, where we had some really tasty spicy salad and an average curry. We topped off the night with a little foot massage, it was pretty damn awesome, and cost a whopping 200 bhat for an hour ( about $6). Then the jetlag really caught up to us and we were in bed by 8:30.

Emma has to say:

While I had expected the travel to be brutal, leaving us both dragging around the city for day one, we arrived in Bangkok surprisingly refreshed, if a little disappointed by Sandra Bullock's performance in "The Blind Side."

As Sam mentioned, our first Thai cab driver seemed slightly less than straight-up, a theme that we've encountered rather a lot staying in one of the more tourist-oriented areas of the city.

The first thing I noticed about Bangkok is that it is enormous. From the skyscrapers to the expanses of simple, barely-standing huts along the river canals, the city stretches out over a long distance.

We arrived at the hotel with little trouble, despite the somewhat worrisome reaction of our cab driver to my casual browsing of the free airport map. Khao San Road is a scene. Known best for being the home to backpackers from across the world, it is full of touristy options including -- as Sam pointed out -- copious amounts of suit makers, just dying to craft a custom suit for him. Now, as those of us who know Sam can imagine, they are barking up the wrong tree. These same suitmakers seem eager also to make me a gown of some sort -- also not quite the right clientele.

The first night was a perfect introduction to the scene. A few Thai beers (Tiger and Chang -- we prefer Chang) some tasty food, and an hourlong massage for a whopping 6 dollars. Life is good, and we've only just begun.