This time around, I knew a little more of what to expect. Unlike my little brother who gets his jollies from jumping out of perfectly good airplanes, diving with unpredictable sea life, and scaling sheer rock faces, I do not thrive on challenging situations. Much to the dismay of my hippie-at-heart husband, I like to plan. For EV-ER-Ything. So this time, I found myself much more at ease. It did not surprise me when the "toilet" was a bucket in the ground or when the power and "fan of mercy" ceased at 11pm. Cold showers - got it...I knew exactly what to expect. What I did not expect was to fall even more deeply in love with Thailand.
Here's a snippet from my journal entry when we first arrived:
December 14-16 Bangkok - New Siam Riverside
Almost missed connection in Taipei due to late departure from SFO. Cute Thai student studying "drawing" in San Francisco told us there were no spots left on the next morning's flight so we might be in for a major headache. Fortunately, they held the plane for us and we made it aboard. Unfortunately, we weren't able to be seated in the "extra leg room" seats that we'd arranged to be in [this was following our 14 hour leg from SFO-Taipei, now entering another 4.5 hours to Bangkok]. Our hearts and my knees were sad.
Our heads touched the pillows at New Siam around 4 a.m. We had been sleeping on and off on the plane so we awoke around 8am congratulating ourselves that we were now on Thai time. Nice buffet breakfast on the river. Runny eggs=bonus. Took off for a little shopping on Khao San Road. Bought unfriendly flip-flops that gnawed away at my toes (was cursing myself for ignoring cardinal rule of traveling - make sure, if nothing else, you have comfortable shoes. The song, "Stupid Girl" by Garbage played in my brain. Early dinner then off to bed.
I woke up with the numbers 2:48 staring at me. Ugh. It's such a helpless feeling when the Sand Man is not your friend. I laid there for another hour then finally conceded. I grabbed the iPad and made myself a fort under the sheets to shield Lew from the light coming off the screen. Thankfully Lew woke up early and we went to breakfast. Had an easy day since we had big plans to meet with Jamie and Sa that evening. When Lew asked the desk clerk how long it would take to get to the restaurant, she told him, "with traffic, about an hour." In a B-list romantic comedy, this little detail would serve to foreshadow the rest of the evening.
Hailed a cab outside. The cab driver negotiated 200 Baht and we piled in. Traveled about 40 feet before the road became a parking lot. Roughly 45 minutes later, the cab pulls over and asks to see the address again. Not a good sign. We call Sa and have her talk to driver in Thai. 10 minute exchange = bad news. There wasn't a consensus on where in Bangkok we were. I'd just spotted a hotel with "Millenium" (our intended destination) on it. We decided to bail out of the cab (turns out we'd been "bangkok-ed" as the fare should have been around 80 Baht). Lew tossed 100 Baht at the driver and we fled. It was the most like Bonnie and Clyde I've ever felt. I kept looking over my shoulder expecting to find an irate Thai man chasing after us. We turned the corner optimistic that we were close. Turns out it was the wrong Millineum hotel. Curse word! At this point I am at risk of total toe amputation from walking too much in cheap flip-flops. Stuuuuupid girrrrrrrurrrrrllllll. We are beyond frustrated and starving so we commit to going to the very next promising restaurant we see. The Rib Room. Ahhhh. Enter fancy hotel. Press button for "Rib Room." Ascend to very top floor. Continue to ignore blatant signs and warning bells that we are headed to a significantly fancy resutrant. Get seated. Open menu (guilded with gold pages) and narrowly avert heart failures at sight of prices. Steak - $100. Heart palpation. At this point, Lew remembers he didn't bring the AMEX and retreats to the bathroom to count our money to avoid embarrassing incident when check arrives. 3,500 Baht. This should have been enough for several DAYS worth of meals, but here it bought us each an appetizer and one drink. Our waiter happened to be from California and took pity on us sending out fun sherbert dessert for us to try. He also told us we were still about 45 minutes from our intended destination. ughhhhhh. Mustered energy and hailed a cab (of course Paranoid Patty was convinced that we'd run in to cabbie we had "stiffed" and insisted on doing a visual scan of the inside of the cab before agreeing to get in.) Although we were exhausted, we had a fabulous time with Grant, Kate, Jamie and Sa and were so glad we pushed ourselves to continue on. I will say though, that this "bangkok-ed" pair can't wait to be on Koh Phayam.
Being back in the States, jet lag hit my like a smack in the face. I had such a hard time getting back to reality. I found myself oddly down for the first few weeks. I missed Thailand or more specifically the little island of Phayam. The outlook there is one of gratitude and appreciation. They aim to never be wasteful. They use everything they have for as many uses as they can. While we strive for those things here, it seems like the overall agenda is to make you feel as though you are lacking. You must buy things. You need that new car; those jeans you are wearing are SO last season. There is so much excess, but it's easy to feel like we never have enough. Outwardly, Koh Phayam may look meager and simple with its lean-to restaurants and bare-footed citizens, but to me, it is Utopia. In my eyes, they are the ones that have it all figured out.
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| The end justifies the means...finally celebrating with our friends in Bangkok |
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| My Utopia |
