Bangkok

Please turn up the volume and press play.

So, Bangkok. Big city, lots of hustle (and bustle). We arrived on the overnight train at 6:40 am. We had no idea where we were, and we didn't yet have a hotel. Fortunately we had a hotel that we wanted to try, so we hopped in a taxi (many of the taxis here are pink- weird right?) and went to the New Siam II hotel. It is right across the street from the New Siam Riverside (where we originally had a reservation, but cancelled when we bought too many clothes in Hoi An). This hotel is a-okay with us- we don't mind skipping a riverview that we would never use and paying twice as much for it. Clean room, decent shower, 24-hour internet on site. No breakfast, but hey- this is Bangkok, who has time for breakfast (ok, I do, but don't tell).

Moving along- we got to our hotel and immediately got ready for ... ... a nap. Carrie hardly slept on the train, and I can always sleep, so we slept. Till 10. At which point we cleaned up and headed to check the internet. We were planning on meeting my future classmate at Babson, Pote. Skype wasn't working, so we paid 10 baht per minute to use the hotel phone. Since we didn't know where we were, we more or less let Pote talk to the clerk at the hotel and ended up meeting for lunch in an easy location- Siam Paragon, a really nice mall (think busy Tysons II for those of you in DC).

There we met and had lunch at a really nice resturaunt that specialized in Northern Thai cuisine. We had a fried fish, appetizer sampler (some Thai sausages, chicken wings, fried pork), and papaya and scallop salad. It was really really good. We also had some good conversation and learned a lot about Pote, and also the fact that 2 other students are coming from Thailand. Hopefully one of them cooks!

We got some coffee (Starbucks!) and walked around and talked. We saw lots of good looking food in the eatery, and saw the aquarium on the ground floor where you can scuba dive with sharks. Of course we didn't do that- in 4 days we will be scuba diving for real!

After we left Pote, we went to the weekend market called JJ Market. It was endless. Just stalls and stalls of everything from clothes to wholesale chopsticks. I don't know when it happened, but we are apparently shopped out! It took all the effort we had to buy anything. But we fought thru the pain and bought a nice photo album and some chopsticks. Unfortunately we got scammed by a taxi driver who didn't turn on the meter, then overcharged us. Not much we could do since by the time we figured it out the taxi was already moving. Note to all that go to Bangkok: no tuk-tuks, no taxis unless they are running the meter. Otherwise they are going to scam you.

We got back, blogged, showered and headed for dinner on Khaosan- a street known for stalls and resturaunts- more or less a cool place for backpackers. We walked around, Carrie negotiated for some pants (deviating from our normal tactics and going right for the jugular: 1 pair for 100 baht... ok 2 for 100 baht).










We settled on dinner at a place on the side of the road (exactly the type of place we avoided eating at in Vietnam) and got Pad Thai, Red Curry with Chicken, and split a large bottle of Chaing beer. It was good, not great but good. We walked around some more, went to by the pants at 1 for 100 baht, and went to bed. Never got the pants since they didn't have the color I wanted...

The post about tomorrow will be very cool- it was one of the greatest days we've had so far (of course, Michael, everyday with my lovely wife is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G)