Bangkok: Days 1 & 2

Terminal 21 (Tokyo Level)

It's been a week since I returned from my vacation in Thailand and I'm happy to say that it was one of my best trips ever! Let me start from the beginning:

Our journey to Bangkok started mighty early, 4am to be exact. When we set out on the road the whole city of Phoenix was covered in fog. You could barely see 20ft in front of the car. It was quite spooky. Our flight was supposed to depart at 7am but we didn't end up taking off until nearly 8am since the pilot had to wait for a gap in the fog to appear. Michelle fell asleep shortly after we boarded and woke up before we'd even left and was like, "Are we there already?" and I had to tell her we hadn't even taken off.

We had a layover at LAX then it was off to Tokyo. Our flight to Narita airport took about 11 hours and to be honest, it was pretty brutal. I cannot sleep on an airplane to save my life so I watched a buttload of movies. Here's what I remember watching in case you're curious: The Giver, The Fault in Our Stars, Frozen, Sixteen Candles, WALL-E, and Only Lovers Left Alive. I had planned on finishing "A Dance with Dragons" but once I was on the plane I did not feel like reading at all. I wish I'd remembered to request a vegetarian meal as well because all they served was meat on both flights so I only ate salads and bread that day. I even had to eat an egg and biscuit sandwich (I HATE the taste of eggs) just so I wouldn't drop dead. Once we arrived in Tokyo I perked up a bit. They had so many adorable Studio Ghibli things for sale and I made a mental note of all the things I wanted to buy on my return trip. We connected to our Bangkok flight about 6:30pm (Tokyo time) and arrived in Thailand at about 12am. Blurrgghhh...




A lovely bunch of Totoros

It was about 27 hours of traveling and such a LONG day. Michelle's mother, Pamela (I instantly adored her!), met us at the airport with a taxi. Even though I was so exhausted I had trouble falling asleep because A.) I was so excited to finally be in Bangkok and B.) there was this horrible bird outside my window that made this wailing sound at all hours of the day. I only got about 6 hours of sleep that night and was expecting to have horrible jet lag but I didn't really experience any at all. The first thing we did that morning was take a dip in the pool. It was pretty chilly but I felt nice and refreshed afterwards. Next we walked over to Pamela's school and met up with her for lunch. I was amazed how cheap the food was. I had spaghetti for lunch that day which I thought was funny since I hadn't imagined myself eating any pasta on this trip.



Starbucks date

After lunch we decided to make our way over to the mall for a bit of shopping. We had to take the BTS (the sky train) to get there and that was an adventure in and of itself! We thought the train was just right up the street but it turned out to be about a mile from the apartment. We walked down a busy street loaded with street vendors and people eating delicious food. After about 10 minutes of walking we decided to ask if we were going in the right direction. The lady who we asked didn't speak much English but was able to communicate how to get to the train just through hand gestures which I thought was really cool. I loved the convenience of the BTS. Not only was it SUPER cheap, it was just so easy to use. All the directions to buy tickets and the stops were in Thai and English so it was easy for us to navigate our way around town. In the week we were there I don't think we ever got lost. It was mostly due to Michelle's natural good sense of direction but I'm still proud that two American girls were able to find our way all over Bangkok all by ourselves. It made me feel like I could go anywhere in the world and be okay.



Michelle on the BTS (the lady behind her cracks me up)

The mall we went to, Terminal 21, was absolutely HUGE and each level was divided into a different major city. There was Tokyo, London, Paris, and Qatar. I surprisingly didn't really buy anything, though. I think it was just too much and I really only wanted to buy authentic Thai souvenirs. All of the clothes at this mall were Western style and a bit pricey tbh. We got thirsty as heck after so much walking so we took a break at Starbucks. This Starbucks had the longest line I'd ever seen but we found out it was because Tuesday was buy one get one free day. We took a break for about an hour then headed back to the apartment to meet up with her mom again. What we would do that evening would turn out to be a LIFE EXPERIENCE.

Both of us were still hurting from being trapped inside that tin can they like to call an airplane for an entire day so we thought we'd treat ourselves to massages. Pamela told the ladies that we all wanted "oil massages" which were supposed to be comparable to Swedish massages but I don't think my lady got the message. For such a petite woman (she couldn't have been more than 5ft tall) she had hands of steel! She nearly broke me in half! It was all I could do not to cry out in pain. I figured I should let her do her thing, though, and that maybe after this horrible torture my muscles would feel better and for the most part, they did. However, she did leave me with bruises on my arms and legs. Another thing both me and Michelle weren't expecting was that she touched THE STUFF. I had never had a masseuse go so far up the leg before and got terrified as she got closer to it but then she kept grazing it like it was nbd. All I could keep thinking was, "AM I GOING TO GET A HAPPY ENDING?! I DIDN'T ASK FOR A HAPPY ENDING!!!" Then out of nowhere she climbed on the table like a ninja and was punching my back and pinching my neck. It was BANAYNAYS!!!




Street food!

After surviving a beating from a cute Thai lady we walked down the road for some street food. Luckily they had vegetarian food for me to eat. I got vegetables and noodles, an iced pineapple drink, and we split mango sticky rice (my new favorite thing). One of my favorite things about Thailand is how fresh the fruit is. I'd never had such delicious fruit in my life. We were eating tons of fruit every single day. You could get a giant plate of watermelon and pineapple for $1.50. It was MADNESS! Every single time I'd take a bite of juicy pineapple I'd have to exclaim, "OHMAHGAWD! HOW IS THIS SO GOOD?!" The fruit I buy in the states now tastes like total trash >________<

It was nice to have our first official day in Bangkok be a leisurely one because the next day was pretty action packed. I'll continue our story in my next post :)