SFO, Tokyo, Bangkok

Welcome to Bangkok! I cant quite remember the last time that I was that excited. Standing in the immigration line to have my passport checked I could hardly stand without wobbling! I've been thinking (and worrying a little) about this moment for a couple years now and its an amazing feeling to see those dreams happen. My travels took a couple of detours that were unexpected...as expected.

The plan was to leave PDX on Monday morning, fly to SFO, then to Tokyo, and on to Bangkok. When I arrived at the airport, the attendant asked me with a sour face, "Why in the world did you book your flight to purposely miss your connection in San Francisco?" Uhh-ohh. Apparently the airlines changed the departure time without telling me. After calls to the travel agency and pleading on my part I was able to get on a later flight to Tokyo. But then I missed that connection because weather kept us from landing in SFO. So I had an unexpected layover there. Training myself to be okay with such fluidity is not always easy. But I hoped on BART, headed to downtown and wandered around for a long time. I eventually found the Apple Store where I pirated their internet to find a hostel. It was only a couple blocks away and only $25! Much better than the 50 I would have spent staying near the airport. I met a bunch of fun people, ate some great indian food, then crashed early. BART to the airport in the morning was smooth and I got on my flight just fine. With an exit row seat! Oh yeah!

I had no idea how long the flight was to Bangkok. I thought mayble 12 hours. It was 11 hours to Tokyo, then 7 to Bangkok! Oh well, not much I can do about it now. There was a group of ~50 brand new peacecorps workers headed to Thailand on the same flight and I got to be quick friends with quite a few of them. It certainly made the time go by a bit faster. The Tokyo airport was really neat. They had so much art up on their walls. But the little airport cartoon dude was probably the best! Another 7 hours of flying and we landed in Bangkok. The journey has really begun...

I was really worried about getting from the airport to someplace to sleep. It was relatively easy even at the ridiculous hour of 1:30AM. I grabbed a Taxi and he flew at easily 2x the speed limit. It was a flat fare and we flew by all the metered taxis....hmmm. Although he didn't speak english, and I don't know enough Thai yet, we managed to get me to the right place, Khao San Rd. It was a madhouse! People everywhere, prostitutes (or at least women who really looked like them) everywhere, Tuk-Tuks flying down narrow streets. Oh my god I'm in Thailand! I went to a few different guest houses until I found a reasonable rate. US equivalent of about $9, but no place in the US could ever get away with it. The room was no larger than the small bed (I had to keep stuff on my bed) and the bathroom was a whopping 4 sqare feet shower included, no windows. I flicked on the fan and eventually slept for a little bit.

I hoped up this morning, showered quickly to get rid of all that nasty travel sweat, and headed out on the town. Its now 9AM, around 85 degrees, with a similar % humidity. I'll probably be here for another day or so while I check out a few Wats and figure out how to get a train ticket south. Then it down to Surat Thani on the train, over the Krabi on a bus, hop skip and a jump to Ao Nang in a shared truck, then a longtail boat to Tonsai. I feel like I can handle it. Then I'll be on the beach! With that amazing limestone begging to be climbed. Wait, did I mention that there's a beach? And climbing? Mmmmm, life is good.