One hour from touchdown in Bangkok, and I was feeling how I feared I might 2 days earlier. I have never gotten sick on an airplane in my life, but in this moment, 30,000 feet above the dark South East Asian landscape, I was thinking my days of claiming that were over. My current connecting flight from Shanghai to Bangkok was only about 4 hours long, but it had been a long day up to this point. It was only 36 hours earlier that I was recovering from what I can only assume was a bout of food poisoning. At this point, I still hadn't eaten a full meal in days, and my stomach was not in great shape. The stress of my 9 hour layover at the Shanghai airport earlier this day, and barely getting any sleep, coupled with my recent ability to vomit almost hourly, was not boosting my confidence that I could avoid getting sick. I was thinking being sick wouldn't be so bad if I were in a bathroom, or literally anywhere aside from an airplane seat with a bunch of strangers all around me.
In between taking deep breathes, and wiping sweat from my forehead, I looked out the window and saw faint lights from the small cities below. I really did not fancy throwing up in my tiny airplane seat, so I closed my eyes and focused on the music playing through my IPod. With my head pressed up against the seat in front of me, I dozed off to sleep for about 45 minutes. I only know how long I had passed out because the Neil Young album I had started at track one, upon the wave of initial nausea, was now on the final track of the album. When I lifted my head off the seat in front of me, and leaned back into my seat, I felt a wave of relief. I must have been awoken by our rapid descent and I knew we were only minutes from landing. I felt a lot better and I checked my watch to see our ETA. It was about 1 am, and according to my calculations at the time of take off, we were about 10 minutes from touchdown. I knew I had avoided the dreadful close encounter with the airsick bag, and sat back and enjoyed my first views of Thailand. The area below, visible with street lights and some traffic, was nothing like any place I had ever seen in my life. It wasn't anything too interesting, but just looked very different than I had ever seen before.
I thought that touching down and exiting the airplane would be the end of my stressful day, but I was grievously mistaken. There was the dreaded customs line ahead of me and it was really really long. Not only was the line insanely long, but I didn't have a customs card to fill out. There were customs cards handed out on the airplane, but I either never received one from the flight attendant, or in my nauseous state, left it on the airplane. Now, of course, there were none available for me to fill out in their designated holder. I also couldn't get anywhere close to the customs window to try and get another one because of the hundreds of other travelers waiting in line between me and the window. I began to wander the airport looking for help, but there was not a competent person who could help me to be found. This may have been easily solved, but I was nearly delirious after such a long day of traveling. I was not the only one in this situation, as a few others were walking around confused and seeking help as well. After about 30 minutes, I saw a customs agent walking around and asked her where I could get a customs card. She looked at me for a second and then reached into her pocket and pulled out a stack and handed me one. Don't ask me why she didn't restock the card holder that is located 10 feet from where we are standing with the extras that she was just carrying around. While filling out the card, I saw another guy who had been looking for a customs card, and I directed him to ask one of the agents that was now standing adjacent to the insanely long line. By the time I filled out the card and got in line, it was significantly shorter and not nearly as daunting. Thirty minutes later, I was past customs and on to collecting my luggage. This part was painless and my luggage luckily made the journey from Busan to Bangkok and it was time to get the heck out of the airport and to a bed.
Before arriving in Thailand, I had booked a hotel room for my first night that included airport pickup and transfer to my hotel. I knew I would be arriving in the middle of the night and didn't want to deal with locating a room or finding a ride at 2 in the morning. I picked the hotel primarily because of the airport transfer that was advertised on Agoda. Of course there was no such airport pickup waiting for me that night. I wandered the terminal and refused any offer from taxi services because I was apprehensive of being grossly overcharged and I was holding out the on hope that I would find my hotel transfer eventually. I asked the information desk and they couldn't give me any information about my hotel and seemed to have never heard of it. Finally, I bargained with a woman who said she worked for a taxi service, and booked a ride for 100 baht less than her original offer. I still knew I was getting overcharged, but I was much too tired to care. She walked me outside and I was immediately greeted by the humid and hot Thailand air. It felt great and there was a tropical smell in the air. She then yelled in Thai what I thought was similar to "Hey!" in English, but it turned out to be my taxi driver's name. He pulled his brand new luxury car up to me and loaded my bag into the trunk. I tried to get into the left front seat of the car, but I had forgotten that in Thailand they drive on the opposite side of the road, so I was attempting to get into the driver's seat. The driver had a laugh, and directed me to the get into the other side, and we were off.
I can't remember the make of the car, but I think it was a decked out, brand new Nissan Maxima with leather interior. I was impressed, as I had imagined Thailand being the land of rundown 20 year old cars. I asked him why I was being charged so much for the drive and he said it was very far away. Based on my research of the lay of the land using Google Earth prior to my trip, I didn't think it was that far, but I had given up trying to get a cheaper ride. All I wanted at that moment was my bed. The driver made some small talk with me, and after appearing to have no idea where he was taking me, we pulled onto some pitch black side road. In the middle of this road were loads of stray dogs who scattered out of the way as the driver nearly ran them over with little, to no care, about killing them one way or the other. Honestly, at this point during the ride, I thought he was bringing me to some location to meet his buddies to rob me. I mean I was aware of foreigners being robbed in Thailand and was expecting that at 2 am, on this decrepit side road outside Bangkok, that is exactly what was going to happen. He appeared to be a nice guy, but so do most scam artists right? A few minutes later, I was relieved to spot the name of the hotel that I had booked up ahead and pointed for the driver to take me there. As we pulled up, it appeared to be closed and no one was around anywhere except for more stray dogs. When I got out of the car, I made sure he took my bag out of the trunk, as I was waiting for him to try and drive off with it. Then we walked up and tried to get inside, but the doors were locked. He pulled a phone out, and was attempting to call a number I had from Agoda. Just then, a man appeared inside and opened the door. I then paid the driver, who I then realized was a nice guy, with no intention of robbing me. Once I was safely inside, he drove away.
The man working the front desk, appeared to have just awoken from a nap, and located my reservation in his book. He then gave me a room key, cut a wifi number from his book and gave it to me. After walking up to the floor he told me to go to, I realized that the number on my key was faded and smeared and I couldn't tell if my room number was a 3, 5 or 7. So I tried what I thought it was first, a 7. After fiddling with the door to room 7 for a few seconds, a dog inside started barking and I realized that this wasn't it. Then I tried the next most likely number it appeared to be, a 3. This door wouldn't open either and I could hear someone stirring inside the room, so I quickly went back to the lobby for help. The man looked at me like I was stupid and said that it was a 5. Of course once he assured me it was a 5 it began to resemble a 5, but prior to that, I am telling you, it was impossible to tell. After entering my room, I took stock in my accommodation. Now, at the time, the room had a really skeevy feel to it and I was again waiting for someone to break down the door and rob me. A few weeks of traveling later, I would have thought this was quite a nice place, but it being my first experience in a South East Asian hotel, I thought it was a little disconcerting. This room cost me was about 17 dollars a night, so by South East Asian standards it was definitely on the higher end side of things. After a shower, notifying my mother that I was safe in Thailand and surfing some TV channels that were in multiple languages, I turned the light off and went to sleep.
In the morning, I woke up and was excited to start my first day in Thailand. I opened the door to my 2 foot by 3 foot balcony and had my first glimpse of Thailand. This is what I saw, and it didn't appear nearly as formidable as it had the previous night. It is a wonder what daylight can do to make a place feel more welcoming. I remember that the heat and humidity were already oppressive even though it was only about 10 in the morning.
I then took a shower and reorganized my bag. I took out the sweat pants and a hoody that I had brought with me and set them aside. I knew that there was no way I would need these articles of clothing in this heat and they would just be taking up room in my bag. I would leave them in the room for the hotel staff to find and hopefully give to someone who might be able to use them. After repacking, and making sure I wasn't forgetting anything, I left the room to begin my day. Downstairs, at a small store beside the hotel, I bought a bottle of water and asked how to get a taxi into the city. A woman in the store brought me to the side of the hotel, where two men and a blue minivan were sitting. One of the men said, "Good morning" to me and took out a piece of paper from his pocket that had my name and a date and time on it. He began to apologize to me, as this note was apparently a reminder to pick me up at the airport the night before. I told him not to worry about it and asked him how I could get into the city. After I made sure that I had already paid for the room online, he introduced me to a taxi driver who could bring me into town. I loaded up my bag, got in the minivan and told the driver to bring me to
As we drove down a highway into the city, I was taken aback
by the scale of the city, as it was even larger than I had imagined.
During the ride, the driver spoke to me and I was very impressed with his
English ability. I had never had a Korean taxi driver speak to me in anywhere
close to this level of fluency. In my experience, most Korean taxi
drivers can't speak any English except "Where are you from?" and of
course "Hello and Goodbye". I asked him if he studied English,
and he replied that he had a book that he studied on his own and that he also
practices as much as he can with tourists to hone his skills. I was
extremely impressed by this, and began to feel very comfortable with him.
He then offered to take me to a travel agent he knew that was closer by.
He told me that the traffic going into the city at this time of the day
would be really awful and it didn't make much sense to go all the way to Khao San Road to
buy the ticket. I agreed, and a few minutes later we arrived at a travel
agent. The woman working there spoke English almost like a native speaker
and I purchased a bus and ferry ticket to Koh Phangan. The bus would
depart Bangkok
at 7 pm that evening and the ferry would arrive on the island at about noon the
following day. I didn't learn until about a week later that I paid double
the going rate for the trip to Koh Phangan from Bangkok . She knew she could scam me
because the first thing she asked me was "How long have you been in Thailand ?"
and "Is this your first trip here?". When I replied "10
hours", she must have thought hook, line and sinker. I wasn't pleased with
getting ripped off, but it taught me to be more vigilant about searching around
for the best price throughout the rest of my trip.
After leaving the travel agent, I told the driver to drop me off somewhere close to where the bus would depart that evening, so I could walk around and explore a little bit. I told him I just wanted to see a little bit of the city and get something to eat. He told me he would take me to a shopping area and I responded that I wasn't interested in shopping and I just wanted to walk around a little bit and get some food. He told me that a lot of food in the city isn't all that safe to eat and if he dropped me off at the shopping area I could find good, safe food. He also said he would write me a note to show a taxi driver later that would communicate where I needed to go to catch the bus. He then pulled up across the street from the MBK shopping center, wrote me the note, and I paid him. I thanked him for his help, and kindness, and found myself on a bustling Bangkok sidewalk full of sights and smells that were unlike anything I had ever seen. After taking a pedestrian ramp to the other side of the street, I was inside MBK on the second floor. I wandered around this monstrosity of a shopping complex and tested my ATM cards to make sure that they worked. After seeing that there were lots of western options to eat, I decided to eat at McDonald's to try keep the tradition of, McDonald's being my first meal in new countries, as it had been in South Korea and Japan. It was only after I ordered a meal, sat down and spilled the overfilled coke on my lap, that I realized that this would be my first full meal since I had gotten food poisoning 3 days before. I was a bit apprehensive about eating this meal, but trusted in the golden arches and ate every last bit. I then spent a few minutes people watching, and making sure I wasn't going to feel sick, before I went outside to get some fresh air.
Side note: I never got sick and aside from the normal feeling after eating a meal at McDonald's it was a good meal.
The MBK shopping center is an enormous maze of floors selling so much crap that I couldn't wrap my head around it. About half of the people shopping there were tourists from all over the world. Inside were western style shops like a mall, as well as, a South East Asian style shopping stalls that were all selling what appeared to be very similar types of touristy crap. There was also a movie theater and a bowling ally full of colorful lights and loud music. After hours of wandering inside, and then sitting at a doughnut shop that resembled Krispy Kreme for 30 minutes, with a frozen drink, I made my way outside to eventually find a taxi.
I found these pictures on Google as I didn't take any pictures of the MBK shopping center that day. Notice the pedestrian walkway over the busy street that I used in the distance.
This is the MBK bowling alley.
After getting outside, I took a seat on a ledge along a busy road next to MBK and got lots of "Where you go?" and "You need ride?" from every passing taxi drivers, as well as men walking the streets trying to recruit me to ride in their Tuk Tuks. Eventually, I felt it was time to make my way to the bus stop and waved down a taxi. When I got in the taxi, I showed the driver the note I had received from my driver earlier and he nodded and began to drive me. After 10 minutes he stopped at what I was sure couldn't be the right location. It was not a bus station as I had imagined, but just a row of businesses. Being that he didn't speak much English, and I trusted that he could read the Thai note, I got out. I walked into the closest place that said "Travel" on the sign and showed them my ticket and asked if this was the right place. I was shocked to find out that I was indeed at the right place and began to realize that getting around Thailand was extremely easy to do, although there are moments when you might feel lost or confused. The travel agency people told me that I had about an hour and a half before the bus was leaving and that I could leave my bag there and walk around. Normally, I wouldn't leave my bag anywhere, but there were about a dozen other travelers' bags there. I also had all my important things in a smaller backpack that would never leave my side and didn't think my things were too desirable. Unless, of course, they wanted to steal some plain t-shirts and some underwear, I felt my things were secure.
After wandering in the heat for a few blocks and taking pictures, I thought it was due time for a beer to finally get my vacation started. I settled on what looked like a decent place. I based this on the fact that there was a table of other travelers enjoying beers outside. I made my way in and was seated by a friendly, flamboyant man who gave me a menu. He was really happy that I decided to have a drink there and spent the rest of the time winking at me and just making me feel uncomfortable. I knew he was harmless and I think it was actually his parents establishment, so he must have always had a good time hitting on foreign guys and making them feel uncomfortable. After a few minutes, I ordered a beer and a chicken salad and let the time pass. The food was decent, the beer was refreshing, and with a slight buzz, I felt really happy and relaxed to be on vacation. After paying my bill, and getting an awkward hug and an "I love you" from the strange waiter at the restaurant, I left. At 6:45 pm, I walked back to the travel agent to find my bag was still there, and I waited for the bus to arrive. Thirty or so minutes later, a man came and told me to follow him. I followed him down the street to where 2 huge buses were loading up other backpackers. I got in and took the seat the man pointed at. I had the only seat on the bus with a vacant seat next to it, so I felt quite lucky for the extra room. Unfortunately, a British man directly behind me was emphatically explaining his travels in Vietnam to a friend, so I put my head phones on to drown him out. With music in my ears, and the security of other travelers all around me, I shut my eyes and tried to sleep. It would, after all, be at least a 12 hour bus ride to Suratthani, in Southern Thailand, and I didn't intend to be awake the whole way.
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