Day 1B - The Long Journey into Day

Trip Start Dec 17, 2007
1
12
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Trip End Feb 14, 2008


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Thursday, January 10, 2008

I caught the last bus or the first bus of the day at 12:20 am at the Tottori Bus Terminal. As the bus leaving town, I saw my old school and apartemnt and I was a bit sad that my life in Tottori was finally over. I slept a bit on the bus and we got to OCAT/Numba  station at 5 am and it was a bit strange  walking though the quiet and deserted station as the station is always packed with people when I usually go there and I caught a Nankai express train for Kansai Airport. Got to the Kansai airport with plenty of time to catch the Cathlay Pacific flight to Hong Kong which took just over 4 hours.

I spent a little over a hour in Hong Kong where I just had enough time to walk around to see all the duty free shops and buy the USA Today newspaper for $2 US and I got back $5 Hong Kong! Wow, what a great country. Of course, I saw that the Whopper set at Burger King was $40. So, then I boarded the short two hour and change hop to Bangkok. The plane was to continue to Mumbai, India and it was packed with Indians.

I finally arrived at the new Bangkok International airport at 4 pm local time to a hazy but very warm day (90F/30 C). Thinking a head, I had put my coat in my bag way back in Osaka but I still had to take off my long sleave shirt and I was still pretty hot. Last night, it was close to freezing in Tottori and now I am sweating my ass off in Bangkok.

I hired a car to take me to my guesthouse for about $30, a bit pricy but it was a hour long ride. On the drive, I started to see big big differences from Japan and Thailand. Bangkok is more cluttered and kaotic along with a lot more poor with lots of shacks along the side of the road. I think after spending so much time in Japan, I feel I understand and feel comfortable with Japan with its high sense of order and cleaniness. Also, I can't speak any Thai and I want to speak Japanese like saying Thank-you and ordering food. So, it is a kind of a cutlure shock to me.

Found my guesthouse and it has a very funky vibe with lots of wood and Thai style. There is a cafe on the first floor that is open to the stree. My room is on the third floor and there is a view of a golden temple on the river. The room is pretty simple with a bathroom where the shower shares space with the toilet and sink like having a sink and toilet in a shower stall.

After putting on my shorts, I headed out to check out the neighborhood. Shops spill out and cover the sidewalks. There are also many vendors who "own" a bit of sidewalk and are selling fruits, vegetable, spices and fish. The air is filled with spices and it is taking a bit to get used too. There doesn't seem to be any crosswalks so I basically just followed the locals cross the street. I was a bit worried about what I was going to eat as I don't know anything about Thai food. Luckily, I found a restraunt that a picture menu along with English and I ordered a tofu salad, some kind of shrimp stir fry and some rice. The food was ok but the shrimp was a bit spicy. All for 190 Baht which is about $5 which included a pepsi that cost 30 cents or so.

I am real tired along with a two hour time difference from Japan so I am going to go to bed early (9:30) and start seeing Bangkok tomorrow.
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