Highly Anticipated Arrival

We made it! Our total travel time exceeded 24 hours and our exhausted bodies arrived in Bangkok at 10:30am Friday Morning. Thank God once we landed our adrenaline and excitement kicked in and we were prepared to conquer the day. We zipped right through customs, extracted some Thai baht, and snagged a cab to the first hotel.

I’ve read on numerous occasions that it is extremly dangerous for foreigners to drive in Thailand and within the first few minutes as a passenger, I realized why. Besides the minor fact that Thais sit on the right side of a car and drive on the left side of the road,  the bustling traffic here is similar to a  stampede of metal animals, rushing and charging in all different directions. Seat belts are non-existent and apparently so is road etiquette. There are vibrant white lines painted on the road insinuating order to the unfamiliar eye but I’m not sure why time and energy was wasted defining these lines because they represent nothing. Cars weave in and out ferociously. Gradual merging is replaced by forceful entry. Depth perception and cognizance of every single inch of the car becomes vital when traveling down a 5 lane highway at speeds upwards of 100 kmph. Our taxi driver decided to straddle the shoulder most of the way, I guess it appeared to be the fastest and clearest “lane” available. I learned that keeping all hands and body parts in the car at all times was essential since the concrete guard rail on the left was an arm’s length away from me and Jason could literally poke the car beside us on the right.  The ride continued and our eyes jutted out of our heads in amazement as we sped by cops stationed in the middle of the freeway. We looked at each other, thoughts definitely in sync, what in the world warranted a ticket or arrest? It seemed as though anything goes.

Now if the car ride where you are protected by 4 metal doors isn’t scary enough, the site of motor bikes is absolutely terrifying! 2-4 people sit together on one scooter and fly in between cars, double decker buses, and SUVs without hesitation. Few wear helmets or protective clothing, women sit sideways on the backs of the bikes, hands in lap, no obvious way to hold on, and many even drive through opposing traffic or on sidewalks. Today we saw one pass by carrying a family of 4, the dad was holding the baby on his lap in the front while talking on his cell phone AND driving. Sound impossible? I saw it first hand and I still stand in doubt. Although plainly unsafe and almost surreal, this way of traveling is just something we will need to accept and get used to. It is the norm here. We haven’t seen any accidents yet and surprisingly the noise of horns is absent. People just realize that they are constantly surrounded on all sides when driving and they make due on their own ‘cautious’ terms. Incredible.

We are currently 11 hours ahead of east coast folks and 14 hours ahead of the west. We completed our Friday before any of you even woke up. During the first day, I discovered mini glass bottles of red bull, just 33 cents each! I was ecstatic. We ate at the open market- street food, noodles, veggies, and shrimp for under a dollar a plate. Later in the day we conjured up the energy needed to make our way to the first tourist attraction on our list, Khao San Road in downtown Bangkok. Alleyways full of street vendors, restaurants, backpackers from all over the world; pure craziness. It was grungy and hot, about 95 degrees, but facinating. The first night ended early for us, we got back to the hotel around 7:30, plopped on our beds, passed out, and enjoyed a well-deserved 11 hour sleep. We woke at 6am, and while Jason did some research and planned out a nice walk along the canal for day 2, I happily watched the fashiontv network which happened to be in English. It featured the celebration of Alexander McQueen. Perfection.  J