First Full Day in Bangkok

Sa wat dee kha! (Good Morning/Good afternoon) 

This is the Thai greeting and farewell and is quite fitting because I am off to bed and you are all waking up!

I forgot to mention in the last blog the reasoning for the colors of the blog posts. In Thailand each day of the week has a color, Saturday was purple and Sunday is red. We are still working to get caught up on the days because I don't have much internet time, but our first full day in Bangkok, Sunday, was a great one and I am ready to tell you all about it! 

We started our day bright in early, but we had 10 hours of sleep so we were alert and ready for the eventful day. We started with breakfast at the hotel and were grateful for the mini omelette station, as most of the food consisted of rice and curry dishes for breakfast. In addition, there was some fruit for breakfast. Below is a fruit that I thought was a really cool looking and foreign to me. I am working on what the name of the fruit is and when I find out I will get back to you. The texture was like a kiwi and the flavor was non-existent, so I can't really compare it to any fruit. Literally it tasted like water/nothing.

After breakfast we went to orientation from 8am to 6pm. It was a very long day, but we learned a lot and even had our first introductory Thai language class with Fiat, the tech guy. Chan cheu Amanda kha. I imagine you are all fluent in Thai and know that I just said My name is Amanda. =) We also learned that a very common saying here in Thailand is Mai pen Rai Kha, or no worries/never mind/you're welcome. As most people in Thailand are on their own time, Mai pen rai kha is useful for getting through the day without being frustrated when things don't go as planned. In addition to the Thai language class we also had an introduction to teaching in Thailand course. The professor spent two hours giving us tips about teaching as a foreigner, but the best that I found was "Don't be nervous, just remember the kids don't know you're not a real teacher!" Isn't that reassuring? Ha Ha

After our long day of orientation we all decided that a short nap was the key to success and luckily we did because we ended up out last night until 3 am. After our little cat nap Jill and I met up with about ten people from orientation (we have a little group already, and yes we are the cool kids) and went to Khaosan Road. This place was tourist mayhem and perfection all wrapped in to one chaotic and thriving street. 

As you can see the streets are lined with street food vendors, entertainers, bars, and little shops. It was packed and tricky not to get lost from the group, but it was awesome to be somewhere a little more city-like. Here is our group having our first round of Thai beers. You can't see in this photo, but the table behind us had a baby at the bar, hence the spongebob photobomb.

The beer glasses here are tiny and they serve the beer with ice, but it tasted like beer. In addition to the traditional fried rice and sticks of meat that you can find at any street food stand, many food vendors were selling dried insects...Yes, to eat! Here are the scorpions on a stick that we ate.

I am guessing I can't fool any of you that easily and that you already know that I did NOT participate in the eating of the scorpions, but I was told that they tasted salty and crunchy. Scorpions and dip anyone? I think I will stick with fried rice for dinner. 

After our people watching on the streets, we did a little shopping, bartering, bar hopping and ended the night at a Thai night club called Lava. Lava is nothing like the Lavo club in Vegas, but the music was English and the drinks come in buckets, so we danced the night away. 

Left to right: Dustin, Lara, You know that one, Jill, Lauren, and Marshall. (Marshall drunkenly informed the cab driver at the end of the night that his favorite music was soul music and he could tell that our cab driver liked music from the heart. All I could tell was the music wasn't in English and the cab driver couldn't understand a word Marshall said)

I will have you all know that I had a little Thai man come up and start dancing with me and I did a fine job mimicking his rad dance moves. That being said, getting as a low as a short Thai men was insanely strenuous and my thighs got one heck of a work out. It is hard to explain without demonstrating in person, but imagine being in an oven, sweating like crazy, and then doing a squat with your knees touching and swirling your legs around in circles (come on give it a try). The Thai man taught me quite the dance move/work out. 

Speaking of demonstrations and squats, Jill is working diligently between classes and partying to master the art of squatty potty squatting before she encounters one here. Here is an image I caught of her trying to practice: (sing in your best Ying Yang Shake it like a Salt Shaker voice) gettin' low like a squatty potty. 

After hours of wild dancing and intense sweating we all came back to the hotel and slept for approximately 3 hours and then woke up for orientation. As you can imagine many people from our group didn't make it to breakfast, but since Jill and I weren't hung over we were there. When we realized none of our friends were at breakfast we decided to make some rounds as a wake up call. We found a lot of headaches, confusion, and dismay, but the best was our friend David. 

You may be wondering, "Why is David fully dressed and in bed?" or better yet "why is David sleeping backwards in his bed?". Well, we were wondering the same thing until we found out David's sheets and pillow were soaking wet. Did he pee the bed? Well he said his jeans weren't wet. Did he pour a water bottle on his bed? Well it would have had to have been a large water bottle because everything was soaked. As of now this case has been filed as an unsolved mystery, but I pity the Thai housekeeper who had to change his sheets and I think David would make a great member of the Wolf Pack. HA HA 

Don't worry family and friends, I always wake up to dry sheets. =)

Sa wat dee Kha!
XO