If you have not read the introduction to this story, you will want to start there first! Click here to read.

Chapter One: Sawadee ka!

Bangkok, Thailand
March 27, 2010 

Sawadee ka! “Hello!” in Thai.

I am writing to you from a tiny Internet room where numerous Thai children are screaming while playing video games at excruciating decibels. I will keep this quick. Surprisingly, this is not my happy place.

Besides the above, all is well in Thailand. Door-to-door, it took me thirty-five hours to get from my apartment in Toronto to the guesthouse in Bangkok where we have been staying. I was relieved to see James at the airport, a friendly face after such long solo flights. As is our routine, we have picked up from where we left off, loving being together in the adventure of a foreign land.

Although the jet lag continues, the delicious $2 meals and $1 beers are inspiring. This city is hot, crazy, and fun. We’ve already seen numerous temples, done a ton of walking, and met a guy who tailored a suit for Canadian hockey player, Joe Sakic. (It is quite possible that the latter did not actually happen. It is quite possible that this is my first lesson in the fine art of drawing tourists in through magical tales of their respective homelands). Should you not be able to locate a pumice stone while on your travels, there is the option to dangle your legs in an aquarium while hundreds of tiny fish eat the dead skin off your feet. I am not quite there yet, but give me a few weeks. 

The food in Bangkok is beyond amazing. Sidewalks and alleyways get transformed into impromptu ‘restaurants’ where you sit in tiny, Barbie-sized plastic chairs, eat off chipped and mismatched plates, and are served the best food on the planet. Forget fine dining honey, street food is where it’s at. And it’s always, always available. Only an hour after my plane landed, we were eating amazing, fresh food from a nearby market at 2:30 in the morning. Eating in Bangkok. Priceless.

 

We are leaving our backpacker guesthouse today and heading off to luxury for a couple of nights, staying in two different hotels with views overlooking the Chao Phraya River. Not too shabby, and better yet, free. These are among the first luxury digs James will be inspecting on our trip. As for me, I will be inspecting the pool and grading everything according to the swim-up bar. Must get going. I have reached my threshold on the infinite shrieking in this room.

Come back soon for information on the rest of this story….