Thailand Day 1 – Arrival
Trip Overview – The Mother of All Blogs
Joe and I traveled to Thailand in October 2008 to visit his sister Becky, who was teaching elementary education, and her husband Erik.
This is the first blog I ever wrote….the mother of all blogs if you will. Long before I ever knew I’d be writing trip blogs and long before I knew I’d write travel eBooks. Because of the significance of my first blog, this is a lot of fun to revisit but it’s a bit more challenging to write. In 2008, we only had a personal computer; we didn’t have a personal laptop. Everything I experienced on our trip was hand written in journals and then typed up on the fly at a local Thai internet café when I had time. And later I had to match up my notes with files of pictures. So my attention to detail wasn’t quite what it is now as I was not able to translate my written notes quickly thru electronic means. My sole purpose was to let my family know I was safe. I certainly didn’t have the outside interest that I do now with others wondering what amazing adventures we were on. Conveying my safety was paramount as we traveled to Thailand during a period of civil unrest, a true political crisis, with travel warnings issued from the U.S. Embassy. And yet, we went anyway.
I also look a little different. I was at the peak of some undiagnosed health issues in 2008. And thru no fault of my own, I was 60 pounds heavier during this trip as a result. To some degree, I look at these photos and I think, “wow that’s not me”. But then again, the good and the bad is all part of life’s weird journey. What I look like is not representative of who I am. The responsibility of the traveler is to share info and knowledge. So my insecurities and vanity will just have to be shoved to the side.
Let the story begin….
Sunday Oct 12th, Day 1 – Warm Welcome
To date, Thailand is the farthest I have traveled from home. That’s 21 hours we were on the plane alone….not including layovers in the airport. Becky mailed us a Thai cell phone to call her when we landed since ours wouldn’t be of any use. She lives 1 hour southeast of Bangkok in the town of Chonburi (population 34,700). While they do have a taxi driver in the surrounding district of Phanat Nikhom, technically he’s not allowed to pick us up at the airport. Only drop-off is allowed. But if Becky is with the taxi driver, he won’t get in trouble. The obvious question is, doesn’t Becky and Erik have a car? No. In fact, most Thai residents ride motor bikes. And that would also be our primary form of transportation during our stay.
We stayed in the town of Chonburi
We arrived in Bangkok at 11:10pm Saturday night. Woke up Sunday morning at 8am feeling pretty tired. We didn’t get a whole lot of sleep considering we went to bed at 4am (we were up talking late). People rise very early around here due to the heat so there was enough activity happening to get us up. We traveled to Thailand in October because that is considered the cool season, however, the temperatures still run in the 90’s.
Today was pretty low key to help manage our jet lag. After breakfast, Joe got a quick crash course on the motorbikes and we went to some lady named Gramma’s house. This is a friend of Becky’s who has been very good to her since she’s been there.
When I say motorbike, what I really mean is an over-sized moped. Because that’s what they look like. The seat is definitely big enough for 2 people and it goes up to 60 mph so it’s clearly not a moped. But it’s clearly not a motorcycle either. Lots of people who drive motorbikes get in accidents because Thai’s are such bad drivers. The busiest traffic week of the year is between Christmas and New Year’s and 400 people in Thailand were killed in motorbike accidents that week alone. Becky says its just a matter of time til she’s part of that statistic (not everyone dies obviously but a lot of people she knows have been in accidents of some kind). Yet that is how everyone gets around. I’ve seen an entire family of 4 riding on these things all at once…..crazy!
Its not unusual to see a family of 4 on one motorbike!
Gramma is the guardian of one of Becky’s students. She has an open-air type of house. She gave me a ring and bracelet, and she gave Joe a cool necklace. Gramma has several orange trees and she offered fruit to us. They look on the outside just like limes but inside they were in fact oranges. Joe picked a few off her tree with something that resembled a lacrosse stick. Gramma also offered us some chilled water. She said it was filtered but it smelled and tasted funny so we didn’t drink it. We’ll stick to bottled! You have to watch the bottled water you buy. Did you ever see the movie Slumdog Millionaire where the kids fill empty water bottles with tap water and then reseal it with super glue? Yeah, you can get one of those here. But it’s easy to spot a bottle job; you just squeeze the bottle before you buy it. If it’s super-glued, the water will leak out of the top.
Joe snagged us some fresh fruit from Gramma’s trees
We drove around on the motorbikes and saw a local Buddhist temple. We saw a wild dog but it didn’t bother us. Still Becky was cautious — at night the dogs are very aggressive and you need to watch out. The poor things are skin and bones and will come after you and try to bite you. Forget crime — you need to really worry about wild dogs in Thailand above everything else. Becky doesn’t even like to go out at nighttime because they are scary. By day, they don’t bother you. They are usually sleeping because of the heat.
We drove around on the motorbikes and saw a local Buddhist temple. We saw a wild dog but it didn’t bother us. Still Becky was cautious — at night the dogs are very aggressive and you need to watch out. The poor things are skin and bones and will come after you and try to bite you. Forget crime — you need to really worry about wild dogs in Thailand above everything else. Becky doesn’t even like to go out at nighttime because they are scary. By day, they don’t bother you. They are usually sleeping because of the heat.
Stopping to see a local Buddhist temple along the road
All the houses including Becky’s have small fish ponds or large ceramic water jars outside with fish in them to help control the mosquito population. The fish eat the eggs which makes no sense to me. If the water basins weren’t there, the mosquitos would have no moisture in which to lay their eggs. Go figure….
Tonight’s party is celebrating Erik and Becky’s recent marriage as well as a welcome dinner for us. The event was held in the school that Becky teaches at in their open air gymnasium. Naturally there were lots of kids and loads of amazing food served buffet style. They even made hamburgers on a stick just for us. Just like the Fair. How sweet! I never had one though. Why would I want to eat hamburgers when there are so many exotic dishes! Everyone kept bringing us plates of food insisting we try their dish. So far, my stomach has been handling all the strange but wonderful food okay.
The fresh spring rolls were fantastic!
After dinner, we enjoyed some entertainment. A group of students sang America the Beautiful for us. Two of Becky’s students had me and Joe come up on stage and conduct an interview asking us questions. They were all so cute. I really had to resist the temptation to pat them on the head which would be so disrespectful since the head is the highest part of the body to them. Top of the head is sacred – don’t touch it!
Of course, we came bearing gifts and American souvenirs as we do most places we travel to. We gave out glow sticks, gummy candy, pop rocks and colorful tattoos to all the kids, which they loved. They had 2 Thai dancers perform a traditional dance on stage for us. It was very beautiful.
A plate of traditional Thai desserts was brought to our table for sampling. Strange looking? Yes. But most of it was pretty good
Then a few of the Thai guests broke out the karaoke (that’s pretty big over here). We taught the kids to do the limbo which they loved that game. In all, it was a great day and fun evening getting acclimated to the culture and people! Stay tuned to my next blog coming soon!
Thai dancers entertained us with a traditional dance
