Got baht?...

I'm in Bangkok! I arrived Thursday morning and wow was it clear I'm not in Kansas anymore! The airport, Though huge (like everything in this city) and modern, was packed and crowded. Thankfully, being an American, the immigrations process was a painless process and no visa was necessary, my bag was ready for me at the belt and unharmed and I was off!

Unfortunately, and rather embarrassingly, as I headed outside on the people mover my shoelace got caught and for a moment I was sure I was going to cause a human pileup and die. That didn't happen but I did fall with all my stuff and have to yank my foot out of the intersection between the belt and the ground it feeds into. There were quite a few witness shaking their beads at the American girl. Yes, folks, Emily has entered your country, watch out. Just kidding. I didn't have much time to be humiliated because I quickly realized I was outside and OMG is it hot here. I can't say I wasn't warned but I also can't not mention it. I'll be talking more about that later. I immediately got in a cab and set off to meet Alex and Cooper! The driver was the most gregarious and friendly man who was ecstatic to have an American in the car and in very broken English launched into all the places he wants to visit. He loved hearing about my adventure and each stop as well. We picked up Alex and Cooper at their hotel near the airport and headed into the city!





Fearless cab driver and his ceiling of currencies. He didn't have a US Dollar and was THRILLED when Cooper gave him one for his collection.

And here are some opening thoughts from Bangkok:

1) Motorcycles are everywhere. There seem to be full armies of them at every intersection. And I wish I were quicker on the draw because we've already seen some pretty crazy occurrences on these two wheeled vehicles - full families crowded on one, a guy carrying a computer on his lap (and not a laptop...), a sleeping little kid riding front seat...






Here they are ready to take over the world...

2) Most taxis are PINK! And not a subtle pink, BRIGHT pink! The four year old version of me would be very excited, and 26 year old me isn't not excited. It's like if Barbie were a cab driver, she'd drive one of these.

I don't know why I didn't take any pictures of them yesterday - I might have just been too dazzled, but I'll be sure to remedy the situation.

3) Back to the heat. There just aren't words... Before our hotel room was ready we went to get lunch and that was intense but we literally just went around the corner. Later when we were showered and refreshed and went back out, was when it really struck us. We might need to walk around with towels - you just DRIP. Wild. I don't know how the people here eat outside in the heat. I don't really know how they do anything. Remarkable.

3) dinner was fascinating. Our goal was air conditioning and thai food (we ARE in Thailand after all...) We sorta got both?






Alex with the worlds largest menu (more in size than options)






Cooper about to dive in to the mystery meal he ordered.

We ended the night at a small grocery store that surprisingly really wasn't Amy different than many American ones. For those of you who know me well, you'll love what I bought there:






I fell asleep right when we got back to the hotel but man am I excited to taste those puppies. Yum!

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