Well, finally made it to Thailand after a very long trip. It started in Salt Lake and 24 hours, three planes, and a scary ride to the hotel later, I made it to Bangkok safe and sound. The hotel was really nice and thankfully, had air conditioning. My first thought after arriving in Bangkok was about how hot it was. According to the flight attendant, it was 86 degrees and about 80% humidity at midnight. The women on the side of the road offering themselves was also a bit of a shock.

I checked into the hotel, the H-Residence on Sathorn, in Bangkok at 2 AM Thailand time, slept for a couple hours, and woke to find breakfast wasn’t anything like American breakfasts. There was toast and frosted flakes next to the fried rice, hot dogs, and various other unidentifiable Thai foods. A fellow soon-to-be-teacher was eating breakfast, so we decided to head out to check out Bangkok. First thing I noticed, besides the heat, was the smell. Garbage cans on the street aren’t a common thing, so the garbage is placed on the sidewalk, where it bakes for who knows how long before being picked up. It’s a very busy city, but the Thai are very friendly. We took the sky train to a long boat that took us down the river to the Grand Palace.

The river wasn’t exactly something I would swim in, but it was cool to take the boat and go down the river. The Grand Palace was closed for prayer, so we hopped in a Tuk Tuk, a small, motorized vehicle, and went to see the Buddha statue.

We rode around in the Tuk Tuk for a little bit and got a glimpse of what Bangkok is like. It’s an enormous city and the drivers are scary, ignoring any driving law whatsoever. Can’t say I’ll be moving there permanently any time soon, but it made for a fun day! We then made it to the Grand Palace and walked around. It was definitely something to see!

Our next adventure was to travel by a van to Hua Hin, where I will be residing for the next month. We started our first day of orientation by going to the local mall for some groceries and other things we may need. There was a McDonald’s, KFC, Dunkin’ Donuts, Baskin Robins, and a couple other American foods. So much for escaping that! I settled on a noodle soup for lunch with pork. It came with a liver surprise! Either way, it was delicious. After the mall, we went swimming in the Thai Bay. The water was as hot as the bathtub, but refreshing nonetheless.