We made it!

After flying for 17 hours straight, we were dying to get off the plane. We stepped into the 90+ degree, 80% humidity of Thailand and were still thrilled that we made it. We started getting nervous when the taxi ride from the airport took over an hour, but then we arrived at our hotel and the damage was (drum roll)... less than $15 bucks US including the tolls. Wow!

In the past few days, we have been to a number of buddhist temples, otherwise known as "Wats": Wat Arun, Wat Pho, the Grand Palace, Central World (the largest shopping mall in Asia), the tailor shops, the massage parlors and up/down the river on the river taxis (no sea-sickness... yet). Bangkok is crazy... crowded, hot, humid, sweaty, stinky, smoggy, etc., ... but we love it. There's so much to do and so much to see. Everyone here... EVERYONE... is on the hustle. After half a day, you get used to getting into a cab, handing the driver the address, and having the driver tell you it will cost $300 Baht (~$10 US). To give you an idea, we'd probably have to ride in a cab for 2-3 hours straight in stop and go traffic to get a bill that costs $10, but that's what you pay unless you're ready to negotiate.

It's now our 4th day in Bangkok. We're trying to keep to a budget and thought it would be easy since everything is so cheap. However, after a few visits to the custom tailors, the muay thai kickboxing fights (where we were charged the "foreigner" prices--no kidding, they have separate lines that say "foreigner" over them) and other "touristy" things, we are definitely over budget. On the flip side, it's been amazing to get 1 hour massages that cost $10, and it has been fun eating great meals on the cheap. We can also ride all the way across town and back in a taxi with AC, and the bill is usually $3-4. Not bad!

We are going to walk down Sukhumvit road today, which is a neat little area with tons of little stores, shops, back alleys, and "massage parlors". Tomorrow, we take off for Chiang Mai, the 2nd largest city in Thailand. We are planning to ride the elephants and take a Thai cooking class. A family friend is running an orphanage up there, so who knows, maybe we'll pull an Angelina Jolie and come back to the states with a Thai orphan. Cheers.

p.s. Uploading pics at this i-net cafe isn't working. We'll try again at another spot later this week.