The Longest Night

I'm in Bangkok! 

Wow... what a night. Our delayed flight landed in Tokyo just as our connection to Bangkok was leaving. There were American Airlines ticket agents waiting for us at the gate when as we departed, and they gave us tickets for a rescheduled flight... on Delta, no less!  It ended up being a good thing, we had three hours in the Tokyo airport, long enough to get a short break between two long flights. Guys, the bathrooms in Japan are really weird!

We ended up taking a 747 out of Tokyo. It was nice, and Delta's service was great, but after so much traveling, the six hours to Bangkok felt like forever. I hadn't really been able to sleep on any of the flights; I just dozed a little bit. At this point, it still hadn't really hit me that I was on my way to Thailand for a year. It just started to hit home as we were about half an hour out of Bangkok. I wan't worried though. I don't know, I guess it is just reassuring being with a group of people in the same situation.

The 747 was like an ocean-liner, big but slow. It took six hours to get to Bangkok, instead of the five that it was supposed to take on our other flight. We landed just before one in the morning on Wednesday the 22nd. It feels like it was so long ago, but it was just earlier today!

By the time we cleared customs and passport control and had claimed our luggage (not a single lost bag despite the airline change. Way to go American and Delta!) it was nearly 1:30.

Although we hadn't been able to get in touch with anyone about our change in plans, we had sent out a desperate post to our Facebook group from Tokyo about our situation. We had phone numbers, but our phones didn't work in Tokyo, and there wasn't much time to figure out phone cards before we had to board our next flight. Fortunately when we arrived, sleep deprived and exhausted we found Mr. Geoffrey waiting for us at the airport. He had gotten the message third hand or so, but he got it. Geoffrey is an Englishman who retired to Bangkok to teach English. He's either the head of the Mathayom (high school) English department, or at least high enough up that it's all the same to us. In any case, he's our manager.

Stepping out of the airport I noticed two things almost immediately. The first was that it was a very purple airport. The building had purple ads on it, and the parking garage across the street was entirely purple as well. I knew that Thailand was supposed to be a very colorful country. That's an understatement! The second thing I noticed was the humidity. It wasn't hot by Texas standards, probably only in the 80's, but the humidity was horrible. Even at 2am we were all sweating badly by the time a van came for us only a minute or two later.

Geoffrey helped us load everything into two big vans to take us to our apartments. Along the way he pointed out to us that in Thailand, the driver sits on the right side of the vehicle, not the "wrong side like in America." He also pointed out the three types of taxis you could take around the city:

Metered taxis are the safest. The fare starts at B35 and you generally shouldn't have to pay more than B200 to get anywhere in Bangkok. That's less than $10US! Tuk-tuks are one of the most iconic sights to see in cities like Bangkok. They are more expensive than taxis, and are generally really only for tourists, although you will see locals riding them too. Then there are motorcycle taxis. People don't really seem to care about traffic laws in Bangkok, and the motorcycle taxis least of all. They dart around cars stopped at lights, and weave through traffic. They even ride along the sidewalks, so you always have to be alert. Even worse, women have to ride sidesaddle, which seems really dangerous. For now though we are taking the van. It will pick us up from our apartments and take us directly to the school every morning. 

Even at 2am, the traffic in the city was congested. I have no idea how fast our driver was going, but we caught some air every time we went over any sizable bump in the road. By the time we had arrived at our apartment and gotten settled in it was nearly 3am. Geoffrey told us that the van would be back for us at 11 and left. In my apartment I found a water bottle, a sprite, a pepsi, and two packs of Thai Lays potato chips. One of the Thai teachers at the school had brought them for us! I took a wonderful cold shower - it was probably the nicest shower I had ever had - drank the water, ate a package of potato chips, and fell fast asleep. Unfortunately I was wide awake around 8 this morning. I drank the sprite for breakfast (don't judge, it was all I had since I had no idea where to get food yet, ok?) and took a walk around the apartment and the grounds. I then walked down the street to a convenience store to buy a case of water. The good news is that I'm adjusted to the time change already; the bad news is that I've only had four and a half hours of sleep since leaving Dallas on Monday morning. It's 9pm now, I'll probably go to bed soon!

We went to the school today. I'll probably write a whole post about my first visit to the school later. Right now, I'm going to sleep; it's been a long day.