Hey guess what! I'm in Bangkok! It's really awesome here. Haven't been here all that long (just a couple days) but had to check the email and see what's going on in the world.
The flight here took forever - that 6-hr layover in Tokyo was about as boring as it can get. But I got here around 11:30 PM on Thurs night local time. Since I didn't really want to pay a fortune for a few hrs sleep in a hotel around the airport I found the 24-hr cafe in the airport and settled in for the night. Suprise suprise someone came up to talk around 1:30.
She's from S. Africa but has been living in Taipei for the past few months. Since e were both alone and planning to spend the night in the airport, we hung out. Also ran into Nok, a Thai girl, who got us out of the icky 24hr cafe into a coffee shop that was hiding out in the domestic section of the airport. Had a good time just talking until the buses ran again in the morning.
Took the bus into Bangkok and got off near the Embassies as Yolande (the S. African) needed to renew her Taipei visa. Walked around and found an open air market that was really cool. Absolutely packed at 6:30 in the morning. Full of people buying their breakfast/lunch and catching whatever awesome deals they could find on clothes or whatever. Eventually we sat down to a yummy breakfast before trying to find the Taipei embassy office. believe it or not but things are hard to find here! Streets names are rarely posted and even if they are it's not necessarily the same name as on the maps.
Well after the embassy we tried to head to Khao San Rd - where all the cheap guesthouses are. Was much harder than it should've been since we couldn't find the bus we wanted (again, helps to know where you are). but we got there and ran into an Aussie who moved to Thailand a few years ago. He actually lives in the south on one of the beaches (owns a bar) but as he was just back from Oz, he was in BKK. So he gave us the scoop on Thailand and where to go which is always helpful. Also pointed us to the guesthouses that don't have bedbugs always a plus!)
So we found a room and crashed thankfully :) Today has been wat day. Went around looking at the wats (temples) that are all over Thailand. The buildings are absolutely beautiful there. But now we're all hot and sweaty so I think it's off to the guesthouse for a shower and nap before hitting the bars tonight with Nok.
Next plans? Who knows. Nok invited me to her hometown so I may take her up on that now or perhaps go up north to Chiang Mai and visit her hometown (near Vientiene, Laos) later when I'm planning to be in that area.