Friday, August 10

I’m going to chalk it up to coincidence that I woke up at 4am on the toilet and not blame the Tom Ka Gai! Being up all morning made me a bit late for work, but I finally made it to the BTS station. It must have been rush hour, because every time the BTS stopped, it was full. I mean, not even able to sardine myself in full, and I waited three times! Finally, in a huff and a puff with no coffee or fruit, I made it to work! As I settled in for a teacher training, I felt a tap on my back and through a repressed giggle, one of my co-workers informed me that I had my dress on inside out. All I could do was laugh at myself as I pointed out this was quite in line with my morning and politely excused myself to the bathroom to change. Thank goodness for friends, I guess I’m doing ok  =)

 I will take this excuse to throw in a small side note for those of you that have never experienced Thailand before…Allow me to introduce the bumgun. Did you know that in Thailand it is not ok to throw toilet paper in the toilet? Their sewage system (aka the water taxi) just can’t handle it. Most places do not even provide it. But what they do have is this handy little spray gun apparatus hiding behind the toilet. I’ve been told the fresh feeling it provides will have you leaving toilet paper behind for good. Yeah, I’ll let you know when I decide to give it a try…for now, I’m sticking to my American ways.

http://www.talesfromanexpat.com/how-to-use-a-bum-gun-with-video-tutorial/

Back to the story…After work, we went to a place that will become one of my most frequently visited Soi’s (streets). Soi 38. Thank goodness one of the teachers took me because  (if you remember my coconut) I never would have had the guts to venture there alone. Up and down the soi are lots and lots of street goodness, all in Thai of course. Some stalls do have pictures so that is a plus, although just a point and smile seem to get you everything you need (and maybe some things you don’t). Tonight, I stuck with traditional Pad Thai, but from a guy who has won awards. I give him a double thumbs up for sure. As I ate, I realized this day was well on its way to improving. I even popped open a bottle of wine when I got home to celebrate my first week of work. Oh wait, no wine glasses...ahh but I do have an empty water bottle. Cheers from my water bottle of wine ;)

Thursday, August 9

By today, I’ve developed my walking to school routine. I walk to the closest BTS, ride one stop to Thonglor (where my school is located), buy fruit from a stand (today I got bananas), buy coffee from a cute little man on the street with an actual espresso machine, hop on a motor taxi (while drinking my coffee), and ride a few blocks to work. Easy enough.

Some pics on my way to work...

After school today, I decided to go shopping for apartment necessities at Big C, the Thai equivalent of WalMart. Luckily, one of the girls from work came with me and was able to help me understand that “yes, this is dish detergent”, and “no, that is for the washing machine”. Glad I avoided that disaster. She also showed me the brands she uses for soap and milk, etc., which made shopping a little bit easier and faster.

You would think after watching it rain now every day at 4:00, that maybe I would have been smart enough to come prepared with an umbrella. But here I find myself standing outside Big C, loaded with pillows, detergent, milk, toilet paper and other heavy awkward items in the pouring down rain. No worries or “mai bin lai” – as Thai’s would say. I will just hail a cab. This leads me to my next lesson…good luck hailing a cab between the hours of 5-6. For lack of any other options, I started to walk. Every 2-3 minutes I’d turn around, wave at a cab through the monsoon like downpour, and watch it pass me. Sometimes, I’d even get splashed with street water… a little icing on the cake. Finally, someone pulled over and delivered me to my apartment, which at this point was maybe 2 blocks away. But hey, at least I have toilet paper tonight. Still no sheets, but I’ll take care of that this weekend. Apparently, decent sheets are hard to come by around here and a trip to IKEA is in the works for the weekend...details to come. As for now, I am heading down to a cute little coffee shop next to my apartment because I’ve been told it has the best inexpensive Tom Ka Gai around (coconut milk and chicken dish). It ranks right up there with fried pork noodle soup, so I’m excited, and the atmosphere is a perfect escape from the rain.

Wednesday, August 8

Yes it is ladies night…well let’s be honest, every night is ladies night in Bangkok if you want it to be. I went with a few girls from work to a place called Witches Tavern for drinks to celebrate another new girl’s birthday. Ironically, this girl also went to JMU; what a small world! We chose this place because on Wednesdays, ladies drink for free. Yes, anything you want…free! I left early to drop off my bags and sign a lease at my NEW APARTMENT! Yay!!! Then, I hopped on a motorbike taxi back. I’m becoming a pro at those things. Afterwards, I headed home to get all settled in my new place. Felt good to finally have a place to call home…sigh =) Umm, until I realized I had no toilet paper…or sheets…or towels. Guess I'll be roughing it tonight!

Sunday, August 5

I finally gathered the courage to order my first thing from a food cart…a coconut! You might think, why does this take courage? But it does! I don’t speak Thai, I’m not sure what to say, how much to pay, what to do...so normally I walk on by, but not today! I smiled and pointed at a coconut and the man pulled it out, chopped off the top with a big machete looking knife, and stuck a straw in it. I gave him 20 baht (less than a dollar), and left a happy girl. So proud of myself, I decided I had earned a second foot massage of the week. Life is good.

Afterwards, it was time for another first. The motorbike taxi! Now everyone says these are dangerous, not to get on one without a helmet, and probably just avoid them altogether. Sorry mom… I did it anyway!  I debated telling the man it was my first time so he would drive slow and show me how to sit, but then I feared he might try to overcharge me. So I just climbed on and held on for life as we weaved in and out of stopped traffic (which is why they are faster than cabs), and he kindly dropped me at my destination. The whole experience was less than a dollar and quite fun I must say. However, I will be purchasing a helmet before riding again…safety first!

I met friends at the BTS (train) and we headed to the mall for some dress shopping. One of the new girls (to our school, but not to Bangkok) was nice enough to take us newbies around to all her favorite places. We went to a cute vintage dress shop, where they put elastic in the waist so the dresses fit us “fat” westerners. I bought two cute dresses for 5 dollars each, and bought a cheapo phone since mine apparently doesn’t work in Thailand. Using it takes me back to high school when you had to type each letter 2-3 times to get the letter you want! Haha, I am purchasing an iPhone as soon as I get a paycheck!  Our friend suggested we take the water taxi back. Water Taxi? How exciting, I thought. Thailand used to be know as the Venice of the East because of all the waterways. This was no Venice. I'm pretty sure most of the water was sewage and runoff and it STANK. As we were boarding, my friend suggested I keep my mouth shut in case water happened to splash on board as we passed other boats. Good thing they have rain flaps. As we were riding along, we both caught a glimpse of something big and round floating in the water. We looked at each other in disgust when we both realized it was a dead pig. A few minutes later we hopped off, said goodbye, and took our motor taxi’s home. What a day!