Life in Thailand

The second the plane started descending into Bangkok, I knew I was going to love it here.  The lush greenery was such a stark contrast to the brown, oppressive sights of Taipei.  We were offered delicious tropical fruits by beautiful Thai women when we deboarded.  The customs process was a breeze.  We were met by some people from Chitralada and taken by van to our apartments. 

My one room apartment is on the fourth floor and has a couch, a King size bed, a table and two chairs, a vanity, a wardrobe, and a small bathroom.  It’s perfect.  The neighborhoods are called sois, and we live on Ratchaprarop (La cha pra rope)  Soi 14. The alley in front of our house is filled with small shops and carts selling all sorts of fruit and cooked food and goods.  In our building, there is a pool, a fitness room, and a sauna(why you would want to go into a sauna in this heat and humidity, I’ll never guess).  There is also a convenience store, dry cleaning and laundry,  and a small café in our building, and a Thai massage parlor, which is amazing!!! It costs about 5.00 for a full body massage. 

We are very close to the sky train, an elevated train.  There are so many HUGE malls, its crazy.  Today I went to one with seven floors!  SEVEN!

We went on a river boat ride to try and find the Grand Palace Temple, but we got lost, as we often do.   The streets are very chaotic, and all of the signs are in Thai, so it is very difficult to find things.  Taxis, thank goodness, are everywhere and very inexpensive, so if you get lost, you just jump in a cab. 

Oh yeah, and we took our first Tuk Tuk ride!

We found some excellent Mexican food, thank goodness, because I haven’t quite figured out what to eat here yet.  Vegetarian doesn’t always translate well.