Thailand.. Here I Am.

July 1, 2008

Today is my first official day in Bangkok. But let’s start from the beginning...

On Saturday June 28, I headed to Columbus to stay at the Hampton Inn at the Columbus Airport with Daniel. We spent the evening going to Easton and had dinner at Brio. The next morning he took me the airport and we said our goodbyes. I was sad, as usual, but we parted ways and I headed down to my gate. I didn’t have to wait very long until we began boarding. My first flight out of Columbus took me to Detroit. It was a very fast flight, not even an hour. My mom was already in Detroit waiting for me. Her flight out of Columbus was at 8:16am, while mine wasn’t until 11:40am. Odd how we weren’t able to be on the same flight, but atleast the rest of our connections were the same. So, I met up with her in Detroit after she had to wait for me there for 5 hours. I deplaned and headed to a terminal that housed all the 747’s. It was a really far walk, but the cool underground “tunnel” to the other terminal was quite amusing. It was this huge tunnel with moving walkways, and the walls were trimmed with color-changing lights. There was soothing music playing, and it really reminded me of being at the aquarium, minus the cool sharks. I finally made it to Terminal A and found my gate. I had to find my mom there, and it was a bit of a challenge because the gate was full of Asian people! Of course I found her, then I proceeded to buy an $8 tuna sandwich that tasted like crap. Oh well.... luckily our flights were right on time and very soon we were boarding a 747-400 to Tokyo.

The flight to Tokyo started out fine, then it just turned out ugly. The total flight time was a little over 12 hours. In my past experience flying to Thailand, I normally “shut down” and sleep the whole time. This means I barely eat, drink, or get out of my seat. This time around, I actually ate all my dinner, snacks, and drank plenty of fluids. I stayed up most of the flight but after about 6 hours I finally fell asleep. Well, atleast I think I fell asleep. I have no idea if I really caught any zzz’s because two noisy Japanese kids surrounded me, and my knees were severely cramped. I even got up and walked around earlier, but I guess that didn’t cut it. I started to feel really sick to my stomach, like the kind of pain you get when your stomach is really empty. I didn’t understand why I was feeling that way because I ate already... so I just sat there and tried to sleep. Hour after hour I began to feel worse. By the time they began to serve breakfast, I had to get up and basically got sick in the bathroom. I’ve never had that happen before and it was a horrible experience. I shunned the breakfast when it was put in front of my face. I nibbled on a potato and a piece of a pineapple. I drank some water and green tea but I couldn’t shake the nausea. Luckily, we were already beginning our initial decent to Narita (Tokyo’s airport) after breakfast. I felt like absolute crap and was so thankful when we finally landed. Once we deplaned, we made our way to International Connections and cleared through security. My mom and I had planned to eat at this really good noodle shop by our gate, but sadly I didn’t have the appetite anymore. I sat, curled up in a ball, at some random gate while we waited for the time to go by before our next flight. I finally began to feel better after my mom bought me some water and crackers. I was pretty bummed out because after paying 500 yen (about $5), the Wi-Fi still wouldn’t work properly. I was trying really hard to use skype and AIM, but I would get kicked off after every 10 sec. It was so frustrating trying to get it to work while feeling dizzy. After being able to talk to Daniel for a few minutes, I had to say bye because the internet wasn’t being very useful. I was also pretty bummed that I couldn’t walk around the airport and enjoy all the fun little Japanese stores. Oh well, maybe on the way back.

We only had to wait an hour and a half until our A330 began boarding. This plane is beautiful and each seat had its own TV screen. When we first sat down, my seat recliner was broken. Basically my seat wouldn’t stay up straight or it would randomly recline anytime I put pressure on the back. Luckily, our cabin wasn’t full, so we spoke to a nice Thai flight attendant and she said I could go sit wherever I want. Yesss! I ended up having 3 seats all to myself. I was actually able to get some rest and felt a lot better. This flight was very peaceful and calm. The people weren’t very loud and it was dark outside. After 5 hours and 20 minutes we landed in Bangkok and made our way to Immigration. It was a pretty far walk and our legs were so stiff. Once we cleared through immigration we had to find our bags. I’m happy to report that all bags made it in one piece. My mom stopped by a duty free shop and bought her brother a bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label (it’s like tradition or something), and then we had to go to the meeting area to find our family. This was actually a little confusing because we had never flown into this airport before. You see, the original Bangkok airport was recently turned into a Thai Air Force Base, and the airport we flew into was built only a year or so ago. This airport is bigger and longer. Normally that should be a good thing (haha) but all the walking with heavy luggage was severely annoying. We finally found our family though. My mom’s brother, his wife, mom’s sister and her husband, and my grandpa came to greet us. It was really nice to see them. We had to find the car in the parking garage afterward, and that was even a challenge because my family got confused about which direction they were supposed to go to... stupid airport. I finally got my first scent of a Thai noodle shop, and it smelled soooo good. I really wanted to stop by but of course couldn’t. Once we stepped outside the humidity and heat attacked me right away. Even though it was almost midnight, it was still in the upper 80’s or 90’s and the rain made it feel so heavy. Welcome to Bangkok.

This year we are staying at my grandpa’s house. This is the same house that my mom grew up in. My mom’s sister and her husband also still live here. Along with our family, we have two maids and their families who live here as well. Oh, and my grandpa got two mean dogs named Toto and Howdy. They bark at anyone they don’t know. I don’t like them. Grandpa says if I give them a fish meatball they’ll like me. So I guess I’ll give that a try.

Being here brings back a lot of memories. I’m staying in the room where I used to sleep when I lived in Thailand for 3 years. It’s sad that my grandma isn’t with us anymore. This house has really changed. What was once a beautiful garden in the back yard has turned into a spot for my uncle to keep all of his plants that he sells. It doesn’t look bad, but it’s different. The house itself looks a lot different too. While my grandma was alive, everything was pristine and all the clear cabinets showed off her beautiful crystal decorations. Since her passing, my grandpa became very lonely and bored. He overcomes his boredom by being crafty... in a strange way. He likes to make collages and other wacky things out of pictures of family, Buddhist stuff, and space travel things. He’s really into aliens and space, which I find really hilarious. Well, he’s basically decorated the entire house with his crazy little crafts. It’s nice that he is keeping busy, but it also makes me think of what my grandma would have to say if she were still alive. I don’t like stepping out of the shower and seeing a picture of a monk staring at me. Oh, and he took a picture of my face and stuck it on an astronaut, and put me on Mars.

Now it is July 1 while it is still June 30 for the rest of you USA people. I fell asleep around 4AM and woke up around 9:30AM. Not too shabby considering in the past I would stay up all night and not be able to fall asleep until 10AM. I’m trying really hard to reset my internal clock so I can make the most of this trip. I’m unable to get internet on my laptop right now, which is really irritating because I want to use skype. But oh well. Hopefully sometime today I’ll be able to find a microphone or headset so I can make calls on skype. My uncle is supposed to help me get the internet going on this laptop, but I’m not sure if it’ll work out. Worse comes to worse I may get a wireless router if they’re not too pricey. For now I’m just using my grandpa’s computer and trying to be grateful he no longer has dial-up.

It is 1pm right now and I’m starting to get tired. I’m fighting to stay awake. I already had breakfast and showered, and now I’m just waiting for this stupid storm to pass so I can go walk around downtown. My family’s house is really close to everything downtown, so we’re only a walk, taxi ride, or tuk-tuk away. Monsoon season is a bitch and it’ll probably storm once a day while we’re here. I just want to go buy some of my favorite Thai snacks and eat some good pad Thai!

If anyone would like a postcard, please send me your address either on facebook or email amy.a.risner@gmail.com

7pm:
What a day. After writing the first part of this blog, my mom, my former nanny (who is still a servant here), and I walked to the Platinum Mall. It’s only a few blocks away. The weather was decent since it rained beforehand and cooled down the air. I’ve never been to Platinum before and it is crazy inside. When we go back I will post some pics of it. It is 5 floors of clothing and accessories shops. Each shop is owned by individual people who rent out small spaces and basically sell wholesale merchandise straight from the factory. My mom went nuts and bought like 10 head bands and jewelry. I was actually pretty tame in my shopping, and only bought a bracelet and three dresses. But overall, my three dresses only cost 640 baht, which is roughly $18. How nice is that? Take that, Forever 21.

Platinum’s 6th floor is a large food court. You have to purchase a “coupon card” which entitles you to make food and drink purchases in the court. It’s pretty similar to what a lot of food courts in the USA have been doing. There were so many good looking shops to choose from, I couldn’t decide what to eat. I settled for a bowl of noodles and my mom got the pad Thai. Of course, I also got cha-yen (Thai iced tea). Half way through my food the jetlag hit me hard. I had to stop eating in fear it would just slip me into a food coma. We decided to start walking around and did our shopping for the next couple of hours. We shopped so freaking much my feet and back began to ache like crazy. After seriously spending about 3 hours there, we walked down the street to It City (formerly known as Pantip) so I could purchase a headset with a microphone (so I can skype!). I found one for a very good deal, only 230 baht. Pantip is a huge mall-like building that is filled with electronics and accessories. You can buy anything from a laptop, to bootleg DVD’s, fake iPods, and much much more. It is a nerd’s haven. I want to go back to see how much I could get a wireless router for.

After our brief stop in Pantip, we stopped outside to get some fresh coconuts. Then we crossed over the overpass bridge to 7-Eleven to buy some essentials such as some toiletries and snacks. Being that it’s monsoon season, another storm hit and we were stuck waiting for it to clear up. I’ve never spent that much time in a 7-Eleven before and hope it never has to happen again. There’s only so much crap you can buy. I think we were stuck there for over a half hour when it finally cleared up and we were able to walk home. Thankfully we were only a block away so it really wasn’t that bad. We ended up cutting through the First Hotel as usual. The First Hotel is a large hotel that is on the front corner of our neighborhood. Many Caucasians stay there, so me looking the whitest of the group made it look believable that we were actually guests of the hotel. We cut through the front door and just walk right to the back of the hotel where there are some gift shops. It leads straight out to the hotel’s garage where all the guests and tour buses park. The garage happens to lead right to our neighbor so it is a great short cut. We finally made it home a bit after 6pm and I am sooooo dead. I’ve never done so much walking while being this jetlagged. Hopefully I’ll sleep really well tonight.

The rest of the evening will just be a quiet dinner at the house. I’m not so sure what is going on tomorrow yet. I have a feeling if we’re not going out to visit relatives, then chances are we’ll be out walking around downtown again.