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February 1, 2006
Arriving in Thailand
First on the to-do-list in Bangkok was to get some money out of an ATM. Unfortunately that turned out to be a harder task than I had hoped. I walked out of our hotel at around 7:00 in search of an cash machine. There was one right down the block but Em’s card wouldn’t work, so I headed down the main street near our hotel in search of another.
Walking around I definitely got the feeling that we had entered another country. Vendors were starting to cook and set up things like pots of green curry on the sidewalk. At quite a few stands people were already eating. There were also numerous kids walking around in boy’s scouts uniforms, which was not something I expected.
I found a few more ATMs, none of which would work. I finally just pulled the last $40 out of my checking account to see if it was Em’s card that was the problem. In fact it was. Apparently it was demagnetized sometime in the last few days. Hopefully we can have one sent.
After checking some email at a tailor’s shop, Em and I decided to head down to China Town to see a bit of the city. We headed to the river where we heard that we could catch a water taxi. When we arrived though we found, surrounded by 5 scrappy dogs, an old woman who tried to get us on a boat for 300 baht. It was much more than we had heard and eventually she told us that the normal taxi left about 50 meters upstream and could get us to China Town for 30 baht.
The boat to Chinatown was a great introduction to Bangkok. We actually jumped a boat that had a guy on a PC telling us in English and Thai about the various temples we were passing, or the best way to get to the public bus station. There was everything from huge cargo ships to “long-tail” boats speeding around the river. After a 20 minute ride we departed at stop number five.
Chinatown was a bit hectic so after exploring the main market street we found a restaurant recommended in our guide book and sat down for a delicious meal. To get back to the hotel we jumped in a tuk-tuk. Air pollution is obviously a serious problem here as many of the drivers, ours included, work a medical type cover over his mouth. I’m sure it helped with all the exhaust fumes.
Tonight we ate near the hotel. Tomorrow Andy and Jessica arrive which will no doubt be fun and add a whole new twist to the next few weeks. We can’t wait.
Posted by Peter Mork at February 1, 2006 1:05 AM
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