The Arrival

9/17/2006

We arrived in Bangkok at about 2 am local time. Amazingly, all checked bags arrived as well. We met the group leader Scott and the last group member Ellie, and then we all went to a hotel near the airport for 3 hours to shower and nap before catching another flight to Sukhothai. The flight to Sukhothai was only about an hour long. Since we did not reach a very high elevation and since the skies were clear, it was easy to get a good aerial view of Bangkok. I was surprised how developed it is. I have to admit that I don't really know much about the places we're visiting on this trip; I'm just along for the ride.

Sukhothai is a relatively small town compared to Bangkok. After landing, we headed to our guesthouse where we would stay for a couple nights. The guesthouse had several small bungalows and several larger houses (see picture). It was very nice. Scott led us in a trip orientation, and after that we wandered through the town, which basically consisted of a lot of specialy stores and people selling food on the streets. We saw a few monks wearing their orange robes. The Thai people are extremely nice. They always seem to be smiling, and they really enjoyed it when we butchered their language trying to say hello and thank you.

Thailand is incredibly cheap. The conversion is about 36 Bhat to 1 US dollar. For lunch I had a ham and cheese sandwich and a pineapple fruit smoothie for 80 Bhat, basically 2 US dollars. The whole group had dinner together at a Thai restaurant, and I split a green curry, massaman curry, Burmese curry, and pad thai with three other people, and my contribution was a whopping 85 Bhat, just over 2 bucks. That include the 2 bottles of water I had (all the water we drink is bottled water).

We also were able to go to a local swimming pool, which was a nice way to cool off. To my amazement, there were tennis courts. I didn't think I'd see a tennis court this early in the trip. I didn't get to play, however.