Bangkok Madness

I am on a new continent!! I had my usual "crappy first 4 hours" that I experience in every country/city when I arrive, but it all seemed to work out in the end. I stopped in Dubai for two hours, which felt quite strange, the airport had all the usual Starbucks, and duty free shops, but full of men in large robes and women with burkas. The bathrooms had ablution rooms (which I looked up and said was a relgious body washing ritual) and you would see women dressing themselves in their burkas or headscarves. The flight attendants also had headdresses on the plane.

I arrived in Bangkok at night and took a cab into my hostel which is quite nice, but though I had problems getting into the room, finding a bed, lost my key, all part of the 4 hour crappness period I always experience. But I chatted up some brits and ended up walking around a night market and having a good time. Nothing was open so where did I end up to have my first meal? Subway and KFC. I wasn't thrilled but there wasn't another option close by.

Today I went into town with a dutch girl and a german guy and we just wandered the streets and went in and out of shops. It was pouring pretty bad and will continue to do so everyday. It is pretty hot here, but if you aren't in air-conditioning, you seem to get used to it better than when you are going in and out of air-conditioning. In any case, I had a good time buying cheap clothes (the american dollar finally helps me out somewhere). Sadly, the dollar isn't what it used to be so while things are cheap, I'd say that it varies between a 20-40% discount on things in the US. It was quite a lot stronger when my brother was traveling, so he got to live like a king. In any case, I had fun bargaining constantly, some shop keepers seemed to enjoy it and some were a bit more cross. We got around on tuk-tuks which are little carts connected to a motorcycle engine, which makes for a thrilling and terrifying ride. Almost like a rollercoaster, but without the sense of security. Lets just say, I'm glad there were metal bars to hold on to or the poor german guy next to me would have had red marks on his arms