First hours in Bangkok

(Day 1)

A lot of amazing things have happened in the past few days which have been extremely serendipitous. I feel God watching over us.

The first amazing thing that happened to us is because we decided to have a conversation with a stranger. So far on this trip, I have learned the power of conversation. People can be so good and kind. The stranger in this particular conversation was a Taiwanese woman who, sadly, I don't even know the name of. She was a stewardess on our flight from Seattle to Taipei. Arrio, Sam, and I sat in the three seats right next to the emergency exits of the plane, and this woman sat right across from us during take off and landing. Arrio, who is a professional conversation-initiator, asked her a few questions about herself. A casual conversation proceeded, and naturally she asked us where we were going and what we were going to be doing. When we told her about our 17-hour layover in Taipei, she immediately informed us that there was an earlier flight leaving 14 hours earlier, and that we should try to get on it. So, after spending roughly 3 hours at the Taipei airport, we headed to Bangkok.

When we landed in Bangkok, an American named Gary helped us find the ATMs and also told us an easy way to get out to Khao San road. This man was very kind. Again, it all started from a simple conversation.

After a long, crowded train ride, we finally made it to downtown Bangkok. But, we still weren't sure where we were in relation to Khao San road. As soon as we got off the train, a middle-aged Thai man came up to us and tried to get us to ride a Tuk Tuk to the train station so we could buy tickets to Chiang Mai early. I knew that it was a scam. In Thailand, if you ever hear someone saying that they will take you to anywhere in Bangkok on a tuk tuk for 10 baht, it is usually a scam. They take you to overpriced suit tailors and gem sellers and you lose an entire afternoon.

Instead of taking his advice, we flagged a taxi down. He seemed hesitant to carry five passengers in his car which had room for only 4 passengers, but he caved in. He drove us about 7km away to Khao San road for roughly 100 baht (around $9). Split between the five of us, it was nothing.

Now, I thought drivers in Chile were crazy, I'm here to tell you that compared to drivers in Bangkok, Chilean drivers look like drivers-ed instructors. We were weaving in and out of cars, dodging people left and right, and trying to avoid colliding with the seemingly numberless motorcyclists who have no regard for any sort of traffic norm. It was an entertaining experience, to say the least.

After about 20 minutes driving in heavy traffic, we made it to Khao San road. Within 10 minutes, we found a place to a couple roads down (th thani). It was a small guesthouse room with 4 beds for 1000 baht (about $6.25/person per night). I felt relieved to know we had a place to sleep and store our backpacks.

Khao San road is a backpackers paradise. Food is everywhere, and everything is relatively inexpensive. Vendors are very confrontational and persistent. A young woman came up to us with black scorpions on a skewer. None of us bought one, not because we weren't daring enough to try it out; rather, the price was too high. She was trying to sell one scorpion to us for 100 baht (a bit more than $3). We are on a shoestring budget, and three dollars is too high.

We sat down and ate our first meal. Arrio, Dalton, and Sam got pad thai, and we all got banana smoothies (except for Sam, who got a coca-cola because he's an American).

After the meal, we explored a little. Somehow, Dalton and Sam got separated from the rest of us (which is actually ridiculously easy to do in this crowded city). Arrio, Blake, and I had another serendipitous event happen to us.

We were walking around and we barely hear a sort of chanting coming from across the street. We walked over to figure out where the sound was emanating from and found a Buddhist temple hidden behind some walls. We took our shoes off, and entered. What we found was absolutely beautiful. There were 20 or so monks chanting and meditating in front of a large shrine of Buddha. People from the streets were entering into the room and kneeling down, and meditating as well. We went in and meditated with them. It was a wonderful experience and it felt peaceful. In contrast to the materialism and worldliness of Khao San road, this place seemed set apart for bigger and better things.

As anyone who knows me would know, I love religion, and, although my beliefs differ from some of the Theravadan Buddhists', I love theirs also. They are trying to seek holiness and goodness, and I respect them so much for their endeavors to make this world a better place.

After an attempted palm-reading scam by some Sikhs, and after eating Green Curry, we retired for the night. I was beyond exhausted and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. My sleep was deep. Very deep.