jupiterskunk

I hear it’s currently snowing in NY, and here are just a few reasons I don’t want to go back any time soon. I’m too lazy to write a full update. Gonna go fall asleep by the pool.

The Journey: From NY JFK to Suvahnabuhmi (spelling) Bangkok
What was it, Sunday morning I left NY? I think it was Sunday morning at like 3:30am I left for JFK airport for a 6:00 flight to Washington, Dulles airport. I got there before the airport even officially opened and waited around for a while before I went through the longest security check in the history of the world. I honestly don’t even remember waiting around in the airport that morning because it feels so long ago. That first plane was really cute. It seated 50 people and wasn’t even full. To board it, we had to go outside and walk up a ramp that was connected to the plane. I’ve only ever seen that in movies before. I was in the third seat back and was basically in the cockpit. So small. It was cute. When we landed at Dulles about an hour later, I knew I had 5 hours until my transfer flight to Beijing, so I took my time. I stopped at Starbucks, spilled hot coffee on my hand, stopped at an empty boarding gate, plugged in my iPod and watched some Wonderfalls, moved to another boarding gate and watched some Dexter, had a snack, layed down for a moment, and finally boarded the plane that I would be on for the next 14 hours.
I was so scared about who I would be seated next to. I feared for the worst. I was anticipating an obese, flatuent man with bad breath and an open-mouth snore would be seated in the aisle, leaving me trapped by the window. Instead, a young, quiet, friendly Chinese college girl sat beside me. She was really a perfect flying-mate. She was polite and friendly, but not overly-so. She easily and quickly got up to let me get out, and got up several times herself to walk around, as I tried to as much as possible. We made some idle chit-chat, but mostly kept to ourselves. Perfect for me. The first hour wasn’t so bad. I had the DS out and was mindlessly playing Tetris Worlds. I don’t think I’ll ever stop loving Tetris. Then they served the first round of food. I don’t even remember what they fed us, but they just didn’t friggin’ stop. And it’s not good food on United Airlines by any means. It’s nasty, frozen dinner crap. I was so hungry it didn’t matter by the end of the flight. They must have served us 2 meals plus at least 3 snacks/drinks. And that sucks cuz there’s no way to walk off all that food in that tight compression chamber that is Economy Class. Anyway, I took some sleeping pills, didn’t sleep, watched Pineapple Express on United’s little monitor, slept about an hour, read some of a book, ate some more, watched Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, ate some more, didn’t sleep some more, played more Tetris, watched a couple Dexter’s and Wonderfalls, slept for maybe another half hour, ate some more, did a lap around the plane, watched The Mummy 3 (or maybe it was 4), and still had about 9 hours to go. I felt like my legs were gonna try and kill me. I was so uncomfortable, I’d doze off for about a minute and something would hurt. Fuckin’ economy sucks. We really were packed like sardines in a crushed tin can. Anyway, I somehow managed to make it through that flight. I spent the last hour literally counting the seconds, as I’d run out of other things to do.
In the Beijing Capital International airport, I was really afraid I wasn’t gonna figure out how to transfer. I only had 2 hours until my final flight to Bangkok and had no idea what to expect of their immigration and stuff. I was afraid no one would speak English, all signs would be in Chinese, and I’d somehow get deported back to NY. To my surprise, everything was clearly laid out in English, transferring was a breeze, and immigration and security check were a joke compared to NY. I got patted down by a chick guard cuz my bracelet, watch, and belt made the metal detector beep, but she was friendly and quick. Total time to transfer and get to my terminal? Maybe 30 minutes. Tops. I was really hoping I’d be able to sit down and get a bite to eat and a drink, but there isn’t a single fucking place to do that in Terminal 3, which is Beijing airport’s new, ENORMOUS terminal. Not even a vending machine. It was all Duty Free shops and bullshit souvenirs. I was so goddamn thirsty, but had to wait till I was on the plane for water. Nonsense. I dunnno what the hell I’m gonna do with myself when I’m in that terminal for 7 hours on the way back. I’ll figure it out.
The final flight was on Thai Air, possibly the greatest airline I’ve flown thus far. By this time, I’d been traveling for almost a day and had slept maybe 3 hours total. Again, I was worried where and next to whom I would be seated. Yet, unlike the flight to China, this plane wasn’t full, and a traditionally-dressed Thai flight attendant offered me my own two seats next to a window. I said “hell yeah” and made him laugh. Not only was the plane itself beautifully and Thai-fully decorated, so were the flight attendants. It was so colorful and lively. All the attendants were smiling and happy-seeming, unlike the grumpy, drab United attendants. It was quite pleasant. The seat reclined further than the United seat and had a foot rest, too. I stillcouldn’t really sleep. It wasn’t until the final hour that I found a way to fit laying down across the two seats (with two comfy purple pillows) and fell asleep for a bit. Their in-flight programming was much better than United’s. They had a wide selection of movies, music, and other shit. Their “Classic Movies” section made me LOL. It included Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Dodgeball, Casablanca, and My Cousin Vinny. I watched Dodgeball. Their service and food was and is freakin’ amazing. They kept checking to see if we needed anything, but weren’t overly attentive either. They brought around cups of water every half hour or so, and quietly and swiftly picked up any garbage we had in front of us. At one point, I’m pretty sure one of them offered me a glass of complementary Cognac, but I was dozing off and can’t be 100%. Still, I’m pretty sure that happened. Thai Air rules. Their food was hands down the best airplane meal I’ve ever had. I had to take pictures of it. I was just amazed. Real silverware, pink plastic re-usable dishes and everything. The food tasted as though it was actually cooked in a kitchen, not just shipped over in frozen disposable packages. It was delicious chicken with rice and relatively fresh snow peas and carrots, with some odd dessert and some thing with salmon in it that I didn’t touch. They came around and offered us tea and more drinks, and at the end, brought us Refreshing Tissue, which I kept because it makes me giggle. The flight attendants encouraged people to get up and walk around and spoke and understood perfect English. The plane was kinda noisy, as most people were socializing in the aisles, playing cards and whatnot, but it was a pleasant atmosphere and I just stuck my headphones in and blocked out most of the noise. Next thing I knew, we were landing in Thailand.
The Thai airport is really friggin’ long. I must have walked on at least 8 of those moving sidewalk things to get near immigration, which was a joke. Took about 20 minutes to get through, and most of that time was spent looking for the immigration card that I had forgotten to fill out on the plane. My dad was right where he said he would be, right in front of the mass of people waiting to meet and greet their friends and shit. I couldn’t help but to cry from relief that I’d actually gotten there okay and with no problem. Plus I was beyond exhaustion. We took a taxi to the hotel (the driver gladly waited for my dad for the hour or so he was in the airport… I’m so not in NY anymore). It was about 10:30 by the time we were headed through the busy night streets of Bangkok. Jesus Christ, the nightlife is more ridiculous than NY. Much. A street that would be closed off and considered a street fair in NY is just normal here. People just chillin’ in the streets, partying. Prostituion and stripping is much more accepted and open here. Sex in general is more open. There’s no taboo like there is in the states. No one cares and no one judges. We passed by a really brightly lit street that had “Cowboy” written on the front of it in neon letters, and it was filled with over-crowded bars and strip clubs. At one point, I looked out my window, and there was an elephant. Had I opened my window, I could have touched it. Huge fuckin’ full-grown elephant just chillin’ in the street. Big plastic bag attached to it’s ass. A few feet down the street was a baby elephant. My dad says it’s just another way the Thai people make money; they sell elephant feed to tourists like me and make a couple Baht. I’ll probably go find an elephant on the street later tonight and buy some feed for it. How can I not?
Very similar to Guatemala, Thailand is generally dirty and run-down. There are a few nice, new buildings mixed in with old, delapidated crusty ones. There’s lots of stray mutts just walkin’ around. A lot of areas smell really really bad, especially near the sewers. Like, really bad. Alternately, there’s some places that are beautiful. Well kept and floral and beautiful architecture. There’s no question where there’s money and where there’s none. People will sell just about anything they can think of on the streets. Some streets are lined with street vendors, with things ranging from new t-shirts to antique watches to trinkets to sunglasses. Not too unlike NY, but many more vendors and blankets on the sidewalks.

…

It’s taken me a couple days to get this far with this entry, and I honestly have no idea when I started writing it. I keep adding to it. Right now it’s 9:03pm on Wednesday here in Bangkok.
Tuesday was my first full day here. I got up at like 4am and couldn’t get back to sleep, but it was fine because we went to breakfast at 6:30 and left for the Grand Palace soon after. We walked to their subway station, which is above ground. I think it’s called the Sky Train. Really efficient, a lot like the London Underground and Paris Metro. Makes total sense, all in English and Thai. Quick, air conditioned, relatively clean. We took that to a boat dock and then took a big ugly boat up some river to the dock that was right near the Palace. There were all kinds of market-y shops and vendors on the walk to the Palace.
The Grand Palace didn’t impress me from the outside. It was just a big white stone structure. Inside, however, is unbelievable. I don’t even want to try to describe it because it just won’t do it justice. We got a tour guide to help us through, cuz there was just so much to see and so much history. I prayed to the Emerald Buddah, which is really made of Jade. I have lotsa pictures, and here’s my favorite:
After the Grand Palace, we went back on the river boat down to the famous Oriental Hotel. Holy fucking shit that hotel is amazing. It’s where kings stay when they visit Thailand, literally. We had Afternoon Tea in the tea room. I had Sakura tea, which was possibly one of the best teas I’ve ever tasted. Flowery and naturally sweet, but not overly-so. Just a perfect tea.

Today (Wednesday) went something like this:
After passing out at like 7:00 last night, I woke up this morning at 4 again. I’m still so thrown off. By the time I get used to this time difference bullshit, I’ll be home. Whatever.
My dad scheduled a tour to the Bridge on the River Kwai. The van picked us up from the lobby at 6:20 sharp. It transferred us to a bus and from there we drove for about an hour and a half to a WWII POW museum. All about the brutal conditions in Burma/Thailand while building the railroad and the bridge. It was actually a really good museum. Couldn’t take pictures though. I bought a postcard for 10 baht (30 cents). We also visited the POW cemetary.
The tour also took us on a unique train ride. It was really cool.

After the train, we went to a lovely restaurant and had delicious Thai food, followed by a boat ride on some river. I have no idea where in Thailand we were at this point, and neither did anyone else on the tour. Our tour guide wasn’t easy to understand. She was sweet though. Dad made her uncomfortable by reaching out and touching her arm. She, like, freaked out “no touch!” and backed off. Very unusual for a Thai woman to be like that. My dad has a tendency to freak people out and embarass the people he’s with.
The ride back from Kwai was fucking ridiculous. It was about 3 hours to Bangkok, and it took another 2 hours to get through the tremendous traffic. There was one traffic light that I wish I had filmed. I timed the fucker. It stayed red for 10 minutes, then turned green for 30 seconds, and was red for another 10 minutes. I have never seen anything like it. There were so many cars on the road, we sat through that light 3 times. Ridiculous. Traffic and driving in general here is disgusting. It’s just like Guatemala. There just aren’t any rules of the road. Oh! And they drive on the left side. I didn’t know that until I got here. I thought that was only done in England. Ignorant me. Now Ii know.
Tomorrow (Thursday), we’re going to the biggest restaurant in Bangkok and then taking a taxi for 2 hours to the beach town of Pattaya, where I’ll be staying for the rest of my trip. I’ll have lots more shit to say, I’m sure.

I’m sorry if this entry is verbose and makes no sense.

I’m trying to put pictures in a gallery. I wanted to put them in with the text where appropriate, but I can’t figure out how and my dad is pressuring me to get off the computer and leave the cafe because he’s tired. yet when I’m tired and want to sleep, I have to be awake and doing what he wants to do.