Monday, November 14, 2011

The Rest of Day 1

So I found the Aurport Link Train with no problem, and only missed one turn going to the guesthouse, which I quickly corrected. When I got there, I showered immediately, which was accompanied by a clueless rooster, who decided to start crowing at 3...PM?

I met the guys running the guesthouse. One of them just got his degree from CSULB and lived in SF for awhile. The other guest for the night (til Thursday) was also from SF. So I eventually just got too tired, and had to give into jetlag at about 5 PM BKK time (that's 2 AM CA time, which is approximately my bedtime). I told the guys to wake me if they went out for food. Fortunately, they did, at about 8. If they hadn't I'd have not woken up til like 2 AM. Which would've sucked.

As a tangent, the guesthouse we're at right now is in an alley in an alley in an alley. There's air conditioning, which is a lifesaver. I don't think there is hot water, and thank goodness because the two cold showers I have had so far have been great. And at least at this guesthouse, there is internet too!

We're in the neighborhood of Phayathai, which is really close to the train lines, and on the edge of downtown. The great thing about this neighborhood, is that it's not tourist town at ALL, so there is every kind of food you could possibly imagine. So picking up from before, we navigated (OK, I followed amazedly) through assorted walkways, and somehow ended up at another alley. We eventually stopped at a Southern Thai restaurant. Southern Thailand is predominantly Muslim, and ends up with a lot of its own Thai cuisine, that I would guess is somewhat like Malaysian food. We had a quesadillalike# dish that was dough and egg cooked on a searing hot slab of something (think the grill at a restaurant). Then add a lot of beef and some bananas, heavily coated in all sorts of good spice, and then fold over. We also got some southern-Thai style tea, sweetened with condensed milk, much like thai tea. But the type of tea they used made the tea flavor stronger, and the sweet not as cloying. Delicious.

Nate then suggested steak. I was like, well sure, why not, I haven't had steak in a day. It turned out to be a pounded thin ribeye in what was actually a pretty good (mushroom?) sauce. It was served with fries and buttered toast. OK so maybe I will stick to actual Thai food for now, but it was actually kind of an awesome experience, because it was definitely a Thai restaurant hidden in some alley in some alley in some alley.

Then I picked up Dielle from the train station. We coincidently arrived at the same time, so there was no waiting around, and we walked back to the guesthouse. We met another new guy, a friend of the hosts, and we all played the Monopoly card game. Dielle and I kinda failed epicly. Eventually, we went out for more food. This of course involved walking through random alley after random alley all filled with street food. The 6 of us eventually settled on a random street joint. I actually didn't eat, and just mooched a bit of Dielle's pad see ew, since it was after midnight and I didn't want to mess with my sleep (which of course sucked anyway). It's kind of awesome when the stand proprietors just bust out a plastic table and six chairs in the middle of the street with cards driving by you down these tight alleys.

We came home, and I then failed to sleep well. Though I did have dreams, so I must've slept some! I think today the guesthouse hosts are bring some of us on a food tour of Bangkok. We had so much fun here that we're going to stay another night at least. I personally think staying in a random neighborhood with peers our own age who know the way around beats the heck out of staying in tourist town, but we will check out Khaosan Road eventually. Meeting other travelers is cool, too! Dion gets in at midnight tonight!

I hope I eat lots today. It's 10 AM now, and 4/6 people are awake. Hopefully I'll be used to the time change soon. Also blogspot insists on being in Thai, so I just have to navigate it in Thai, remembering what button does what :). Finally, I decided not to take pictures yesterday, but mayyyyybe I will today :)

So glad I am settled in now. Bangkok is awesome so far!

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