We were definitely sad to leave our new friends Roy and Arnav; not to mention so many unexplored regions of India, BUT we had been looking forward to Thailand since the start of our trip and with Bangkok first on our itinerary , there was no time to dwell on what had been left behind.
We arrived very early in the morning and as in some places we’ve visited before, Bangkok had energy. Unfortunately for us, we didn’t. We caught the taxi to our CS host, Mai’s apartment in Sukhumvit. She answered the door, still in pajamas looking sleepy, with evidence of a party in the background. As it turned out, her celebratory birthday dinner got a little crazy the night before and had plans to go into work a little late. SO, she went back to bed and Chelsea and I passed out on the amazingly comfortable futon leaving the intro phase till later that night.
That night we got to know Mai a little bit over some delicious Thai street food in a area set up for vendors with little plastic table and chairs set up besides their portable kitchen. We were really excited since we’d been looking forward to that since the inception of our trip. The service was quick and personal, and the mixed meat and noodle dish did not disappoint, especially the mango and sticky rice for dessert!
On our way home, we all decided to get Thai Massages!! Yay we had been waiting 6 months to get a massage (it was especially difficult turning down 5 a day on the beach in Santorini!), and the moment had finally come! Mai knew this CHEAP place, only 100 baht, which is just over $3!!! We may have been sketched out if Mai had not been with us. This place was dark with little cubicles to lay in, BUT it ended up being amazing! A Thai massage is more like being stretched out after a work out. The outfits they give you to put on are the coolest too
The next day on our way to the train station to buy tickets to the Cambodian border, we were lured in by a travel agency. A bit skeptical but intrigued enough to listen we sat in there for over 2 hours figuring out plans for what would turn out to be, the next two weeks.
First stop on our tour was Kanchanaburi and this involved an early next morning “bus” to experience the River Kwai and surrounding areas. These new travel plans had us booked for two return trips to Bangkok. Since we had to be up-around 5:00am we opted for a visit to China Town knowing at some point in our returns, we would explore the cities famous attractions. We got lucky picking China town on this particular night, where the vegetarian festival was underway. We took advantage of the street vendors and even caught a glimpse of some ancient Chinese dancing. The night concluded with the long walk back to the sky train.