Scoop from Singapore

Our first country to visit was Thailand, so on Friday morning Michele, Sascha, Jeff, and I flew to Bangkok. After a little bit of trouble at the airport, we arrived at Big John's Guesthouse and were thrilled to find the owner to be a fun loving Australian. They made amazing sandwiches there and I happily enjoyed western food all weekend.

After unpacking a bit, the four of us decided to explore around our hostel, but found that there wasn't too much nearby. We later learned that we were in the eastern part of the city, a section that was not touristy. We came to appreciate this much more later. We had dinner at Big John's and then hung around the hostel and got to meet other backpackers. One of the girls I talked to was teaching English in Japan, while another had spent the last few months globe trotting. This backpacking culture just amazes me so much, and every person's story intrigues me more.

You would all be proud to know that I am becoming quite a backpacker myself. Or at least, I like to tell myself I am. I have showered and gone to the bathroom in some interesting places, have learned to carry a role of toilet paper (or at least a small package of tissues) at all times, have slept in beds that are NOT queen sized, have washed my clothes in the sink, and have carried my backpack weighing 18 kilos. Now, at the same time, every taxi driver and hostel owner has snatched my bag off my back because they said it was too big for me, I have run screaming from rats, and have been stranded on the side of the road because I was afraid to cross the traffic. But I still, I think I'm being pretty tough! Minimal complaining from this girl!

Late Friday night we did catch up with the girls, and even later the rest of the boys! We made plans for Saturday before drifting off to sleep on our squeaky bunk beds, and found great joy in waking the boys up in the morning. My friends are not morning people, haha!

Jeremy, Jen, and Julio had gone out ahead of us, so Alicia, Rachel, and our group got up and headed out around 11. Our plan was to meet up at 1, but taking the sky train, a river boat, and figuring out the route to our meeting point did not work out well. We ended up shopping around for a few hours before meeting at 4 at our back up plan meeting spot. In those shopping hours, we did find a great little Thai restaurant which kicked "Taste of Thai"'s butt in comparison. Yum!

Once we finally got together, Jeremy lead us on his tour of the must see Thailand sights, aka the tourist destinations marked with icons on his map from the airport. We saw the 200-year-old Giant Swing, a bright-red wooden structure that was once the focus of Brahman ceremonies in honor of the Hindu god Shiva. (I didn't think it looked like a swing... but shhh). We then went to the Democracy Monument, which is right in the middle of a traffic roundabout. It was the first of many times that I was forced to cross the street while traffic was whizzing by me. SCARY.

After those travels around the city, 7 of us headed to a hotel that was supposed to have a restaurant and great view from the top floor. We split into two groups, and unfortunately the other half got lost for the next hour. When we arrived at the hotel, we were also told our dress was not acceptable to enter the restaurant (7 sweaty college kids denied access to a classy hotel, we didn't see this coming?)

We then went shopping at a night market and went to bed early. We had plans to go to the floating market early in the morning (my alarm went off at 6, this was NOT screaming relaxing vacation to me) but because of travel complications and the distance of the markets, we ended up going back to sleep until noon.

As we prepped to explore the city again on Sunday, Rachel realized she lost her ATM card, so we hung back and took care of those logistics for a while. We shopped at another market for a while, before returning to the hostel to finish packing. We went to a really great Thai restaurant, all 9 of us, for dinner, and then said our goodbyes.

With the group down to Michele, Sascha, Jeff, Rachel, and myself, we grabbed 2 cabs and headed to the bus station for our overnight ride to the boarder. Since this was our first bus ride of the trip and they gave us blankets, I was still optimistic and peppy about travels. Please note, this got less enjoyable throughout the week!