Arriving in Bangkok was unbelievably surreal. It was as if I'd never seen a big modern city. We were blown away by the shiny, busy airport with moving walkways and fancy light-up signs, and just as much so throughout the ensuing taxi ride. There weren't any skyscrapers in Nepal.
After Matthew Vaughan the Generous kindly picked us up from the airport and we dropped our stuff off at his place, we met his friend for a delicious first Thai dinner at a street kitchen. We shared several dishes, of which the Pad Thai was my favorite. We also had our first and best yet Thai Iced Tea, which you can get for under a dollar here, as opposed to the four dollars it might cost in the states. After dinner, we made our way to Central World—the large, glitzy mall that was partially burned down during the riots in April. We got a little history lesson the way and began to understand the context a little more, and then sat through thirty-five minutes of previews and stood for the king before Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I. I was very impressed with it after my disappointment with the fifth and sixth movies.
In the morning, we got up late, showered, and found our way successfully to the train station where we purchased tickets for that night's ride up to Chiang Mai. We hoped the way back South wouldn't be as expensive. Then we wandered across the highway and found an internet cafe where we got delicious fruit smoothies and emailed Non—the girlfriend of Ryan, who owns the land we'd be wwoofing at—who would be hosting us at the farm, to tell her when we'd be arriving. We then got back on the sky train toward Matthew's, but stopped off at Lumphini Park (named after the Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha in Nepal), strolled around the park, and had fun on the playground (the swan-like paddle boats only fit two people). Once we got back off at Phra Khanong, we found a small place under the highway for lunch, where a Dutch guy who spoke Thai was just finishing up and helped us order delicious rice and friend vegetables. On our way back to the apartment, we passed a spice shop to which we'll definitely be returning, and then we finished packing and headed back to the station to catch our train.
After what we'd heard from Lacey about sleepers in Vietnam, we weren't expecting much from the train, and it ended up being very enjoyable. Each set of two facing seats folded down to become one person's lower bed, and the less expensive “up” bed folded down from the ceiling, was narrower, and had no window. The food was expensive but not half bad (delicious fresh-squeezed OJ), the stewardesses were friendly (one of them even helped Austin out in our game of cards that he was already winning), and the ride went by quickly.
After the ATM at the station ate my debit card, it took us far too long to find the “big white truck” that would take us to Mae To. It leaves the village every day at 6:30 and returns from Chiang Mai at 12:00 noon. It was a sleepy, bumpy ride, and the driver stopped every so often to drop people off, pick others up, or make deliveries. Once we got here, still not having been able to connect with Non, we wandered up the hill and found Wok, who lives and works at Pun-Pun, a large organic farm and intentional community, who led us up the path to Ryan's land. After dropping our stuff off in the adobe kitchen there, we headed back to Pun-Pun and lazed about at their cafe with delicious fruit shakes for a couple hours until Non came by.
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