Adventures in Thailand

Hi Everyone!
Oh my gosh there is so much to tell you. Hannah and I have been in Bangkok now for about 3 days and we already have done sooooo much! Yesterday Mook took us to see our school and tried to open a bank account here (we have to wait until we get our student IDs to get a student account). We were able to drive by where we will be living and got to drive through our school which was super cool. We spent time in this HUGE shopping mall called Platinum (they pronounce is Plah-tee-num). It is a little overwhelming because there are so many vendors packed into one area! The only down side is that I have big feet and about the biggest size they have here a 40 or about a 9. Sometimes I fit in them sometimes I don't. It depends. but bags and shirts are a GO! they have the cutest stuff and the REALEST (I don't care if that isn't a word) knock offs I have ever seen. Our friend Toon told us that you can even buy a knock off MacBook! It's crazy! but I guess thats what you get when you live in the place that everything is made. So if anyone wants something let me know! I'll see what I can do :D

After shopping for a while, Mook took us to Hannah's cousins condo. Her names Taryn.  She works as an international marketing consultant for a fashion company here in Bangkok. She has the set up too! Her company owns her apartment unit and she gets to live there for free with her boyfriend Colin. They were kind enough to let us stay there for a night. We spent the day swimming in their infinite pool! It is like their own little oasis in the middle of the hot and humid Bangkok. Later we went to the part of the city called Khaosan Rd which is where all the foreigners go to party. Hannah and I don't really feel comfortable enough to party here because we don't really know where home base is. It's a really fun place though, so many people from so many different places. If someone asks you to go a ping pong show just know it has nothing to do with the game! Look it up.

Today we spent our day at this outdoor flea market. It was crazy! its 28 acres of vendors upon vendors! It's so easy to get lost there. But everything is so cheap! you can find the cutest things for so cheap. I found Ray Ban sunglasses for less than 10 dollars! We got a few other trinkets and I bought postcards! I will be sending some out tomorrow! This is definitely a place that me and Hannah are going to come back to. We spent 4 hours there and were not even close to covering the whole thing.

After the market we grabbed some dinner at a restaurant called Robin Hood. It is an Irish pub in the heart of Bangkok. All of us were craving American burgers and it didn't disappoint. It was a little more expensive than what I am used to paying but we still were able to feel 5 people for $62 total! pretty good deal.

This is the name of an accessory store in the Siam Paragon. Interesting..... Our friend Mook didn't know what it meant. That was an interesting conversation to say the least. I find that a lot of the people here in Bangkok don't understand english well enough to translate things accurately. For example, I stumbled across a shirt that read "Keep calm you C*UNTS".... I tried to take a picture of it but the store owner started yelling at me. That was another thing that Mook didn't realize was pretty offensive. Once again, another interesting conversation.

This is a lychee fruit! You cut it open and on the inside is a little clearish fruit. It's really good and really sweet! We bought a whole bag of these for about 80 Baht. (roughly $3)

Hannah and a lychee fruit!

Hannah and a lychee fruit again!

This is Hannah and her cousin Taryn. She is so cool! and so nice to let us stay at her awesome condo for free!

All three of us together!

Hannah, Taryn and their two friends

Hannah and I at the 28 acre flea market!

It's hard to tell but this says Thaibasco sauce.... a little different, but really not as good. :D

Hannah and I at Robin Hood. I got those hair beads at the flea market!

Taryn and her boyfriend Colin

This is our hotel room! So COOL!

This is our bathroom for 2 nights! 

REALLY COOL SHOWER!

We have our own balcony!

Awesome tub!

Sink!

After getting back from the market and dinner, we went back to Taryn and Colin's apartment and packed up our suitcases and got ready to move to our next place. When we first arrived in Bangkok, our friends Mook and Toon gave us complimentary gift certificates for 2 nights stay in this new hotel here in Bangkok. It is called the Siam Kempinski. It is the NICEST hotel either of us have ever been in! I can't believe we are staying in this hotel for free! I will include pictures of our room below. The entrance to this hotel is the most grandiose entrance EVER! We were planning on going to the Grand Palace tomorrow and some other site seeing places, but now we are thinking we might just hang out here for the next 2 days! I mean might as well! we have 5 months to see the Grand Palace. We are definitely taking advantage of the hotel gym! Tomorrow we are going to work out and go swimming.

Anyways thats all for now! Will update more later!

First Day in Bangkok

First Day in Bangkok!

Our first day in Bangkok has been productive and interesting! We woke up and had breakfast downstairs in our hotel. It wasn’t much different then what I would have at home in America. Eggs and toast mostly. After breakfast we walked along the street our hotel is located on and tried to get our bearings. It an interesting city Bangkok. Once second you smell something really good like curry and fried food, and then a stench that almost knocks you on your feet. It does not smell good. But it is interesting all the same! After walking around Hannah and I found a restaurant/bar and decided to try out some Thai beer. It was just like any other beer. Not that different.

            As we are walking around I feel like we stick out like a sore thumb. I could just feel the stares as we sat at the roadside bar. We are definitely foreigners. After grabbing a beer we went back to our hotel to get our things together because we met our friends Mook and Toon at the shopping center. We are forever in their debt! The shopping center is CRAZY!! There are so many different kiosks and places to purchase what we needed! But thanks to Toon and Mook we now have our school uniforms and Thai cell phones! I was lucky that my old blackberry works over here. After getting all our uniforms and cell phones in order, we grabbed some lunch over at the Siam Paragon. Super good food and really cheap! I’m liking that. We spent less than 200 Bahts on lunch. (reference 30 Bahts = $1) $7 is an awesome price for lunch!

            After lunch we ventured back to our hotel and I got a chance to take a shower. Oh my god it felt so good! It is ridiculously humid here! But I have a feeling we will get used to it. Our plan for the rest of the day is to just hang out and catch up a little bit on our sleep. We are going to try our luck with the street food and our ordering. We will see how that goes!

That’s all for now! Here are some pictures of our day! 

 This is the street our hotel is located on.

 We liked that happy hour was from 8am to 8pm.... So basically all day

 Thai Beer!

We found a wax figure of Leonardo Di Caprio! He looked sooo real! so weird!

Made it to Seoul!

After a fairly successful morning/day/night Hannah and I have finished 2 out of the 3 legs of our journey. We are currently in Seoul, South Korea waiting for our next flight to Bangkok! Our morning started off somewhat eventful, we walked out on to the tarmac and found that we were going to be flying the in OREGON DUCK airplane down to San Francisco! What a horrible way to start our trip! we crossed our fingers and prayed that we were make it safely seeing as both of us are repping our Oregon State gear! It was a pretty easy flight and we met spent most of the time talking to the girl in front of us. She was spending time on the west coast staying with friends and backpacking. She's from Pennsylvania I think? I don't really remember but we did find out that she is a Delta Gamma. It's fun to meet other sorority girls randomly! We had a pretty fun flight! when the flight attendants came around Hannah and I ordered beers! Nankasi to be exact! Yes it was 7am in the morning but we figured we might as well start off the day right :D. It was super hoppy and actually kinda difficult to drink but we did it. 

Below is the picture that I took looking out the window next to my seat. Wasn't too happy at having to look at that the whole time. 

This is our breakfast of champions! Beer and coffee cookies. Hannah brought along a big book of easy crossword puzzles. It's been nice to have something to work on together! We are quite the team!

These are the slippers we received on our flight from San Francisco to Seoul! It was a SUPER nice flight! Hannah and I got lucky enough to have 3 seats between the 2 of us. We were able to sprawl out and sleep a lot easier. We spent most of the 12 hour flight sleeping and watching movies. I probably watched about 5 different movies. What else are you supposed to do?! Surprisingly the meals were really good on the plane. For lunch they fed us Bimbap (a rice concoction with meat, vegetables and hot sauce) and seaweed soup. The Bimbap was really good but the seaweed soup was something else. I had one bite of it to say I tried it and then set it aside. For dinner it was either chicken or pasta. Nothing too special

Our plan once we get to Bangkok is simple: get to our hotel, sleep, eat, get a thai massage! It's probably going to cost us about $4 which is a good price for us!

Anyways I will write more once we get to our final destination!

Packing success!!

    A success for Dani! After packing and unpacking multiple times, I have finally condensed down the amount of clothes and STUFF I am taking to Thailand. It includes a backpacking backpack and a smaller suitcase. I have to say I am quite proud of this accomplishment. I am a notorious for overpacking. You just never know what you may need! And I have to admit I found room in that backpack for a blazers jersey and an oregon state jersey. (you never know when you might need one of those). But besides those I have the basic necessities. :D It may help that there is going to be a lot of shopping done while I'm over there but I am currently living by my mom's old saying, "whatever we forgot is for sissies!". I can remember many a family vacation of forgotten items of food or clothing that were ALWAYS for sissies. 

   Take off day is in less than 48 hours!! Last night I had troubles sleeping because I was so excited and because it was my last night in Corvallis :(. On Wednesday morning at 6:30AM Hannah and I will be taking off from PDX. Silly us for booking a flight so early in the morning but it ends up being not too bad after all. We get into Bangkok at approximately 12pm on the 29th of July. Our friends Mook and Toon will be picking us up from the airport! I am so grateful that they are doing that because when I was talking to Toon, he said that there is no way you can protect yourself from getting ripped off by the taxi and tuk-tuk drivers. If you don't know either Thai or Bangkok itself they are going to drive you around to jack up the price. So we are very thankful that they are picking us up. 

Well thats all for now! Tomorrow is my mom's birthday so I will be spending the day with the fam then off to the airport at 4am!

See you all in Bangkok!

Dani

VISA DAY!

Today Hannah and I went and got our student visas for our trip!! It was the last thing to do before we leave and it made it feel so much more real! It's going to feel even more real the night before. I talked to my friend Erika about this trip (she just left this morning for a 6 week study abroad down in Mexico) and she didn't feel like it was real until the day before she left. I completely know that feeling.
There are just a couple things left to do before we set off! I'm spending a couple days down in Corvallis to clean up my room and get some things in order. I can't wait to start posting pictures of Bangkok!!

Talk to you all in Thailand!
Dani

Hey guys!
Hannah and I have 8 days until we leave this country. It is starting to get down to the wire! We were going to go get our student visas today but unfortunately I forgot my passport down in Corvallis. Looks like I'll be making the trip down there today to pick it up. Last minute shopping seems to be the best idea for me at this point. Yesterday I went and got some curly hair stuff for very humid climates. I've been watching the climate lately. I am looking forward to the 90 degrees and thunderstorms weather. NOT! My hair is going to be a curly out of control mess for 5 months. But hey, can't complain too much right? I'm in Thailand! Our first couple of days will be spent in a hotel in Bangkok. We have no plans as of right now just to explore the city when we get there. I have two goals while I am there though. One is going to this Tiger Temple. http://www.tigertemplethailand.com/tours_tiger_temple_thailand.html. It looks so fun! These monks take in the tigers and somehow they are tame. It's an all day exploration! I can't wait to pet tigers. Definitely going to get a picture of that. My second goal is to go to this place where my friend Megan worked for a couple of months. http://www.elephantnaturepark.org/. Its an elephant sanctuary where you can be sure that the elephants are treated right. They live good lives and aren't forced to work in the cities. They aren't mistreated and they love their lives. I'm excited to see that. Once we have some plans I will keep posting on here. I have a feeling that we wont figure out what we want to do until we get there which is fine by me. If anyone has any suggestions let me know!

Until next time
Dani

Getting Ready

Hey everyone!
Here goes my first post! I have approximately 17 days left until I jet set off to Thailand! There is still so much to do and I haven't really wrapped my head around the fact that I will be drastically changing my life here in a little over 2 weeks. Hannah and I will be arriving in Bangkok on the 28th and taking some time to settle into the city. I can't wait to start uploading pictures of the city and everywhere we get to travel. If anyone has any ideas of where to go let us know! we are open to anything!