Home sweet home
Well, maybe “sweet” is the wrong word for Bangkok…but it does feel strangely like coming home! We took an overnight bus from Chiang Mai and were dropped off at Morchit bus station at 5 a.m., the very place that we departed back on September 30th. Suddenly, the past three months felt like they hadn’t existed, that we’d been here just yesterday!
We knew where we wanted to eat breakfast, we knew how to get a taxi and how to pronounce our destination, we knew how to navigate our way to the guesthouse and we knew that we’d spend all day at Chatuchak Market. It felt bizarre arriving as backpackers when we consider ourselves to be pros here!
Groggy from the bus ride, it took some time to drag ourselves to the market. Suddenly we were back, walking the same old routes, dodging the motorbikes and gaping potholes on the sidewalks while avoiding drips of water from the airconditioning units and drains above, breathing in the exhaust fumes, examining the endless array of food on offer from street vendors, sweltering in the heat (cool season?) and arriving at Chatuchak, a market that looks decidedly unexotic after all we’ve seen. Unexotic or not, consumerism gets the best of everyone and we spent a good portion of the day browsing and buying and eating and marveling at how it was like we’d never left.
In addition to the Chatuchak experience, there were a few other changes in our perspective. The traffic, though heavy, seems very orderly and predictable after what we’ve seen in Cambodia and Vietnam. The city seems about as (over)developed as any place could get, the people seem incredibly wealthy. It’s a shock to be back in a place that never sleeps; 5a.m. and 5p.m. are the same beast, full of cars and buses and bikes and exhaust fumes and food vendors and vendor patrons and neon lights and the ding of 7-eleven doors as people pass through for their iced coffees and Red Bull.
We haven’t done much here, as sightseeing is unnecessary; aside from Chatuchak and morning runs at the park, we’ve mostly relaxed by our guesthouse pool with great books, taking breaks to go explore the nearest mass of street stalls when we get hungry.
Last night we got to meet up with four great friends who are all working in nicer schools (real jobs!) and living in nicer places (real apartments!) than when we’d first arrived. It was wonderful to see all of them, share dinner and drinks with old friends and hear about the past few months. The best part was the massive stack of Christmas cards that my friend Lisa had waiting for me – thanks to ALL of you, it made my day to read your notes and to be reminded of what an incredible family I have!
Being here, in place that we know so well, makes us both feel like the trip is ending; luckily that’s not the case quite yet! In all of its usual brilliance, the Thai government has decided that the solution (?) to their cripplingly low tourism numbers is to reduce the length of the visa from 30 days to 15 days. Because of this, we have to be out of the country by tomorrow, an enormous inconvenience!
We are taking an overnight bus to Ranong, which we will use as a base for crossing into Burma tomorrow morning. We’ll turn right around and be stamped back into Thailand, where we’ll spend another 15 days getting diving certifications and rock climbing in the islands. After those 15 days we will head to Malaysia for a month, one final “new” frontier (one filled with Indian food!), before spending the very last two weeks on a diving trip and stocking up on as many things as we can get onboard a plane in Bangkok. It will be tough to leave (can’t think about that yet!), but real home will certainly be sweet!
Tags: thailand
allisonrae
January 6th, 2009 at 9:25 am
[…] Original post by allisonrae […]
January 6th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Sweetheart, if I were gone as long as you two I don’t know if I would title my return to Thailand as “Home Sweet Home”. I hope you have one last blog entry when you get back to Texas and call that “REAL Home Sweet Home”. Glad you made it back safe, now stay that way! love you.
Dad
January 6th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
You almost made me cry for some strange reason…I can’t wait for you guys to get back home! I hope you have an underwater camera for those diving trips. You’ve shown us the inside of caves, the tops of mountains, beautiful forests, and so much other amazing sights! Can’t wait to see some more of your adventures!