I made it to Bangkok safely! My flights, though very long, went very smoothly--aside from quarantine officers boarding our plane in Tokyo to test everyone for swine flu! I got in at about 11 pm on Monday the 4th. Two other people from my program were on my plane, Bethany and Kevin, who are teaching in the same province as me. I waited around with them until my oreintation roommate, Michelle's, flight arrived.
It was a bit difficult getting a taxi at first; we stuck out as foreigners (farang, as the Thai say), and we were immediately being called over to the "taxi" services--which were really overpriced towncars. Luckily, our orientation organizer over here gave us instructions on how to get the best rates, and we eventually found the metered taxi station. We made it to our destination in Lumpini, right by the "Central Park" of Bangkok (there is a giant park with a huge man-made lake right down the street from our hotel, which I've yet to explore but definitely plan on doing so) for 350 baht, the equivalent of $10 for a 25 minute cab ride. Our hotel is really nice! There's air conditioning, hot water, and wireless internet in the room---definitely a luxury, but one that will make this week more comfortable.
After sleeping off a bit of our jet lag, Michelle and I woke up, ate breakfast at the hotel (a mix of Western and Thai food..the best pineapple ever!), and dressed to wander aroud Bangkok a bit. Our main goals were to get our cell phones all set up with Thai SIM cards, so we decided to head to the giant mall, MBK. As we stood outside looking at the map, a very friendly cab driver named Mr. Wan came up to us and offered to drive us to the nearest Skytrain station (an express monorail system that winds throughout Bangkok, stopping at main locations and very easy to figure out) for 40 baht--roughly $1.15 total. He spoke English, and we were a bit disoriented, so we took him up on his offer. This was our first mistake! I should have known from reading the Lonely Planet guide that this cheap ride to the Skytrain involved a few stops along the way--to a tailor shop where Mr. Wan's sister worked, to whom we had to explain that we did not want any suits made, we just wanted cell phones! After a few minutes, Mr. Wan realized we weren't going to buy anything, so we climbed back in the car and made our way to the Skytrain--with yet another detour, of course! This time, Mr. Wan took us to his friend's canal riverboat tour, which we briefly considered taking...until we were quoted a price of 2000 baht each, about $60! No, thank you, sir! After looking at the map, we realized we were close enough to the Skytrain to walk, and bid Mr. Wan farewell, after promising to consider letting him take us back to the canal tour a few days later. It won't happen, but it was an adventure!
The Skytrain took us directly to MBK, an absolutely huge mall with anything you could ever want! It has a bowling alley, a movie theater, a Tokyu department store, a grocery store, and any other random knick knacks you can think of. Plus, thanks to globalization, there was a Starbucks, KFC, McDonald's, and Burger King in the food court. I didn't check out the menus to note the differences, but I'm sure there are more delicious choices at the Thai locations! Michelle and I went up to the 4th floor where the dozens of cell phone counters were located, went to one of the first ones we saw, and made our purchases (I checked around later to see if we got ripped off, but every station priced my phone the same--go me!). We then decided to head back to the hotel to nap, as the jet lag was catching up with us by that point.
At night, we headed to the night bazaar across the street, where we sat in a beer garden and shared papaya salad, sauteed veggies, rice noodles with chicken and vegetables with a spicy sauce over it, and three enormous Heinekens. After this, we went back to the hotel to rest up for this morning's activities--the first day of orientation!
I haven't been sleeping very well and actually woke up at 4 am this morning, unable to get back to sleep, so hopefully tonight will be better--but today was still a very fun day! The rest of our group had arrived yesterday while Michelle and I were out shopping, and we met them this morning for the first time. There are 19 of us total, some teaching one semester (like me) and some for the whole year. There is another girl from my program teaching at my school, but I haven't really had a chance to talk to her yet--it will be nice to have some support, though! After a brief meet-and-greet session, we headed to the Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha--a huge complex consisting of various ornate wats, temples, palaces, and statues, much of which is covered with 24 karat gold leaf. I took a few pictures that I'll try to post in the next few days! The complex was gorgeous, old, and very significant--many different kings built the complex, and the Emerald Buddha itself dates back to 20s BC! The Emerald Buddha, while very sacred, is actually very small--about 66 cm--and is made out of jade, not emerald! He also has three different outfits made entirely of gold for each season--hot, rainy, and cool. At the beginning of each season, the king himself changes the Buddha's outfits in an elaboate ceremony--what a high maintenance deity! So much gold! After viewing the complex, we took a river boat canal tour (for free--take that, Mr. Wan!), bypassing some traditional boathouses where people still live despite the growing modernity of the city. We then went to lunch and had some delicious Thai food, then came back to the hotel to rest before our first teacher training session.
Our lesson was taught by a Brit who has been teaching and living in Southeast Asia for about 20 years. He gave us some good, basic tips about teaching ESL--how to elicit vocab and phrases from our students, the importance of using visual aids and linguistic tools (ex. teaching "chin" and "cheek", "shin" and "shoulder" at the same time due to the similar "ch/sh" sounds--things you would never think of on your own, but very helpful!). Training will become more intense as the week progresses, but this afternoon was a great start. After this, Michelle and I took a nap, then head out to the street vendors for dinner (rice with papaya salad and spicy chicken with veggies---kind of like laarb from Thai Place!), with these delicious mochi balls covered in coconut and filled with some sweet, cinammony filling...mmmm sooooo delicious...and all for 25 baht each (about 70 cents). I'll have more to write about later in the week, after we train more and go elephant trekking, and raft down the River Kwai! But for now, Thailand is treating me well!
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