My Trip Begins: Thailand

Yesterday in a whirlwind and a panic I left my room, my home, and my pets and headed off to the airport. I was very lucky to make it because, as usual, i left a lot of things until the last minute. I basically started packing my luggage the morning of my flight. It was very stressful. But we made it to the airport comfortably and I had a last 'meal' and coffee with my loved ones before saying a teary goodbye. Eleven months. That's a long time for a little boy like me. Its over 5 times longer than the previous longest time I've been away from my family and friends. Its basically an entire year of my life. But I've started and there's no turning back now.

The plane trip to Sydney was relatively easy. I had a reasonable seat in a three with a friendly couple to my right who were interested in my ipod, then later were interested in my camera. Upon arrival in Sydney I took a quick bus trip from domestic to international and was back on another plane. This time the seats were crappy, I was in the middle again but had two men to my left and one to my right, all of them smelly, ugly and uninteresting. So I bunkered in and watched family guy episodes on my ipod and then a couple of ordinary movies. Although, Pride and Prejudice was a surprisingly good movie. I'm slowly coming around to keira knightley.

The 747 touched down in Bangkok smoothly and then it was a matter of tracking down my luggage and double checking that I hadn't magically aquired more luggage on the way. Luckily all was as it should be and I walked out of the arrivals/immigration section without a hitch (probably because there was no one x-raying or working). Then I turned a corner and was astounded by the throng of people waiting for arrivals. I believe it was something around 400 people. I twas like parting the red sea as I walked towards them and past them. Then in the distance from there to the outside I was approached by about 15 people offering taxi services. I politely declined because I'd read in the Lonely Planet (LP) that they rip you off and you're better to go out to the taxi rank, which is what i did. It cost 400 baht (AU$16), a little expensive for Thailand but not outrageous. The driver was nice, but he (like almost everyone else) tried to get me to have a tour with him the next day, so he could show me all the sites.

The Royal Hotel is a great big place. It is my place of residence while i'm here in Thailand. It is huge. Upon arrival at 11pm a busboy grabbed my bags and after check in he carried them up to my room for me. (It feels like there are too many people and all these jobs which probably don't need someone get filled by a person. then jobs which only need one person are filled by three people.) After his help he stood at the door and I had no idea what kind of tip to give him, so i gave 20baht note (AU$0.80)? Then I unpacked my things, had a shower, and watched some funny thai shows while I worked out my stuff. It was a long and emotional day but somehow I got through it relatively easily.