Welcome Home

This condo wasn't as nice as last year's, but still great. A huge living space and dining room ensures we won't kill each other. There's two couches and two rooms with queen sized beds, and two bathrooms. We agreed to a rotation of who sleeps where. I definitely didn't want any special treatment because I was the only girl. We're all paying the same amount anyway. Turns out the couches are more comfortable anyway ( : You'd be just as well off sleeping on the table if you're in the bed that night. So hard.

There's a small hallway that leads into the kitchen with a room not much bigger than a closet off to the right. Kop said it's the maid's room. Dang, I'd panic if I had to stay in that. Claustrophobia for sure. We just ended up keeping our empty bags in there.

As soon as we got home, we unpacked a bit and then sat at the table for "power hour." The driver had greeted us with two cases of Singha, Thailand's official beer. The rules are simple: you take a shot of beer every minute for an hour. Honestly, you get more full than anything. I've played once before, and made it to 36.


I have no intention of ever getting to the point of puking straight foam, which is a rumored consequence. The boys had a layover in Japan (mine was in Taiwan) and had bought painted shot glasses. However, they were huge. About a shot and a half.

We were snacking on things we'd picked up from 7-11 on our way to the condo, mostly weird flavored chips. Shrimp/seaweed anyone? I was so full by 40 minutes, I threw in the towel and just hung out.

We were meeting the owner of the condo (Kop and Gop's friend) for breakfast at 7, before he had to be at work. So we just stayed up. Since we didn't even get to the condo til 3, we started getting ready soon after power hour. It is amazing how gross I get traveling. A shower never felt so good.

Breakfast was downstairs in the main building, mostly American food with a little dim sum thrown in. Then we took off to explore Bangkok. We walked to the BTS (above-ground metro) and paid 20 baht (about 75 cents) to get dropped of at a central mall. We had completely forgotten how early it was- it wasn't open yet.


We went to Starbucks to wait. From previous experience I do NOT recommend getting coffee there in Thailand. Pretty much tasted like warm goat's milk. On our way back to the mall we noticed Thailand's usual street-dwellers: the homeless and dogs. THe homeless here are different though. They are actually incapable of working in some way, either crippled, blind or old. In sharp contrast to the fat, well-clothed homeless you find at freeway offramps in America, these beggars are actually starving, dirty, and shoeless with sorry excuses for clothes.

MBK (the mall) was so busy, with people, products, and smells. It's overwhelming. Every few feet there's a different, often contrasting, smell. It almost makes me dizzy. Ryan got a pair of the infamous knock-off jeans, then we headed to a restaurant.

It had a boiling pot of water in the middle of the table and we ordered all sorts of meat and vegetables to cook in it ourselves. The close proximity to a boiling metal pot made me laugh; if this were in America, there'd be a lawsuit a day. I was too tired to be hungry though, I hadn't slept at all on the plane.

As soon as we got back to the condo I crashed. I don't know how, but the boys headed straight for the gym. They woke me up to get ready and P'Rose came over to take us to dinner. (P' is a respectful prefix of someone's name if they're older than you). We took a taxi to a restaurant on the Mekhong river.

One of the best parts about eating in Thailand is the "family style" serving. We order at least a dish per person and all share.