Leaving Bangkok

I am laying on the floor in the Bangkok airport, waiting for our delayed flight to Sri Lanka. That is right. I'm laying on the floor. The tiles are cold. To my side is a moving sidewalk and so people are zipping by me. This floor sleeping is so unbecoming of me as a middle aged white lady in Asia, and yet, so Alaskan. Across the airport are some old recliners and people are passed out in them stretched out, one guy has his mouth open drooling. Why is my laying on this cold tile floor so much worse than that? Below me is the staging area for our "sometime in the future" flight. We are not allowed to go down there until our flight is called. I can hear the sound of a 1993 computer printer zipping out page after page of paper. My first thought is, "why is there not a more modern printer in service down there?" Then my second thought, "What does this say about the state of the airplane we are flying in?"

I wonder if the flight is going to be delayed yet again. As we were standing in line today at the counter I thought about how there was a definitive change in the mood and countenance of the group of travelers we are going to be traveling with. Before we left for this trip, I watched a YouTube video by a very amusing Sri Lankan comedian. He makes wonderful jokes about the Ipod being on Sri Lankan time so that you are always late for everything. It is a very funny joke and so far it is ringing true. I have tried to get a hold of our first hotel, but I can not get through to them on the phone. I can not get through to them by email. We have bought three rooms for two nights and I don't even know if anyone will be there when we show up after midnight. I told the guys that I could tell I was on my way to the Indian Sub-continent. Time was starting to feel differently. It is as if I really need to not be thinking a thing about time or getting somewhere on time, or being anxious or annoyed about time. Things are going to happen as they do. I need to roll with it now. I am on my way to another world. It is not going to serve me bringing anxiety with me.

I said, "Well, worst case, if no one is there to give us our rooms we will be grateful to Craig for having the foresight to pack a mosquito net tent. We will all crawl inside of it on the beach and sleep." Falcom said, "What about the crabs!" "We will sleep on their lawn."

This morning I was awake at 3.30. I laid there, awake, thinking of nothing in particular until 5.30 when Vince and Marina were both awake there in the room, joining me in thinking about nothing in particular but being awake none the less. It is tricky this jet lag business.

We left our last hotel not on the greatest of terms. They tried to get Vince to over pay, which annoyed him with me that I had somehow made a mistake and that made me upset with some unsuspecting girl at the reception who was told to collect an extra 1000 bhat. I won't put up with being ripped off and I am not afraid to make a scene and whalla! We got in a taxi which brought us here to the most beautiful high rise hotel. It is right in the main tourist district, of course, but wow! The view...not only of Bangkok, but of the events happening inside the bathroom because it is walled entirely of glass! (See picture of Vince pretending to be using the toilet.)

That previous evening, while the guys were out drinking beer and eating street food, Marina was sleeping and Falcom was in Craigs room sleeping, I made the decision that I needed to get up early in the morning and travel to a place called Wat Benjamabophit: The Marble Temple. Marina, Vince and I made it out of the hotel as the sun was rising and made our way to a taxi. The taxi took us across town for 80 bhat and we arrived at the Wat Benja. Outside were a line of monks with their robes such dark saffron it was more orange. People were driving up to the doors of the temple and bringing them all kinds of sustainance: water, rice, fruit, chips. The people would get out of the car, take off their shoes and proceed to give monks bags of essentials. Care packages for monks. It was beautiful. A river passes by the temple and in it were large monitor lizards. Amazing.

The sun came up and we watched it blaze bright orange through the smog filled sky. After a while we attempted to flag down a taxi. We weren't in tourist district anymore! The taxis were full or else they didn't know where we wanted to go or they didn't want to take us. Finally a tuk tuk pulled over and said he would take us to the hotel for 100 bhat. I was surprised that Vince didn't argue with the guy, but hey... what a fun experience!

We hopped into the tuktuk and started off. Before long Vince said, "I have the feeling we are going the wrong way." "No!" I said, "He's a tuk tuk driver for heavens sake!" and sure enough we were lost. He had taken us away from any tourist oriented place and drove us right through the heart of Bangkok. What was a 15 minute trip to get there became an hour trip to get home. We went through China Town and around the palace.

Tuktuks are interesting. They are so cool, and they zip around like nothing. It is like being on a three wheeled motorcycle with a roof: the whole world is right there and you can move relatively quickly through it and even touch it if you want. But I learned something else. When you are in a Tuktuk during morning traffic when the streets are just packed, you are right at exhaust pipe level with every bus in the city. Also, unless you stick your head out into the street you can't see much.

Our driver was lost. After about 30 minutes he pulled over to ask directions. It was obvious that he was not at all pleased with the situation he had found himself in. This was a lot of time wasted on three Americans who are up early to look at monks. He must have been thinking to himself, "Gosh, when I go to America are they going to expect me to go to churches and stare at the preachers?"

Finally, he found our hotel and boy was he ever glad to be rid of us. He raised the price to 200 and Vince gave him a look like, what? and then gave him 140, we were so glad to be back in the lap of luxury! I took a shower in the glass room and met the family for a breakfast of massive proportion. Guests were at the hotel from all over the globe! Many of them were in their native dress: the Indians, Muslims, and Europeans (in their underdressed states). I suppose we were too... in our Alaskan shorts and T-shirts that we only wear once a year when we go on vacation to a tropical location so why bother updating the style? I can not remember the last time I heard so many accents and seen so many different varieties of food to sustain all these people. There was one table of American breakfast foods, one lady was walking through the restaurant carrying a baguette, one Indian man was loading up his plate with relishes.

It was great but I couldn't get to feeling better. Craig brought me a glass of ginger juice. I'm not kidding. There are people who can drink that like it is orange juice. I am not one of them. It did help my stomach though.

Even so, I could not kick the feeling of stomach and body sickness. Not enough sleep, too much exhaust fumes. I spent the rest of the day hanging around the air conditioned hotel, drinking water and waiting to go to the airport.

Which is where this leaves me. Oh! The plane is going to board eventually and they are letting us down to the main gate waiting area. Cool. Write more from Sri Lanka!