We're here!

Before I say anything else, let me tell you: you're lucky that my assumption that a drop down menu might be a language preference was correct -- when I logged into blogger, the whole page was in Thai, and if I hadn't figured the drop-down thing out, there wouldn't be a post today. :)

So, by the way, we're in Thailand! It's been a crazy few days, so let me summarize best I can, with a few pictures. We took a ton, and many more will be up post-trip, but I'm gonna share just a couple for now. It's gonna be a long post as it is.

So, on Thursday afternoon, we arrived in LA and hung out at Cindy and Eric's for a while before our flight. We were already getting wildly excited, it was hard to wait the necessary time before being able to go!

I passed the time by playing on Cin's iPad. We both look slightly crazed, don't we? Mu and I (on the right) were also looking a little giddy.







Eventually, we did the dinner thing and the going to the airport thing and even attempted, unsuccessfully, to get bumped up to business class, and then finally got on our crazily long flight. I did spend a lot of time pre-flight being anxious, but actually once we got going, it wasn't so bad. They fed us pretty well, too. Cin told us to take pictures of the food, which we didn't really do most of the time (too obnoxious, frankly), but it was the best airline food I've had in a long time, with Air New Zealand being the only real competition. They even gave us cup noodle as a snack in the middle of the flight!

We had a short layover in Hong Kong, but since our outbound flight was delayed (due to, apparently, the "congestion at the airport around Christmas," according to the captain), we were able to wander about for a bit and have breakfast. I was so excited by this! There were dumplings! And custard tarts! And noodles for breakfast! And milk tea! It took some effort to find food for Mu that was both vegetarian and included protein, but eventually he ended up with a weird combo of noodles, scrambled eggs, and a bun. We also got fed again on our flight. As I said to Mu after that, the one thing we don't appear to be in danger of on this trip is going hungry. Everyone seems eager to feed us as much as possible. :) I have to admit, this makes me pretty happy -- one of my favorite things about travel is getting to eat yummy things!

Eventually, after the delayed flight, a long line at passport control, and a fairly quick sky rail line into town, we arrived in downtown Bangkok (where we would stay for 4 hours before getting on a train to Chiang Mai). First impressions: traffic is nuts and on the wrong side of the road, there's a ton of pollution, street vendors are everywhere (I was a little sad not to be hungry!), and Thai people are super friendly. When we stepped off the train, 3 people approached us within the span of about 6 minutes, offering directions on getting down from the rail station (needed because the signage was unclear) and guidance on how to get to the main train station downtown (not needed because we had a map and a plan, but we didn't have the heart to tell the very excited man this, so we allowed him to explain it to us). We were, by this point, exhausted and (at least on my part) feeling a little delirious. We wandered around, I caffeinated in a vain attempt to feel less dead, and eventually, we made it to the train station (with the help of a few more friendly people with badges labeled "Tourist Information Authority"). We'd walked about 2.5 miles by then, with our huge backpacks (you can see me with mine on the left), so at that point, we pretty much collapsed until we had to actually board the train, and then we boarded, found our room, and collapsed again, very relieved not to have to put on our backpacks any time soon!

I'm glad to say that the romantic picture I had in my head of train travel (stemming, amusingly, from when my family went to Moscow and back when I was 8, and then again to Moscow to leave the country a few months later) has actually been, so far, borne out. Our room was reasonable spacious and even had a little sink, the food was pretty amazing and not too pricey (dinner and breakfast for both of us for 500 Thai Baht, or about $17), and the berths were fairly wide and surprisingly comfortable. We tried to stay up as late as possible, but crashed out around 9pm and both slept like logs, lulled by the motion of the train. It was really quite lovely, though I can't say the same about the squat toilets. At least there was toilet paper and soap? Heh. Looking out the window in the morning was pretty amazing. We were basically riding through jungle, with occasional stations (and, inevitably, shrines) popping up in the woods. Very incongruous, that.

We finally got into Chiang Mai around 8:30am, were delivered to our guest house by weird taxi (a truck with benches in the bed, this is apparently typical here), and went wandering about the old city, looking at Wats. A Wat is a Buddhist temple and monastery, and there are a ton in town. Lots of monks everywhere, and giant gold Buddhas (I said to Mu at one point, "Look, there's a huge Buddha!" to which he responded, "I think we'll be saying that a lot on this trip."). We sat and listened to monks chanting in one, and wandered about a bunch, and took tons of pictures, one of which you can see on the left. Eventually, we got tired (and overheated, it's mid-80s and humid here!) and found our way to a delicious veggie restaurant (Thanks for the rec, Nikki!), where we feasted before heading back to our guest house to rest.

And that brings you up to speed! Tonight, we'll go to the Sunday walking market to meander and possibly shop a bit and see performances, and tomorrow, we're not sure yet. We may go to the Flower Festival, which sounds pretty but is a little far, or a forest with another Wat, which is also a little far, but all the pictures of it look very grand. It's really nice not to have to make up our minds ahead of time! A very nice start to our vacation. :)