First Day in Bangkok

Our first day in Bangkok began at 12:40 am when we arrived.  Everything went amazingly well! The flight to Tokoyo left and arrived late, we walked up to the gate for Bangkok just as they were boarding the plane :) We picked up our bags, went through customs, met up with Rung and Ethel from the school and were settled in our hotel/apt. by 2:00am.  The girls brought us some supplies for us to use during our time here which was so nice, things we didn't even know we'd need :)  We tried to sleep for a few hours but since we are 12 hours ahead of Minnesota/Wisconsin time, it felt like 2 in the afternoon not 2 in the morning.  

We started our day, again :) by having breakfast muffins with an american family living here for six months that are teaching at the school too.  They were so nice and gave us some tips on life in Bangkok and where to find some coffee :)

After getting our iced coffee we were off to shop for a few supplies then met up with Ethel so she could show us around the area, what buses to ride to the school, exchanging money, post office, what food to eat and not to eat and some general cultural information.  Ethel has been working at the school for seven years, she is on staff there and is originally from the Philippines.  Very helpful and she speaks english beautifully.  After a delicious Thai lunch she took us to the school to meet the rest of the staff, tour the building and neighborhood, finish up some paperwork and get information for our orientation on Friday.  By that time, it was 2:30, we were ready for a rest nap!  Lots of information to take in our first day but all very good :)  Our heads felt a little fuzzy all day and we knew that was from jet lag but we also found that Bangkok is very polluted both in the air and on the streets so that can be a bit tiring to get adjusted to as well.

Our accommodations are located on a very main thoroughfare with hoards of brightly colored taxi's, buses, cars, motorcycles to watch carefully  as you cross any side street, they aren't looking out for you.  We have a view from our back windows that look out on one of the city rivers that we found out you can take a water taxi  to get places.  There is also a whole city block of trees that we thought was a park and turns out to be a private residence- pretty amazing when everything is so congested and crowded.   In the morning there were many vendors out on the sidewalks selling mostly food items that were either pre-packed that morning to sell or cooking items right there in small grills.  There are also  flowers and food items to purchase for offerings to their gods.  We are living in the Bangkapi area which is located on the northeast outskirts of Bangkok.