day 1 continued

(i guess there is a size limit to how much you can include in an email blog post. here is the rest of the text from day 1 that didn't get published)

there's also local flavor. street food vendors selling noodles, fried chicken, bbq on a stick, fruits like pomegranate and mango. i walked to banjasiri park where people were working out on the exercise equipment or laying in the shady grass napping.

grabbed lunch on my way back at a place recommended by mary (madam saranair): grilled chicken & pad thai.

started off the evening with ladies night happy hour with mary and her friends at hemingway's one of the english pubs. buy 1 get 1 glasses of wine, and a few of us got our numerology told by an older american man. he had some affirming insights about my career and family. and i found out my auspicious days of this month.

the rain started pouring down in the middle of our happy hour which thwarted plans to have dinner at a place further down the road. instead we grabbed some flat noodles, papaya salad and massaman beef curry at a restaurant in the mall. the floor of the mall was SF themed! i travel half way around the world and they're trying to make me feel like i'm at home.

day 1: sukhumvit road, bangkok

reviving the camilleeon chronicles for the purposes of documenting this trip. if you didn't know, i'm in thailand!! having never traveled solo, this trip and destination has been in the back of my mind for at least the last year of grad school.

so here i am! after 20 hours of planes and airports, i finally landed in bangkok at 12:30 am on thursday.

my first confession: this trip is not completely solo. my childhood best friend, mary, lives here with her husband (one of the reasons this was a top choice for my travels). incredibly grateful to land and have a plush spot to crash right when i arrived into a new foreign country.

after sleeping in a little, i took the afternoon to wander around the neighborhood around sukhumvit road, the main market street near mary's apartment. it's a bustling place! there was lots of vehicle congestion when the taxi was taking to mary's last night at 2am. the area is the home away from home to many expatriates and thus hosts many western comforts like english pubs and your typical mall stores like h&m and sephora.