Tuk Tuk Thai

Arriving in a foreign land is always overwhelming and surreal. No matter how many times one does so, there's always jet lag, cramps from sitting in coach, and sometimes, not speaking a word of the language to contend with. But all in all, I like the what, 6, 7 hours? of Thailand that I've seen so far.

Apparantly, there's a military coup going on right now, but the only evidence we've seen of that was a bunch of grey uniformed soldiers standing around in a not-very-official looking way. (We is me and Lacey, my bosom buddy from college, and most fantastic travel companion. Lace optimizes cool and collected.) Also the Thais tend to unseat their prime minister every couple years I think, so maybe it's not a huge deal.

Our adventure began in Taipei where I chugged Starbucks (I know, I know, but we needed coffee) and had some yummy dumplings at 6 in the morning. They have a Hello Kitty gate at the Taipei airport, which is basically a marketing ploy, but also super cute. I wanted to buy everything, but especially Hello Kitty plastic stacking boxes for my dad, who has a collection.

Bangkok is smoggy and crowded and filled with people who want to talk to us, most of them male. Most of them well-intentioned, several a little too pushy. We went to Wat Pho to see an enormous gold-leafed reclining buddha and have traditional Thai massages, which were definitely the highlight of the first few hours here. The massages seem to defy lots of Thai conventions: stuff about touching feet and heads, relations between the sexes, and I had two index fingers inserted firmly into my ear canals for an uncomfortably long time. I feel pretty good though, enough to want another one tomorrow. They use a vick's vapo rub smelling herb (menthol, I guess) and give you cute little juice cups of cold tea afterwards.

My head is spinning, so I'm going to end this lackluster post. More later, after I have slept, encountered the third "lady boy" gender, met the other members of our group (oh yes, we're going on a tour) at least some of whom I will undoubtedly despise.

kisses from Siam.