Thailand Today

The blog is now up-to-date! I'm writing about today's events instead of trying to remember what happened a week ago. My life has changed drastically in the last week.

I woke up with a renewed sense of energy. If I can handle Bangkok alone, I can do anything. I eat breakfast at the hotel and then head to an Internet cafe. I make a quick phone call home (to assure my mother I'm alive) and do a google search for "Thai coins." I have coins in my wallet with no numbers on them. What's that about? How do I know how much they are worth? It's 9am and 95 degrees.

I then head into the street where I'm immediately surrounded by people. "Miss, you need tuk-tuk? Miss, where you going?" I'm in no way concerned for my physical safety, but you have to be on guard at all times here. It's a matter of keeping your wits about you. If I look like I know what I'm doing; people will think I know what I'm doing. At least that's what I tell myself.

I get a cab to the train station and refuse the driver's offers to take me to a gem shop instead. He asks me how long I've been here. The truth is less than 24 hours, but I say a week. The longer you've been here, the less vulnerable you are to scams. He asks if I'm taking a train or going to buy a ticket. I figure there's no harm in being truthful here, so I say, "buy a ticket." I was wrong. Instead of taking me directly to the station, he drops me off at some fake ticket shop across the street from the station. Lots of cab drivers have deals to get commissions if they take their fares to certain shops/travel agents/hotels, etc. I walk to the real train station and fight my through the throng of "travel agents" offering to sell me tickets. These scams aren't hard to spot, but they're just so "in your face" and annoying. I hate thinking that I have to be suspicious of everyone and everything.

I find the legitimate govt-run ticket office in a tiny room in the back of the station. The man is surprisingly helpful. This is the first positive interaction I've had in this country. I bought a ticket, took a cab back to my hotel, packed up my stuff, checked out of the hotel, and here I am blogging.

I'm going to brave the crowds again to get some food and then I go back to the station for my 6pm train to Chiang Mai. I arrive at 7:15am tomorrow morning. Then I will walk around the city to find a hotel and hopefully I will like it enough to stay put for a few nights! This will be my 3rd overnight train ride in 6 days. My ticket specifies that I'm a "female" so I hope these sleeper cars are segregated by sex. I don't have Jim to look out for me this time!

Phew... that's all for now, dear readers. Wish me luck!!