Bright lights, big city

Bangkok, thriving metropolis, and the first time we saw it we were coming from India and so thought it was the cleanest city we had ever seen. We’ve hit the streets of Bangkok quite a few times now heading in and out as it is jumping off point to most places, and while roaming the city streets we did what many tourist do: got a custom made suit, and while we were at it something probably no tourist ever does, I’m getting a custom made wedding gown! We also stayed with a Buddhist community in the city, but that deserves its own whole blog so more on that later.

And while in the city we have realized yet again what a small world it really is. Being almost exactly half way around the earth from our home in America you don’t usually expect to see familiar faces. So when we ended spending time with a friend of mine from Colorado (who I hadn’t seen in seven or eight years) and a friend of ours from Peace Corp Jamaica in the same week, we had to do redo the math on figuring how small the world really is. Our linking with Ginger (CO) and with Lauren (PCJ) were both wonderful, but very different if you were to compare the two. Lauren, like us, has caught the travel bug and I am not sure I can name a country she has not been to. Our time together was spent eating street food and hula hooping with locals in the park.

Our time with Ginger was more like a scene when the Beverly Hillbillies role their dilapidated wagon into Beverly Hills for the first time. Ginger is the Secretary to the US Ambassador here in Thailand and her plush apartment in a skyrise building in the center of Bangkok is a little bit off from the open air, bamboo mat huts were we stack our dirty clothes underneath our head when we lay down to sleep for the night.

On our arrival Ginger and Doug were open to trying our vittles and sticky rice (although they used fancy chopsticks to eat the rice instead of their hands) that we brought from the countryside and in exchange added in delicious wine (made from grapes) and a magical heating contraption they called a stove. The next day we hours marveling at their washer and dryer and even more time trying to figure out how a little light in the closet automatically turns on and off each time you open the door (light goes on…light goes off…light goes on…light goes off). Is this heaven?

Really though, a couple friendly faces and short escape from the developing world was just what we needed to refresh us and prepare us for our next projects and adventures. It was great seeing you, Lauren and Ginger, and thank you Ginger once again for the wonderful hospitality!