So it begins.... (3 weeks later): BANGKOK!!!

I guess the first blog post is always the hardest one to write. Especially when its three weeks late, and you have to catch everyone up on all the places you've seen and all of the stuff that you've done. Here's the run down:

Melissa and I arrived in Bangkok on the 26th of August. I was coming from Ireland for a family reunion, and then John and I flew to Spain to stay with a friend for about a week. I flew out of Madrid, and found out that they had changed my booking such that I was now going to be flying on 3 different airlines with 3 different connections to make it to all the way to Bangkok... I had little hope that my bags would be there waiting for me. I got in to BKK early on the 26th, and so did my bags! I slept the entire day at the hostel and went to pick up Melissa from the airport that night.  She was on the back end of an in-flight movie bender, and had just finished her 8th movie, without any sleep. We christened the trip with a pad-thai and then slept for the next day and a half.

After a full day of sleep in the hostel, we met up with a few friends (Laura's older brother Alex, who has been teaching here for about 7 years (Laura is my brother Gabe's girlfriend)) and they took us out for an amazing dinner and then to one of their favorite bars where we ordered a bottle of gin and listened to a really talented Thai band doing different covers of classic soul songs. A fat Thai guy with long hair, and a very thick Thai accent (while he wasn't singing) doing an impressive Aretha Franklin cover was a great way to spend our first night out in Thailand.  Not only was Alex a great tour guide, he was able to school us in some of the confusing Thai etiquette. I never would have known that I could go to jail for stepping on money (or anything with the King's face on it), or that it is very insulting to pat a baby or child on the head, or to step over anyone on the street or subway.

For the next couple of days we roamed around and checked off a bunch of the sights on the local tourist circuit. Backpackers district and Khao San Road where you can get anything from masterfully forged university diplomas and passports, to the more traditional postcards and t shirts.  We quickly got comfortable riding in a tuk-tuk through the organized chaos that is Bangkok traffic.We took the local commuter boat through the muddy river and explored some of the local temples.  We started eating some of the amazingly cheap and delicious stall food, which can be found on any street or alleyway at any hour of the day or night for less than a dollar.

We were busy trying to figure out whether or not Bangkok was a place we could see ourselves living and working. I really liked the hustle and bustle but Melissa (like most other people we've met) didnt like all the smog and congestion. Since we weren't quite ready to commit to living and working there we decided to go off and do some travelling in Southeast Asia. We would get to see some more places in Thailand that we would potentially want to work, aaaand once I had spent all my money, the pressure to decide on a place to work would be much greater and I'd be happy to settle anywhere.  So, we packed up our bags in Bangkok and decided to catch the overnight train north to Chiang Mai.