Goodbye City of Angels The Big Mango

At the Chern hostel the night before I left I booked a taxi ride to the airport. It was 400 baht. My flight was leaving around 8am so I was ready to leave at 4am. It was dark and cold and a bit confusing to explain that I was going to Seoul rather than back to the states. I overestimated the amount of time it would take to get to the airport and it only took about 40 minutes. There was no one else on the roads or anywhere around, so I was glad I booked my taxi ahead of time and a bit worried I was too early.

After printing out my ticket from the kiosk outside I went in prepared to face an empty airport, but I was met with an unexpectedly huge crowd and utter chaos. I got in line so that I could get through and ask which line exactly I should be in. A woman behind me used her luggage cart with her son sitting on top to keep people from cutting her in line. Eventually when the madness was keeping her from a flight leaving much earlier than mine she took matters into her own hands and with a blessing from security jumped the line which caused the line I was in to detonate. Eventually I got through to ask someone where I should be and had to get in another line and repeat the same thing. Only this time with a stronger courage and bravery to use my suitcase to keep people from cutting me. When I did get through, my check-in space was completely empty which made getting to security a lot quicker. In line for security though I had to go back to using my luggage to keep the woman behind me from pushing past me. It was frustrating to have to spend so much energy to not be cut in line, but everything worked out, even for the people in a rush behind me. I settled in for an unhealthy breakfast at Starbucks near the hall my gate was at and waited a couple hours before actually going to my gate. There wasn’t a lot of places to sit and eat and nothing scattered between gates. Or at least anything near my gate.

On my flight I managed to spend a good amount of time napping, or trying to nap. I was utterly exhausted and had been completely disenchanted with my airline on the flight in. Then I caught an airport bus back to the nearest city and a taxi the rest of the way. I didn’t get home until after 8pm and after unpacking and making a few “Hey I got back safely” calls and messages proceeded to crash. I slept about 15 hours.

I spent a lot of time after I booked my trip to Bangkok worrying that I’d booked it for too long. Originally I wanted to travel all over Thailand and see more than just Bangkok but it didn’t work out. I tried booking a tour with a travel company and that went from stressful to just evaporating into thin air. With how hot it was and how I don’t do well with heat the amount of time I spent in Bangkok worked out. I did everything I wanted to. I spent 7 days half days where the earlier part of my day was out and about exploring and the later half on a bean bag in front of a fan reading a book. It kept my vacation relaxing. I had a lot of fun, I met people from all over the world, learned how to cook some Thai dishes and saw a remarkable amount of cats and dogs just wandering around. I walked a lot, mostly out of stubbornness. I saw beautiful architecture. I drank a ton of Thai iced tea and ate a ton of pad thai. I walked through so many markets, some on accident, where I had to squish past middle school kids in uniforms hanging out after school, or carefully avoid parents who were treating their kindergarten kids to snacks at the nearest street food cart. I saw a food cart with a pet squirrel. I walked down a road with the most fascinating doors, each shop sold doors, some with intricate wood carvings and others with stained glass art in a Mucha style. The Chern hostel was near a road where all the shops sold Buddha statues and other deities taller than I am. I loved going to temples and seeing monks take serious selfies in front of the Buddha statues or outside catching tuk tuks or on cell phones and smoking. I loved all the fresh fruit and that the flowers were in bloom. I enjoyed all the greenery and riding on boats on the canal. I’m glad I went. I had been so nervous traveling completely on my own but it was good. I’m proud of myself for going, for doing everything I wanted to do and more.