First Day in Bangkok – a New Adventure with an Old Friend

After a lifetime in the sky, we finally arrived in the Land of Smiles. We navigated through immigration, found our bags, rented our pocket wi-fi and met with our Thai guide – an absolutely lovely and energetic chap named Nai – who loaded us into a cozy air conditioned van and took us across town to our hotel. Checked in and now horizontally reclined in our modernist suite, we made plans to meet our friend for dinner and then promptly passed out.

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Now gather round for a little backstory… A million years ago when Stasia and I first moved to San Francisco, we met a group of people through Kay Patchner (who owned the house we moved into – an amazing woman and a magnet so many were drawn to). One of those people, David Turner, ended up moving to Thailand not long after.

David and I stayed in contact via Facebook and I wrote to tell him we’d be in the city and wondered if he could join us for dinner. His enthusiastic reply was so warm and welcoming. When you’re traveling across the world, knowing someone on the other end is looking forward to seeing you is a great feeling!

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David and his partner Bom (a Thai native) met up with us on our first night in Bangkok. We found out over dinner that they actually lived in another part of the country and flew into Bangkok for a few days surrounding our stay! We were honored that he would time his visit with ours.

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After arriving at our hotel from what seemed like a week of travel, Stasia and I managed to get a couple hours sleep (finally!) before dinner. The phone buzzed that they were in the lobby – and despite our half-awake stupor, we managed to sleep-walk to the hotel bar, where a cold Singha helped revive us.

Once re-inflated, we left the air conditioned lounge and went out into the wet heat of Bangkok. The streets are total madness with a constant stream of cars, scooters, busses, more scooters and tuk-tuks jockeying for position.

We quickly learned that pedestrians are lowest in the food chain so don’t assume people will stop for you when crossing the streets.

First food experience: Baan Khanittha

We shared our first local food experience together at Baan Khanittha, 2 blocks away. With Bom to help us order, we ate family style from amongst these riches:

• Tom Ka Gai
• Larb gai with cabbage leaf
• Braised Snapper in lime
• Massaman curry
• roasted morning glory with chilies
• Betel leaf dried shrimp wraps (pictured)

It was unctuous – exquisitely spiced and exotic, though familiar at the same time.

Our friends were very accommodating to our road-weariness (almost no sleep after 2 days of travel) and escorted us back to our hotel. We really wanted to top the night off with a nightcap at the Banyan Tree rooftop bar (next door) but we were so spent that we quite honestly collapsed in our room. Zephyr complained that he wasn’t tired and was literally snoring 30 seconds later.

Stasia and I awoke at 3am and conspired to sneak off together to the rooftop bar, but found it was closed. Next time!