Culture Shock!

Well, we arrived safely in Bangkok yesterday after a somewhat luxurious flight on All Nippon, the Japanese Airline. They had like 10 movies to choose from that you could stop and start whenever you wanted. And the flight attendants were of coarse adorible in their pink and black uniform with little neckbows...all the uniformed workers in japan look fantastic. Actually, the perfection of Japan made coming here that much more shocking. I think going from grimy baltimore to super-duper grimy bangkok would be a lot easier than a place where people carry around ashtrays in their purses (yes, we saw this) so they don't ash in the street. I'm realizing that Japan is expensive because of its convenience. You don't have to watch your back, nothing really requires any effort because if you can't figure something out anyone would be overjoyed to help you. We were actually on the train to the airport and it stopped...seeme like just another stop but this guy came up to us and asked if we were going to the airport. He said we needed to change trains and then continued to give up airport advice, he was a pilot....the nicest pilot ever! Anyway, it would have been bad if he hadn't done that.

So, anyway, lauren and I are in some serious culture shock. Yesterday when we got here we didn't know what do to with ourselves. First off, we are staying on this street where all the hostels are and backpackers are. Lauren keeps comparing it to Bourbon street in New Orleans (she used to live there). It's insane!!! I think I actually hate this street, it kind of makes me sick to my stomach. If Alex's friend Ajay wasn't meeting up with us tomorrow I would be so outta here, but I'm hoping he'll show us the cool stuff. This place is so insane, they sell stuff, junk, whatever, EVERYWHERE. I thought I'd be prepared cause I've been to Mexico City and liked it but it's NOTHING like that. You cant go anywhere without people harassing you to buy something. And finally when we accept we realize we are getting ripped off...fortunately getting ripped off here is a matter of a few dollars. Today was interesting...weird, fun, scary, and strange. We wanted to go to one place, Wat Pho to get a Thai massage and check out the ruins. Well when you walk down Khao San Road people just follow you telling you prices for taxis, and tuk tuks. We were warned not to take tuk tuks here because of the exhaust from the vehicles and cause they might take you places you don't want to go to get you to buy stuff. Well, we stupidly took one and ended up going ALL over town meanwhile it started pouring. It was actually pretty funny. We were taken to 2 different sights, a taylor, and travel tour package place and never actually our destination. We had to humor the places he took us to just to get where we wanted to go...he ended up dropping us off at the grand palace. The upside is that the ride cost us about 75 cents. The grand palace was really amazing though. It reminded me of versailles only more compact and cooler. I'll try and post pictures if it ever works. We walked over to Wat Pho and got the most amazing massages ever. We got Thai herbal massages where they use these big hot tea-bag kinda things as well as serious pressure point work. I really needed it after all this bed changing and airplane/bus sleeping. My neck and back were soooo stiff. It also helped me relax mentally, I was on edge big time. It's going to take some time to get used to this culture, but I'm sure we will. I don't know if I'll ever get used to bargoning though, I've done it all over the world and I always hate it. Its just such a waste of time and energy...not relaxing at all.

Anyway, I could go on about this place forever, how you can get diesel jeans for $5 and Alpine Backpacks for $30 or so. Consumerism at it's finest...yuk. I'm not really even tempted to buy stuff here, I'll wait till chang mai. The weirdest thing about this town is that it's totally sin city, anything goes. That is shocking too, I'm just not used to it. It also kinda turns us off to a lot of the other travellers, a lot of them have questionable intentions. Enough said.

So I'll try and post some photos of japan and stuff today or tomorrow, it's proving to be difficult. I already tried before writing this and it wouldn't work. That's all for now! bye.

From what i understand up north is much more relaxed, so we'll head out this weekend. This city is really