Bangkok Rains

My first post from Thailand, Land of Smiles!

After an uncomfortable 9.5-hour flight from Melbourne, I made it to Bangkok around 8:30 last night. It didn't have to be so uncomfortable - I could've just bought some food and drink on the plane, and maybe a TV entertainment kit, but I was too stingy for that.

As I emerged out into the streets of this morning, I could hardly contain my excitement. The idea of coming to Thailand had been cooking in my head for over a year. The sights, smells, sounds threatened to overwhelm me. I'd made it.

And it wouldn't be a typical first day if I hadn't encountered a scam artist. This scam came to me in the form of a French lady, who for the most tragic and unlucky circumstances in the world had found herself in a position where she needed to ask for money off some white dude in the streets. Her husband had been in a fight in Pattaya, the authorities were holding him, his credit card had been stolen by the guy he hit, and the only way this poor French lady could help him was to gain enough money to buy certain documents that would somehow free him. Oh, everyone was this poor lady's enemy: the police, the hotels, even the French consulate, for some reason I didn't fully understand. She acted distraught and looked close to tearing up. I should've taken a photo of her before I walked away.

It was a good thing I left when I did, because I made it to the skytrain station seconds before monsoonal rains struck Bangkok. Actually it was raining and thundering all last night, and I woke up multiple times, despite how tired I was. Thunder here really is something.

I had a few things I wanted to achieve today, the most important of which was to buy a phone. I asked around at dozens of phone stalls in MBK shopping center and it goes to show how you can save money by trying more than one shop. Often I found phones I'd previously looked at even cheaper, and in the end I saved myself about 100 baht. That could equal to about $3. Four hours well spent!

As most people are probably well aware by now, floods have been causing problems in parts of Thailand. I encounted this group of young brass and woodwind players raising money for victims of the floods. It made me want to play trumpet again.

The floods haven't caused any problems in inner-Bangkok so far. My hotel is pretty close to the river and, while there are rows of sandbags in front of shops, there's no excess water. Bua, a friendly tuk-tuk driver I spoke to a few times, said the next two days are likely to be when the river breaks, if it will.