I think I can still call my arrival here traveling along the road, or my road to travel even though I was in a plane. You can’t say, on the flight path? I guess I could have but anyways. I have officially made my landing in Bangkok, Thailand. I had a 24 hour flight from Portland, going to Seattle then South Korea and back to Thailand. From Portland to Seattle, 2 hours with a 3 hour layover- I was able to paint my nails, eat McDonald’s and get lost. From Seattle to South Korea was an 11 hour flight and I had a two hour layover there. On the way to Korea, the airline gave us tooth brushes, slippers, pillows, blankets and water bottles. We had steaming hot towels to wash with, they brought over brownies and juices at least three times. We were also given two full meals. The first meal included a sunflower seed bun with butter, pot roast beef and veggie pasta (which I didn’t eat all because I’m not sure if there was mushrooms or like tongue or something weird in the meat), wine, coffee, a salad, and mixed fruit. The second meal was chicken and rice in shoyu sauce, another bread roll, cheese and olive salad and an amazing lemon square. I also sat next to this 77 year old doctor of education and medicinal history. She was so so proud to be Korean and talked about her lands history. She kept apologizing for her “bad English” but I understood her just fine. She goes to Seattle to help the Korean studies department at Washington university. She said student who want a doctorate can get one for free if they major in Korean studies. She told me so much history I never knew or paid attention to. And she said that her treasure (which is me) should pass it along. So here is what she told me; Korea is one of the most ancient civilizations in the world. Roughly 9,000 years ago they have proof. The flag, was made that long ago as well, standing for their religion. Which is blue for warmth, love, peace, beauty, like a heaven. The red for lonely, cold, a almost like hell state. It’s shaped 🇰🇷 like that to show a ying and yang. That their inner philosophy is to educate and help others. They just want to be there to help anyone in need. The lines around the circle, stands for north, east, south and west. She told me that Japan came and took all their trees, Korea has no trees. They tried to rebuild and replant but now these trees and young and small, no higher than a person. Korea use to be filled with the wild Tiger. They worship that animal. But again, Japan came with their metals “guns” and shot them all, using the fur as a trophy. She told me about the war, and how China wasn’t all that nice to them either. How Japan tried to take over too. She told me that when China made the Great Wall, they wanted it so great that on the map, it’s drawn wrong. China drew their Great Wall all over China AND IN KOREA. But in actuality, the China wall is not in Korea, not even a little centimeter of it. After that, I had a 2 hour layover in Korea, and then another 6 hour flight to Bangkok, Thailand. Coming from America to Korea, my old lady friend helped me find my transfer flight and I had to go through security again. Through the security line, they had to search my bags again, and kept saying “so sorry, thank you for your patience”. On the flight to Thailand, we were again given a meal of chicken and rice, tea, bread, and what I thought was yogurt and granola. It was a thick, soy bean product like of tofu with oriental sauce. Yuck. But then they came around and gave us strawberry cheesecake ice cream, #winning. I was able to make my way through the Bangkok airport. Following signs for costumes and baggage claim. I filled out my arrival card a little bit wrong, because of the visa I have and how I need a work permit to actually be in this kingdom. Then I couldn’t find my bags. I checked them from Portland, and the baggage claim was from Korea so after a little bit of a freak out, I saw them. And one of them wasn’t “ransacked” but had to get looked at for whatever reason. Couldn’t tell if anything was taken out. I found my head master and we went to my hotel. It was raining so haaard. The hotel was actually closed because I got here at 1 am. So we had to check me into a completely different hotel further away. I’m booked at the rainforest guest house until July 8th. The toilet is in the shower, it’s by a cute waffle place, and is 5 minute walk to my campus I still haven’t broke out of my comfort zone yet, which is something I want to do. I’m a little too scared to go out, and run across the street. Moped and motor cycles are everywhere, no one drives in the lanes, no stop signs or lights, I went through one intersection where people were going left, coming at you, moving around from behind you, and like wow. People just jump into the road and walk across, but I guess it’s better than India, with their cows everywhere 😅😅
I don’t have the baht down. .33 American cents is their $1. So my bills come out to 175baht. But it’s like $5. I forgot that you can’t drink the tap water here and I used it to brush my teeth. Everything is so hot and sweaty. Like you go outside and just sweat. What I read about dressing isn’t accurate. Motorcycle riders for the taxis, sit sideways, NOT holding on to the driver. The movies are in English. And I need to get a Thai SIM card, my international plan works, but internet takes 5 minutes to load a page. I got a food delivery app, and turns out, you can’t use an American number on it. So the desk lady let me use her number, bless her. Eventually I will go explore the mall. But right now, the 17 hour time difference is killing me. And it’s weird not talking to everyone, like being completely alone. Everyone’s sleeping and I’m here alone. Something I’ll have to get used to. I took a train ride which reminded me of using the public system in London. But a little bit more scary. It’s called the air train, it’s above everything, you can even see over the tops of high rises. Something I’ll have to get used to again. ** Hoping to change my life style and grow as a person here. I will also try to update this as much as possible, but I might disconnect and embrace a new place and culture. We’ll see what happens. On my agenda, apartment hunting ASAP. I found some with a pool, gym, WiFi and washing machine and fully furnished for 14,000 baht. Which is around 400-500 American. Trying to figure out the voltage difference so I can charge my laptop without having the outlit SPARKING like a fire (':
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AuthorMy name's Mykayla. I'm from the beautiful state of Oregon. Archives
November 2019
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