Travelling halfway across the world

Starting day three in Bangkok and it's still kind of hard to believe that I won't be home for another three months. What's crazier still is the number of people I've met who aren't going to be home for a whole year. Not to say that I've homesick but it is definitely and adjustment from the highly hectic and structured life I had before leaving.

Getting here was long and uneventful. Took me roughly 32hrs from when I left my doorstep back in Ottawa until when I got to the hostel here in Bangkok. During that time I managed to get about 6hrs of sleep in 1hr increments. I'm not sure why I didn't sleep more since normally I pass out on road trips but I think lack of leg room might have had something to do with it. I have nothing to complain about the airline service though and Singapore airlines was quite nice though it was also pretty disorienting to have breakfast three times along the way. Other than that the only hiccup was that my luggage didn't make the transition from Singapore to Bangkok so I had to wait up late that night until it came in. During that time I was teased by the other backpackers for being homeless. I think having so little sleep though worked out to my advantage in the end because I slept so well that night that it didn't matter to much that there it was actually noon at home when I went to bed.

I spent the day yesterday visiting some of the many temples in the area and being scammed by the tuk-tuk drivers who will give you a really good deal on a ride (we spent $1 between the two of us to go around for about 5hrs) but in exchange you have to visit several jewelery shops for 5minutes so that they can get cards from the government for free gas. We made it more fun by pretending to be a couple and saying that we were interested in seeing the most expensive jewelery.

There is certainly lots of fun to be had in Bangkok and I love hostel I'm staying at. From what I hear it will probably be the nicest one of my trip so I'm trying to appreciate it while I can and will probably come back here at the end of my trip. It's so easy to meet people here and it looks like I will be running into several of them again as I move south to the islands for some beach, scuba, and full moon parties.