After breakfast everyone but Adam headed down to the tailors to pick up sine well priced clothes. The cost came to $40-$50 per shirt but that is really good considering similar quality in the states would be $150 each. I ended up getting 3 black dress shirts to replace the China trip ones that have worn out. Steph and Jeremy got some clothes but I’m not sure about the others. I think Amit and Tina also got some but nick certainly didn’t.
We went to the bangkok baking company for breakfast and had a very western style breakfast with western pricing. The food was pretty good. Jeremy was the only one who slept in a bit and when he was trying to get to the place for breakfast got a little bit lost and walked 10 minutes in the wrong direction.
This morning I also found out that the head monk for Thailand died last week and that the period of mourning for him may push back the lot krathong festival, which may make us miss it.
Five of us waited at beachhead house and got to the airport super early. Jeremy and nick met us there and we hung out before the flight playing some open face Chinese poker.
The flights were mostly uneventful and steph was nice enough to give me a sleeping pill for the first flight. I was able to see The Wolverine and Red2 which were both decently enjoyable movies. We got there and did the ATM run and also picked up some Thailand Sim cards so that we could use the internet and keep in touch while there.
Nick found a place for dinner that was supposed to be really tasty and had a lot of night market near it. Both counts were certainly true. The food was great and we were able to get some different from normal foods like thousand year eggs and their seafood medley. After dinner Steph and I stopped by a roti stand that was more or less making sweet roti crepes. They were really tasty and amazingly cheap. Tina Adam and Amit then left to go back to the hotel and Nick Steph and I went around the night market. It was a bit of sensory overload but still decently enjoyable. I got some boba but it was way too sweet. I ended up drinking it all for the hydration. It seems that it is impossible to drink enough water here. We didn’t find anything too interesting at the market so we hopped onto a raised pedestrian walkway that let’s you bypass the market. It gave some really nice views of the canals, the monument and the market.
We took a first wander around the neighborhood and realized we are in a nice part of the city. There are a lot of western style bars and food stands close to the hotel. We walked a little ways away and ended up in the middle Eastern section of the city. There we got a little bit of food just to tie us over. The others also grabbed some random street food and I decides to get a little something at the hotel. We found a bar that looked nice and got s found of drinks there. While waiting for the drinks we thought we saw a pickpocket get caught by some of the taxi drivers. It was a very relaxing way to spend the first afternoon. Steph and Tina got coconuts from one of the street stands and it was pretty good. We thought about stopping off for some massages before dinner but no one was up for trying any of the places we saw
We had a bit of an adventure getting to the hotel. The location that was on Google maps wasn’t even close to the right spot. Tina was really tired since she was carrying the most. We got to the place where Google said it should be and then got 2 cabs to take us to the right spot. We got signed in right before a big tour bus pulled in and then got to the rooms. Tina and amit weren’t able to get into the room and when someone let them in there was a dog in the room. That was because the person at the desk had written the wrong number on the cards. I hope we can all find a nice place to relax and Unwind so we can all get ready to enjoy the vacation. Nick and I ran down to the 7-11 for drinks and waited in the room for the others to join.
We met up with Nick this morning for some Dim Sum at Tai Wu Mr. Fong’s. He invited some of the games group and people from his work. A lot of people ended up bailing at the last minute, so it was only 5 of us, but still very enjoyable. I had way too much to eat, but it was all delicious. After eating I rode to Brian’s for games with Nick.
Michael had a fun idea for a Halloween costume, and I went over to his place to help him out with it. We set up in his front yard since it was such a nice day out and we didn’t want to get any paint on the inside of the house he is renting a room in. I made a makeshift easel out of a cardboard box, and we used the middles of the folding science fair boards to make the pieces of the costume.
His idea was to be a Magic the Gathering card. I did the layout for the back end and he started working on the front. I was able to complete all the tricky layout parts before I needed to get going for meeting up with Steph and Candice. He is going to be wearing the card parts like a sandwich board that one would see an end-of-the-world evangelist wearing on a street corner. He will have a cutout in the front card that he can then slip up to his face. I look forward to seeing the completed project.
Jeremy had a surprise birthday party. We missed the dinner section since we were at Amy’s party, but the rockband back at Jeremy’s place was lots of fun. We played until a little past midnight. There was the famous dip, which I ate way too much of. It was a really fun time, and I was still terrible at all the instruments (especially the keytar).
