Chatuchak market & bus fiasco

James' friend Paul lives about an hour away (still in Bangkok) but he ended up staying the night at the hostel last night. When I came downstairs Paul and James asked me what my plan was for today and i said "i dunno , my bus is later at 7, until then didnt have a plan" and James said, "Paul would you wanna take her to chatuchak market?" James explained that he had to do admin work for the hostel until 3. He seemed a little bummed lol. Of course I happily agreed to go to the market with Paul and it exceeded my expectations definitely. After a 45 minute train ride, we got off a chatuchak park and walked around a bit. We decided to stop for food before going into the market to get our energy up. Paul and I shared a pork fried rice, which was really good. They gave us a chili fish sauce to have on it which was really salty and savory. Paul said he had never seen a farang (foreigner) eat fish sauce and that made me sad a little.. Its literally in every pad thai, stir fry, soup and etc. I would say it is as foundational to cooking here as butter or olive oil in the states. (Obv the ingredients serve different purposes but you get my drift) Just because the fish sauce was served on the side instead of stir fried in I see no difference. It was tasty. We crossed a street and walked into the market, which was bigger than you could ever concieve.. Look it up if you want to get some idea of the scale. There's storefront after storefront, some are airconditioned, others are more in the sun and open air. There was even a fancy art gallery section.. We walked around awhile, i picked up some things i needed (shoes, coinpurse, long skirt) and then we decided to go to a mall on the adjacent street. It was all consignment, and it was interesting to see what kind of vintage thai people like. We noticed that there was a door to some sort of balcony (we were about 3 stories up) and went outside to see food vendors and an awesome view. Paul was soo stoked he was like, "i never knew this was here!" I wasnt very hungry but paul got a quesadilla and I tried a bite out of curiosity. I would say tortillas are one of the only breads i see thai people here eating. It was some kind of shreaded beef and cheese, with sriracha on top. It was not spiced at all which i was really surprised since people here looove their spicy food. Ill be keeping my eye out for more though, Im definitely curious about mexican thai fusion food. I was looking for something with Tom and Jerry to get for James to express my gratitude for all his help, but there was only a couple shirts and they were too big or too small. After we got to the train platform, Paul and I split ways. He said his place was only two stops away so I came back to the hostel. I didn't have a ton of time, so i ran to 7-eleven and got a few snacks for my 10 hour bus journey. James and I took his scooter to get a dinner before I left. We went to the nearby university campus Chulalongkorn and there was an open air market with food vendors and clothes. He got some kind of spicy soup and i got a fried potato on a skewer. He also picked up about half a dozen of some kind of cream filled pastry treat and gave them to me. Some were filled with pandan cream. He offered to give me a ride to the bus stop which I accepted, since the train wouldve taken like an hour or more as opposed to 15 minutes. Got there and said goodbye. Got to the bus. Got on the bus. Got into my cozy bus set up. Thought, "maybe I should see what area the bus terminal is in Chiang Mai.." Entered the address on my booking into google maps..... AND THE BUS WAS GONNA TAKE ME TO A TOTAL DIFFERENT CITY!!! Omg!! Running! Grabbing all my stuff! Stuffinng it in my bag!! Walk down to the first level of the bus , the bus starts moving!!! Im talking to the attendant, like sorry, please let me off, I dont speak thai but she doesnt speak english, but i get my point across and get off. I went back inside to the ticket office to see if there are any busses left for Chiang Mai, and learn, northbound busses dont even depart here, or even near here. Omg. I was talking to two thai gentlemen who were trying to explain things to me. They were using the google talk to translate app which was kinda sick. I dont know why they were trying so hard to be helpful but it was nice.. I tried asking them if i could take transit to the other bus station and the conversation kinda went nowhere. They tried to help me a lot, they offered to call me a cab but i said i got it.. and then I took a scooter ride back to the hostel and said, "you cant get rid of me that easy!" LOL. while it was a little jarring, experiences like that help me remember that Im capable of handling a lot.. If I can handle that situation in a foreign country where I dont speak the language, it gives me confidence that I can handle a lot more adversity in my home country than i give myself credit for.. It all turned out fine in the end.

Haircut

i decided i wanted to get a haircut today. I piddled around a bit at an outdoor market and got some pad thai. I used a squat toilet for the first time (look it up) and once i got back i just laid around quite awhile. The haircut was fast and cheap. I believe it was 400 baht and i tipped 50. Thats like 12$ for a wash, cut and blowout. It was nice to just feel a little pampered. I havent got a thai massage yet but its defin on my bucket list. After i got back to the hostel I just laid around for quite awhile.. honestly I had a tummy ache pretty much all day :/ not severely.. just enough to drain my energy and make me feel a little nauseous. Getting food poisoning is pretty common here, so im glad i didnt pick up anything more serious. It was family style dinner night at the hostel so i was super sad that I was not feeling well. But! The food was amazing. I can tell a lot of love was put into it. James' friend Paul actually came to help make it! They served tom yum soup, green curry and sauteed veggies. I slowly sipped the broth for the tom yum and it brought back my appetite a little. The curry was definitely my favorite, they used green eggplants which i never had before but liked it a lotttt. There were three thai speaking people at the dinner table and they told me that my name, Leila, in thai is basically a word they use to call someone a stick in the mud or lazy haha. The night before when we went to the rooftop bar and drag show I mentioned to James i wanted to go to Khaoson Rd (super famous) and I didnt wanna back out today just cuz i had a little tummy ache. We actually managed to get a little team of Me , Paul, James, and this american girl Isa to go out , & we started our night at the same rooftop bar as before and chatted for a bit and then Paul and Isa split off. I took a taxi with James to Khao san and it wasnt really my cup of tea but at least I can say I went. It was soooo crowded.

Drag show

Today I woke up super early and couldnt fall back asleep. The morning air was so nice and not super hot so i went for a stroll to the indian temple and after came across a bustling market. It was the perfect temperature and the perfect amount crowded.. I bought some oranges and a small cake wrapped in leaves and some kind of meat i think ?. It was a really nice experience i really enjoyed and it was very near the hostel! After that i was feeling really tired so i went back and took a break for a bit. Since i got up so early , it was still before noon when i went out again. I walked to a matcha place and hung out for awhile. My plan was to go to Wat Saket but i knew before i left that it was like an hour walk away and no great bus or train route there. I did it on purpose because i knew i needed to conquer my fear of getting a grab which is basically like uber but they have scooter rides as well which are the best, cheapest way to get around. I walked for soo long until i totally exhausted myself and couldnt take another step before ordering one. I was so nervous!! But it was really not that bad.. I asked before i got on if it was ok if i held onto them during the ride and they said yea. Thai ladys are real pros at taking scooter rides, they sit sideways if they are wearing a skirt.. holding on just to the back of the seat with one hand. When i saw that my mind was blown lol. ive ridden on the back of motorcycles before so I understand how to lean with the driver when they are making turns.. whenever we were weaving through traffic and it felt a little too close, i just closed my eyes problem solved. We were there before i knew it. I left a big tip with a note thanking them for my first ride :) The temple was huuuge and really serene with lots of garden elements surrounding it. I didnt go up to the top of the mountain for the main temple because i happened to be wearing shorts (NOT super short, i saw men with shorter shorts lol) but saw a sign that said no shoulders or shorts above the knee. I didnt learn til later that at the admission office they will give you a fabric to cover up with free of charge. Stupid stupid me hahaha. I walked around the area for quite a ways looking for a shop I could buy pants or skirt in because i refused to buy the elephant print classis tourist pants they were selling at the gift shop there. I was unsuccessful and so tired so i made my way back to the temple and called it quits, to another grab to the train station and then took the train to the nearest stop to my hostel and crashed. Some hostel people made plans to go to a bar in front of me without inviting me and it got me kinda bummed out so i moped around for a bit. I got soo hungry eventually and i was gonna just have my old soggy french fries but James the hostel worker made me fried rice, it almost made me cry !! So kind!! Chit chatted for a bit then i said .. i want to go to a bar.. where can i go etc.. i ended up going with James to a rooftop bar called Heaven and had a few >beers< over ice. He told me he went through a breakup with a german girl a few months ago and teared up a bit. I learned he is a cancer which tracks. He said he thinks its bad the messages the patriarchy sends to men about how they should never cry and so he shows his emotions. Maybe thats how we got on the topic of trans people? Societal expectations of each gender? But i told him i love gay and trans people and have lots of them as friends and he suggested we go to a drag show which i happily agreed! And the show was really fun!! With a hyper crowd in a tiny venue. I had a lot of fun, then it was time to go home and get to bed... Did you know that while gay marriage is still not legal in thailand, transgenderism is very common and accepted? Even in rural areas and not just in cities. Based upon how ive seen US commenters refer to "ladyboy" i thought it was almost a slur. Not the case here! "Ladyboys" are what we would call a mtf transgender person in the states and tomboys are the ftm equivalent. Most transgender people in thailand do not seek bottom reassignment surgery, and the roles are somewhat more straightforward than they can be in the US, from what i gathered tomboys are tops and ladyboys are bottoms. Gender replacement hormones are also actively available over the counter at the pharmacies here. Here is more info on gender identities in Thailand.

MBK

I decided to walk over to the hostel that Christina told me about after getting a ham and cheese croissant from the 7/11 .The person who was working, David, was really nice and talked to me for awhile. I didnt realize until after our conversation how much I needed that. He gave me a recommendation for a cafe near an indian temple but i decided to go to MBK , a big mall with cheap stuff for haggling because i needed a purse to hold all my stuff. I ended up taking the skytrain there. I spent a long time in the mall, it was amazing and filled with lots of cool stuff and huge. I found a bag I wanted right away and tried haggling the price down from $18 to $5 and the shopkeeper got really mad heheh. I wasnt trying to be rude or anything, I said i might come back and she said dont come back!!! But i did end up coming back because after wandering the mall for forever.. I really did want the bag. We settled on 350 baht which is basically $10. I got a matcha soft serve after with a falafel wrap with some fries. The wrap was really mediocre, before you ask whyyy in the world i would try to order falafel in thailand, it was the bread okay. I really wanted a bread meal instead of a rice meal. the fries were good (havent had bad french fries ever on this trip yet) and the matcha soft serve boba latte was delicious. The boba was really soft. Since I left my luggage at the last hostel, taking the skytrain back didnt really make sense. I contemplated taking a grab (scooter taxi) but i was carrying my french fries and ice cream and it just made me too nervous. I ended up walking back , which was not a far walk, like 25 minutes. I brought my bags to the next hostel "el biografo" on foot and chatted some with James, a thai guy who works there. I was pretty sweaty and exhausted so i just kinda relaxed for a bit (it was the hottest part of the day). A little later I came down to try to be a little productive and James invited me to grab some thai food with him. We talked about thai culture and it was really nice. He told me there is a major south chinese influence on thailand from way back and a lot of the food is similar. I got pad see ew moo (moo=pork) for dinner and he told me the see ew is actually from the chinese word for soy sauce. My noodles were delicious and soft. My first time eating in a thai restaurant!

FIRST DAY IN BANGKOK

Today was my first full day in Bangkok. I had a matcha at the hostel and sat around for awhile in a daze. I walked around a little to explore the area. I happened into a library looking for air conditioning and a Canadian named Christina was there and recommended I go to El Biografe hostel and to tell David I sent her. I thanked her for the tip. In the later afternoon i went to a rooftop green park on top of a nearby mall. I went to chinatown in the evening and looked at all the crazy food they were selling there. I learned since that this is the biggest chinatown in the world! I took the MRT subway train to get there, which was exciting! Some kind person had shown me the button to change the kiosk machine to english.

INCHEON AIRPORT

after a grueling 12 ( or more? Lost a day due to time zones ) hour flight, i landed in seoul's incheon airport intact. I wanted to mention that the food they served on that flight was super good, for dinner it was bibimbap with a kombu soup and some pickled radishes and the meal they served in the morning was some kind of curry chicken rice served with a bread roll. I spent most of my day (11hr layover) napping in the airport, i only just now got on my outbound flight to bangkok. I did try some korean burger king, which was interesting , and i got to do some activities at a cultural learning activity thing. It was pretty cute, i learned a little about how the korean alphabet works and the attendants dressed me up in a hanbok and took pictures. One of them was thai and i got to talking to her about how im visiting thailand. Her name was Charmy and she told me about the town she's from and gave me her WhatsApp to reach out to her if i have any questions. She said she likes living in korea for the weather, quality of life and stable economy but she likes thai people better. By the way, on my previous flight there was someone behind me also catching the same flight to bangkok. He tried his best to answer some of my questions about entering korea for a day tour. well; i didn't make it to the tour, i was just so exhausted after that flight and I didnt figure out the meeting place until it was booked up anyway. But i ran into him again in the quiet nap zone (incheon is a super nice airport for a long layover) and we had a short chat. He told me hes Russian but has been living in the USA for the past 13 years and that his name was Paov. He asked if i wanted to get a drink but i said no since i had a pretty bad headache (hopefully not getting sick!) and he gave me a granola bar and said in his culture thats a gesture of good will. I accepted happily. I decided not to try to stay in the airport so once i land i will have to navigate getting a taxi to get to the hostel i booked. Very excited to get out of the airport thing and wake up in a new place!! i will write more soon.

OUTBOUND FLIGHT TO SEOUL

HERE I GO!! im so excited! I was so frazzled getting to and thru the airport but now im waiting in the boarding line! I wonder if theyll serve us yummy food on this korean airline? I forgot my covid vaccination card in the rush , i think i will be fine with a picture of it. Or not need it at all. Well, still have a long way to go, but closer than ever!

SF BOUND

Raven is driving me to the bay. I was hoping that a new debit card i had applied for would come in the mail before i left but since its veterans day, i think it was delayed. We got ralibertos breakfast burritos and apples from the farmers market for breakfast. I learned about some new kinds of apples from apple day! I got one that i liked during apple scoring, but it wasnt as good as i remember..

final countdown

I'm so excited and nervous for my trip to southeast asia! Raven is playing SA2 while i work on my neocities. We tried getting this app called locket the other day, it is supposed to allow you to send pictures to your friend's homescreen, but we couldn't get it to work grr! I'm going to be leaving soo soon aaa! I am frightened a bit to be honest, I feel unprepared but also like theres not much more i can do..

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