30.1.10

the best day in bangkok

remember how much i said i hated bangkok? i think i've just been doing it wrong.

alex, maddy, ally, sam, and i decided we wanted to see avatar this weekend, so we made plans to go this afternoon, just sort of whenever we woke up. we left yoo dee mee sook around 11:30 am and walked out to the main road to catch a song tau (suphan's form of public transportation. it's essentially a truck with two benches in the back...but the bed is covered...i dunno, hard to explain, not really important to the story). when we walked around the back of the song tau, we heard this huge "NIIICCCCCCCKKKKKKKIIIIIIII!!"

a handful of my craziest 9th graders were on the truck (including a girl who may or may not have a crush on me). hugs and high fives for everyone! god, we laughed a lot. i'm not doing the ride any justice, but it might just be one of those things that was only funny if you were there (sorry for even bringing it up, people who weren't there). just trust that it was the best song tau ride ever.

we hopped off the song tau and straight on to the minivan headed toward bangkok. an hour and a half later, around 1:30 pm, we were at victory monument, where we walked about 100 steps to the sky train station.

bangkok, i just want to commend you on the bts. it's fast, it's efficient, it's clean, it's easy to navigate, and it's got almost everything i want in a public transportation system. just make it go to the khao san/grand palace area, and then you've got it made.

anyway, about seven minutes after we got on the sky train, we got off at the siam stop for the siam paragon mall. this place is HUGE (five floors, plus a mezzazine, ground, and basement). it's pretty much like any big, fancy mall you'd see in america. think macy's, nordstroms, bloomingdales, etc. (except not those specific brands). the top floor is the hugest, nicest movie theater i've ever seen. we bought our tickets for the 2:30 pm showing of avatar in 3d and dashed down to the food floor for some grub. i hit up the bk lounge, which let me in even though i didn't have coups.

then we watched avatar and it was SO GOOD. oh man. that movie's an experience. i know i sound like everybody else in the world, but really really really, you should go see it.

tahsh joined up with us after the movie, and we had some time after the movie but before the last bus for suphan departed, so we wandered the mall. no, actually, tahsh and i spent an hour in a grocery store FILLED with imported goods--delicious cheeses, hummus, tortillas, reduced fat jiffy, and several other things i literally gasped at in the store. nat sent me some sbux coffee about two weeks ago, so i finally found a coffee press so i could enjoy. my first cup will be tomorrow morning. don't worry, i'll keep you updated.

we left the mall around 7 and after a ride on the sky train and a minivan drive, we were home in suphan by 9:30. it was glorious. i know you probably read through this and got bored to death with the stupid time updates i kept giving you, but if you've ever been to bangkok, you understand why these times are so critical to an awesome day. in a city where a one-mile cab ride can take 45 minutes, times like the ones we made today are superb.

anyway, now i'm gonna go to bed early mostly because i wanna wake up and have coffee.

NEXT MORNING UPDATE: this coffee rules. i still have to perfect my water-to-coffee-grounds ratio, but i'm more than happy that's one of my current tasks in life.  i paired said cup of coffee with a fried egg, bread w/jam, and a handful of grapes. if that's not breakfast in america, i don't know what is.

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