Thailand

I'm in Bangkok!!!

The flight was good - it was non-stop from LAX to Bangkok - 16.5 hours. That may sound like a long time to sit in one seat, but it is a very long time to be sitting in one seat. Fortunately, the only real bad thing about being in a plane that long is that it is hard to get comfortable. Boredom was not an issue. I watched a couple of movies (The Bucket List and Son of Rambow) and did quite a bit of reading (from Code Complete (which I highly recommend (are nested parentheses allowed in English?))).

A word on Son of Rambow (the title is intentionally misspelled). That movie is amazing! I don't want to give too much away, but it's about these kids who make a "movie" after being inspired by First Blood. I didn't expect it to be that great, but I was very pleasantly surprised. It is incredibly funny and yet has a great plot as well, which seems to be getting harder to come by these days.
After watching said movies and reading said book and eating 3 delicious meals (one of which involved eating some stuff I suspected was some sort of meat but am now rather confident was just gluten) I arrived in Bangkok. It was very easy to tell I had entered an entirely different country as soon as I passed through customs. From every direction people were trying to get my attention so that I would take their taxis or stay in their hotel. Fortunately for me - I was very focused with only one mission - find my friend Mike.

I expected this mission to be quite easy when I saw that there was a designated "meeting/greeting area" right near where I had come through customs. Naturally, I went there and looked first, but the only thing I found there was another group of beckoning taxi-drivers. Next, I went in search of a pay-phone (I later found out there were two in that very area). In my quest for a payphone several airport personnel asked me what I was looking for. When I told the first person who asked me that I was looking for a payphone, he gestured toward a nearby group-tour station and said that one of the receptionists would help me if I gave them some money. Not wanting to be taken advantage of (since I don't know how much something like that would be worth - especially in Baht) I declined as politely as I could. The next person who asked me what I was looking for directed me to a nearby payphone, but before I even started to attempt to figure out how to use it (it looked quite different than what I'm used to) he offered to let me use his cell phone. I was a little skeptical at first, but he looked at the number I needed to call (confirmed that it would be free) and dialed it for me - then handed me the phone. He even helped me out when it didn't go through the first time and I was able to contact Mike (who happened to be in the greeting area where I went to first). So yeah, I am very greatful to that airport personnel guy for sure. All in all, the whole ordeal of trying to find Mike probably only took about ten minutes so I consider myself quite fortunate. So yeah - since then I've been hanging out at Mike's apartment and wandering the streets of Bangkok. I'm sure much more adventures are soon to come.