Arriving in Bangkok

So I arrived in Bangkok yesterday night/this morning. I was very pleased to say that my flights were all on time and all my luggage arrived on time. I was worried about this, since my last few flights had issues in both departments.

I went to the school today, located in Sukhumvit, Bangkok. The campus is smaller than most schools in the USA, but it has more than enough space in comparison to the rest of the area. As expected, buildings are packed right next to each other, about as tightly as can be. The sidewalks are hardly sidewalks, more like drainage ditches on the side of the road. Though I am finding the drivers here much more reasonable than in Taiwan. One note, they drive on the left side of the road over here. In Taiwan, they still drove on the right side of the road.

To get to the school, I took what they call the "skytrain", which is pretty much an elevated train. In my short time in Asian countries I would say that their mass tranit systems are far superior to that of the USA. But I think part of this is due to the fact that the population density in these countries requires a reliable mass transit system.

I met with a lady at school named Bupha. She helped my with my visa and sent me instructions about that while I was back in the USA. I walked around the campus and asked her a few questions about housing, visas, shopping and reimbursement for the plane ticket. Unfortunately I could not get reimbursed for the plane ticket today, but hopefully that will happen on Monday.

I did find a place to stay, an apartment within a 10 minute walk from the school. It is very small, a studio, but it is cheap, close and has AC. Besides, I am not sure how much time I will be spending in the apartment aside from sleeping. Hopefully I will be busy and will not spend too much time there. A girl who works at the school went with me to see the apartment, she served as a translator for me. I also met one of the busdrivers, his nickname is Ses, though I forget (or cannot pronounce) his real name.

After looking at the apartment, I walked around for a while and found a mall. I bought a few electronic things for my apartment, mostly adapters and things like that. Went back to the school to see if they had approved my reimbursement yet and they did not. I won't be able to move into the apartment until I receive that money, so I'll stay in the hotel. I have seven days free anyway, so I might as well use them.

As I was walking through the city, I was amazed at how friendly and nice the people were. Many of them smiled at me and said hello. Often they would ask me how I was and we would have a brief interaction. It was nice walking through the city. The people seemed happy to see me and more than welcome to help out. I did walk pass a canal, which I have been told were mostly covered in with cement. It was rather dirty and not very clean.

Tonight, I plan to get dinner at the hotel and then take a shower. Hopefully I can find a place to relax and have a beer or two. Tomorrow, I think I might go look at some temples towards the middle of the city.

Aaron