First Night in Bangkok

With two 3 hour flights (that landed safely, Praise the Lord) and a 4 hour layover later we made it to During our drive on the highway room the airport to our hotel we had some culture shock. We felt like we were back in the States. There were huge billboards everywhere, an Ikea, restaurants with flashing lights off the highway, storage units, drive through McDonalds, a huge highway system and cars driving 70 mph, which compared to driving in China, felt ridiculously fast! Our "American" culture shock has now faded, when we have seen that in fact Bangkok is nothing like America. "America" because that's where everyone in Asia says that we are from verses saying the "U.S." But it still feels so very pompous to say that I'm from "America" instead of the U.S.

After checking into our hotel, which turns out to be awesome and directly on the river, we headed out to find some food. We settled on what appeared to be a "resturant" vs. the several carts with mystery foods being sold from them. We knew that Thailand is all about the street food, but being as we just got there and know not even a single word of Thai, we thought we'd ease into things. 

Luckily, this "resturant" had a staff that were amazing and so very helpful. They recommended what dishes we tried, explained some tips about eating in Thailand and were great company. We tried Thai spicy oyster salad, fried spring rolls that you wrap with fresh basil and dip a honey sauce, and fried onions with a tasty local vegetable that "can't be bought from the supermarket." It was great food but super spicy. We were wondering where all the pad thai and rice was at this shop and found out later that it was a Thai Salad shop. 

Oh well, at least we made new friends. 

The lady on the far right is the owner of the shop. The man is her brother in law who was ridiculously kind and helpful. Next to him is his wife who is pregnant! Doesn't she look about 14?! But don't worry we checked, she's 27. They were so sweet. 

They wrote down two Thai words for us. I'm emarassed to say that even these two words are proving to be extremely difficult for me to remember! We keep speaking Chinese to everyone we see. Its terrible, but nice to know we're so "fluent" in Chinese that its the first thing that comes out of our mouth. 

After dinner we headed across the street for a dessert the fam (I wish I could remember their names, but alas my very little Thai leaves me helpless again) about recommended, Thai Coconut ice cream. My goodness this stuff is good and not too sweet. It's just perfect actually and so refreshing. 

 ow 

Enjoying our ice cream at a street side table. Our first night in Bangkok was great. We slept like babies and woke up ready for today and all we did in it! We feel so very blessed to be here.
Oh, and we saw our first lady boy last night. We picked up some water from a super market, went to check out, looked up and what do you know a lady boy was our cashier.  Anyways, love you reader/family/friends! Wish you were here.  Today-Khlong Canals, Scammed!, Temples, Klohsan Street, Pad Thai Tomorrow-Damneon Floating Markets scheduled, should be fun!