Bangkok: Not as much cheese as you would expect

 **Due to our many activities and general desire to be out in the world rather than in the room writing blogs, this post is about 2 and a half days overdue. You should just pretend that all of the posts i put up were actually put up several days before they were put up. Use your imagination!**
**Also the title of this post comes courtesy of Andrew Liebler. You're welcome.**

So our first day in Bangkok begins, and with a solid 4 hours of sleep under our belts, Liebler and I feel refreshed and ready to get going. We start by heading downstairs for the free breakfast at the guesthouse, and our first meal in Thailand. Usually the words “free hotel breakfast” are not exactly mouthwatering, but this was different, freshly cooked for us specifically when we arrived in the lobby:

With some real food in our stomachs, we were ready to venture out into this brave new world known as Bangkok. However, our priority was not the normal exploration and sightseeing that usually characterizes the first day of a trip. Our plan was to
1. Go to a storage facility to store a couple of our bags so we aren’t dragging tons of stuff (i.e. the substantial amount of things I had to bring to prepare for the move here) around as we travel through Thailand
2. Find the train station so we can buy tickets for the overnight train to Chiang Mai
3. Eat some awesome food and
4. Take the overnight train to Chiang Mai

So we sought out a cab to get us to the storage facility we were planning on using, which was not as easy as we thought it would be. Bangkok is an incredibly crowded city, and the roadways are constantly crowded. It seemed that getting across town at 12:30 would require a herculean effort in traffic evasion, and the first two cab drivers we flagged down were not up to the task. The third one was willing to take on the challenge, but had a significant amount of trouble trying to find the place. But eventually we did arrive, and not a moment too soon, because the facility was having issues with electrical power and were getting ready to shut down for the day. They literally locked the door behind us when we left. I have no clue what we would have done if we had gotten there and it had been closed, but thankfully it didn’t come to that.

So with only one huge bag a piece in tow, Liebler and I seek out some lunch. And there are plenty of choices. Thailand is full of “street food” and “noodle shops”, places where you can go and get a quick, filling, delicious meal for about $1. No joke. Welcome to paradise.
**Due to unexplainable, mind-boggling neglect, I failed to capture a picture of this first Thai lunch. Please accept my apologies and attribute my failure to my inexperience as a blogger**
Despite the fact that the spicy soup we ate contained, among other unknown things, what I deduced was either tripe(stomach) or intestine, it was very good and Liebler and I enjoyed it thoroughly.
After a satisfying lunch our next goal was to get to the train station and buy tickets for the 7:30 train to Chiang Mai, the second largest city in Thailand and our next destination. The station was just about a mile or two down the road we were on, so getting there was much less painful than the trip to the storage unit. In fact, from the time we got in to the cab to having tickets in hand was probably about 10-15 minutes. So we had about 4 hours to kill before out train was supposed to leave, so we brought our massive bags to the bag check, and getting that weight off our shoulders was probably the biggest relief of the day, followed closely by the hour-long foot massage we got in the train station. Now maybe you’re saying “Ian, I really like the sound of having my feet tended to for 60 minutes by a stranger in a foreign bus station. But I imagine a massage of that length must be extravagantly expensive!” Well my friend, you’re imagination deceives you. We paid about $6 each for the privilege, and it turns out that’s a middle-range price for a foot massage. What a country.
So eventually we get on the train and eventually the train starts moving. Slowly. Trains are slow. Trains in Thailand are slower. I base that generalization on my single experience on a Thai train. So you know it’s true. But the trip ended up being very enjoyable despite the sluggish pace. We were in compartment(correct word? Maybe) with two Russians, Alexi and Anton, who ended up being really cool guys, and we quickly became train buddys:

We talked about Thailand, the US, Russia, ourselves, and whatever else two Russians with an intermediate knowledge of English and two Americans with no knowledge of Russian can talk about. Eventually they brought out some vermouth, and that’s when we all started drinking. We taught them one of our go-to drinking games – a concept that was new to them as Russians don’t play games when they drink; they just drink – and several hours, one bottle of vermouth, and two small bottles of awful Thai whiskey later, everyone was feeling good. Except for Alexi:

 

Everyone slept well, except for me, as for some unknown reason I woke up around 4:30 AM and was unable to fall back asleep, which has happened to me rarely if ever in my life. Thailand is full of firsts. After a few hours of watching the Thai countryside out the window of our train car with the Russians, we finally arrived in Chiang Mai, located in the mountains of the northwestern part of the country. We stepped off the train, parted ways with the Russians, and started a new adventure in a new city. Life is awesome. I can’t believe we get to do this.