Bangkok He Said, So Bangkok She Did...

Hey-o!

Can you tell my travel insomnia has set in...?

After almost 30miserably long hours of travel, we arrived in Bangkok around midnight Friday night/Saturday morning (11am Friday for those of you playing along at home). Except for a bit of a language barrier at immigration, as in she spoke no English and I spoke no Thai, our first trip through the airport was blissfully uneventful. Our luggage even made it here unscathed (thank you Delta!).

We hopped a cab and headed over to our hotel, which was just off of Th Sukhumvit. We are spending our first few nights in a Radisson...can you guess who booked that? Somebody, aka W, was giddy like a school girl when he saw that Bangkok had Radisson hotels just like back home. Ok, whatever.

My initial observation as we navigated our way to the hotel was that we must be staying in a seedy part of time, but in the daylight I've come to believe that's just Bangkok. But I'll come back to that.

Our room was spacious, air conditioned and clean, so I have no real complaints. We settled in, climbed into bed around 2am, and much like a fine Calgon soak, we let Ambien take us away. As a side note, I had to BEG and plead with my dr for a very small allotment of Ambien for the trip. For our 20 day trip I was able to finagle 5, which was after a visit to the dr and 3 phone calls. W, on the other hand, made one quick call and was set up with enough drugs to put down a herd of elephants. For a month. WTF?

Anyways...I woke up Saturday morning around 8am initially to the sound of construction. Awesome. Luckily I was just drugged enough to pass back out for another 2hrs. When I woke up at 10 I felt like I had the worst hangover of my life. Seriously wretched. I don't know if it was the Ambien, the travel, dehydration or all three, but I thought I was dying. All I could think about was how badly I wanted a Diet Coke the size of my head. We showered and wandered down the street to the convenience store...only to find no recognizable soda. We snagged a few water and kept on walking. At the next convenience store I found Coke, but no diet. I've come to surmise that they just don't have Diet Coke in Thailand, which unfortunately means I could never live here. Their loss!

We decided to wander the street markets on Th Sukhumvit a bit in search of palatable food. Coincidently, wandering the streets of Bangkok was not what this hungover girl needed. It smells like a mix of leftovers gone bad and pee. Or perhaps that someone peed in your questionable leftovers. Barf. Also note, that in modest culture that won't allow women into some temples an other such things, it is perfectly acceptable to sell religious tchotchkes, knock off DVDs, and dildos from your cart. On the street corner. In plain daylight. And apparently Viagra is OTC here. Bizarre.

After navigating several blocks of street markets, I spied what I do believe saved my first day in Bangkok. McDonalds. Let me tell you, those McNuggets were pure magic. Turns out that the hangover curing powers of McDonalds' greasy, salty goodness is universal.

So yes, I am telling you that our first meal in Bangkok was McDonalds. And I'm ok with that.

Stay classy San Diego.