To The Far East

I’ve forgot to have an interesting life this week. In the meantime, please enjoy the following email from my friend Elena who has quit her job to travel the world:

• Hello friends, family and people that I like and wish I was in bettertouch with so here goes...In less than 12 hours I am due at the airport to catch my flight toBangkok to explore a land known as southeast Asia for a few months. I quit my job, moved my stuff out of NYC and into my little brother's old room at my parents, packed a big backpack and a small backpack and am officially in Bangkok at themoment. Most of you requested that I keep in touch through my travelsand for those who didn't - well, if you were off traveling for a fewmonths, I would hope and love to hear from you. But if you don't wantto hear what I'm up to, no worries mate, just let me know and I'llskip you next time ;)It was a surreal trip. I refused to even think about Texas time sinceI left Thursday 9am TX time (after pulling an all-nighter), andarrived Friday 11:30pm Bangkok time. But it wasn't easy. We flewover Siberia!!! Left Chicago and hugged theAlaskan coastline. Eventually flew over a surface area that I did notknow the earth had - it looked like the moon sorta. At first it wasrolling dark little hills and then they turned into white, ummm notreally sure how to describe. Sorta like how water and oil don't mixbut mostly white and flat. I guess ice because when the map in theplane came up we were over Siberia. It seems a little odd to me thatto get to the other side of the world (just slightly above theequator) I had to fly over Siberia. But anyway...I arrived safely. My preferred/recommended hotel was full along with the next 4 or so Ipopped into (at least I was in the right section of town where hotelsare every couple of doors). I found one open and would've paidanything at that point (1 am or so) and a couple of Japanese girlscame to inquire as well. Only one needed a bed so I asked if shewanted to share the double/triple he was offering me. (I think thatwas the last room and I needed a fellow traveler to brain pick). SoYuki is my first travel buddy. Yuki as in YOU-key, do not confusewith Yucky. Yuki is very nice, learned English in Australia 5 yearsago where she worked for a year. Her English is pretty damn good butwe do play charades at times - a skill that will come in handy as thetrip progresses. Her name means snow but ironically enough she can'tstand the cold. She's been traveling a lot in the last 7-8 months orso off and on. She goes home "for good" on the 18th and has alreadytold me I need to visit her in Japan. She is gonna hit the beachtomorrow or the next day (I think a 6 hr bus ride from here) and I amtempted to join. It is HOT here! Ok, it is more steamy and humidthan hot. No, it is definitely hot, I just checked weather.com and itsays it's 92 degrees but feels like 102! (I cannot believe it isactually that hot!) I am impressed that Yuki still likes me afterwhole conversations with sweat dripping down my face. She's a bargainshopper and so we switched hotels - the first (desperate) night wepaid 325 baht each - I think that is somewhere around $12.10 ($24total) for a private room with bathroom, air conditioning (!) and alittle fridge/mini bar with bottled water for 15 cents. Now we arestaying in a guesthouse (term for something not as nice as a hotel buta little better than a hostel) with rock hard beds and a ceiling fan(no a/c so sleeping is better when you are really exhausted). Communal bathrooms have little tiled closets with a Western toilet anda shower together - literally I could sit on the toilet and take ashower! And then there are the little closets with just showers and adrain (the drain also doubling for an Eastern-style toilet). There isno toilet paper so I've learned quickly to carry a roll in my backpackat all times but I still have not mastered the technique of puttingthe tp in the trash (old habits are hard to break) since the plumbingis old and there are signs requesting you to not put it in the toilet.Fortunately, I have not caused the toilet to overflow yet with mycarelessness and I will be mortified if it happens, especially sincemy room is so close to the toilets. This place is 180 baht so I thinkit's about $4.20 a night. Yuki is cool and fun but I don't know ifI'm on the same travel budget as she is. My body is still adjusting tothe time change/jet lag so I'm not sleeping on a consistent scheduleyet but I am getting plenty of time in the early morning (I'm wakingaround 6:30am these days) to lay in bed and think about sleeping. I've been drinking tons of water and I think it's just getting sweatedout and my nose was vascillating from a lovely faucet to being allstopped up. My sinuses did the same thing when I got jet laggedflying to London years ago. So I just keep drinking more water inhopes of avoiding this thing turning into a cold (which is what Ithought I had for 2 wks after flying to London). I found a place thatlooked like a pharmacy to get some Sudafed and the friendlyEnglish-speaking lady handed me some minimally-marked pills and saidthey were "almost same". I asked lots of questions and decided totake a leap of faith on my friendly drug dealer's recommendations andwas pleased to find I can breathe much better with no other sideeffects! Ok, enough about my body's reactions.I haven't explored much but am about too. Bangkok is definitely aculture shock - fortunately in a charming way. Great peoplewatching! Lots of beautiful, vibrant colors around and intrigingtemples (Yuki is Japanese Buddhist). I have a pretty good sense ofdirection but was completely discombobulated initially. I wouldwander down an alley or two then find my way back to the guesthousethen wander down another street or alley, return to the guesthouseover and over until the sun came out to give me a shadow and let mefigure out where north was. The streets weren't marked well and wereso minor that it took me a while to find a major one that was also onmy map, then another major one on the map to indicate theintersection. But once I figured it out - oh, what an adrenalinerush! REM's "Stand" rejoiced in my head, "STAND! in the place whereyou live. Think about direction, wonder why we have it now. STAND!in the place where you work...If you are confused, check with the sun.Carry a compass to help you along. Your feet are going to be on theground. Your head is there to move you around!" Yeah, I almost feltlike doing a little jig but I didn't want to steal the spotlight fromthe friendly mute who likes to play charades with anyone near. I haveno idea what he is trying to convey with his motions so I just smileand nod then scope out a spot to watch him interact with otherconfused pedestrians. The best things in life truly are free.I am still taking everything in and reading my travel books to figureout where to go, what to see but it is all so foreign and overwhelmingand HOT that I am having trouble retaining all this new info (andcrazy sounding words). Other backpackers remind me of New Yorkers,they keep to themselves but once you break the ice, they are superfriendly and helpful. I've befriended a wonderful couple from NewZealand who had one of their bags stolen 4 days ago and they blow meaway with their attitude about having to replaceeverything...passport, visas, plane tickets, camera, etc. Fortunatelythey had traveler's insurance that is helping but still, such ahassle. Hey, for all those backpackers out there, do y'all have anyrecommendations for travel insurance? I need medical and personalbelonging coverage and did a little research the other day online butseriously, my attention span could not handle it.Speaking of attention span, I'm tired of writing! I just wanted tolet y'all know I arrived safely and that y'all have been on my mind. Don't worry about me, life is good, getting better all the time.Please keep me in the loop with your adventures as well. Thanks toeveryone's well wishes and support!

xoxo,e