Ayutthaya, and the day I spent running around Bangkok

Ah yes, this day.

I believe this is the day my blog skipped,so with a hazy memory and a lot of downtime in OHare with a delayed flight, let us begin.

We arrived in the south train station really early. This was probably the only morning of the trip when Sam was more perky than Anna right after wake up. Since Anna's appetite had kicked in at this point on the trip, the first order of business was breakfast, but I think we gave up after an unsuccessful wanderabout.

Taxi to the US Embassy (it was either here or with the mototaxi I took later where i had to resort to the guidebook dictionary and point to embassy in Thai). Arrived right as it opened, and spent about an hour navigating beaucracy. Had to run out to get photos taken of me, at which point Sam and Anna fed themselves. I was so busy I made it all the way to dinner surviving on a bag of sugary popcorn i had purchased the privious night before the train.

By ten we had established that I was going to have a passport by one that day, but would then have to deal with Thai immigration. Not wanting to inconvience the girls further (and worried Anna would snap and kill me on the spot), we agreed to split ways. We taxied together to the N bus station with the expectation of finding a hostel for easy exit the next day to Cambodia.

No hostels at the bus station. Quick powwow determines the girls will leave now for Ayutthaya, and Ill head back to the city to find a hostel and emal the the

name. The girls buy their tickets and BAM they are wooshed away by some very hurried Thai men. We shall return to them later.

I take some time to compose myself and leaf through the guide book. I pick Siam Square has the site of our intended hostel, and sally forth to do battle with Bangkok mass transit. Taxi are pretty cheap group travel because they do not charge per person, but since I was traveling solo I wanted a new experience.

Things started off poorly, as the public citybus station was difficult to find in the massive spwarl of long distant buses and private vans. Eventually i found my bus. Thai buses have two people, one driver and one ticket person, but were otherwise no different. I paid an unknown fare to the nice ticket lady (i think just a few Baht but i didnt bother to count themess of chang she gave me after i paid with a hundred bill), and either i spoke enough Thai or she understood my butchery of her beautiul language enough so that she old me which stop to get off at. I tranfered to the skytrain, Bangkok's brand new elevated rail, took it to the hostel, and checked out a room.

I then made the short walk to Jim Thompson's house, checked it out for an hour, and flagged down a motorcycle to them embassy. As I weave through the streets of Bangkok clutching the back of a motorcycle, let us return to the girls.

When the girls bought their ticket, Sam noticed the clerk hand cash to a thai man standing there right as the girls stepped away from the desk. That man immediately began rushing the girls to their 'bus'. They siad godbye to me and soon found themselves being herded onto a large van. Hmm. The man barked at some thai to move to give the girls good seats. At some point they started moving, but often the bus would stop, the man would jump out, and herd more people into the bus, which soon became preposterously crowded. Anna and Sam began to wonder if they would ever make it.

But fear not,through the aggressive driving f thier van they ended up making it in roughly the amount of timw the legit bus they took back that evening. So they hopped out and began marching in the heat with full packs. I was not there but the girls would like to stress how HOT it was. After a ruin or two (ayutthaya is an old capital) they staggered into hostel, where they dropped their packs and rented bikes for the rest of the day. They checked out some more ruins, sweated away their body weight, checked email for my message, jotted down the address, and caught a bus back to Bangkok.

At this point your dear narrator has his temp passport and is in a taxi in search of "Government Building B." I had directions in thai that the embassy gave me,but after an hour of working north,my cab driver became increasingly concerned, as we were clearly in new territory for him. Around the old airport we began to encounter some enormous official looking office buildings. A few other taxi drivers, bystanders, and security guards later, we found my building. Inside I navigated beaucracy again, which took time but was refreshing professional and impressivly complex.

I taxi, skytrain,and subway to chinatown. I exlore that and feed myself (birds nest soup with great tea, and the china town equivalent of pigs in a blanket), and get caught in a rainstorm. I make it back to the hostel after dark to meet up with exhuasted Anna and Sam, who had only written down my address and ignored my excellent directions, and required the assistance of 25 taxi drivers and one friendly bystander to find the hostel.

That was the day. my flight is still delayed, but my wrist hurts now so this is all she wrote