So here I am in my dorm room in Bangkok at 12.25am unable to sleep. For the second night in a row. I’ve been here for almost 24 hours now and have learnt so much already. For example, air conditioning and ear plugs are a god-send. Seriously. It’s so hot and muggy here and the air conditioning in my room is so loud. So you can see why I appreciate the ear plugs. I have learnt that I have not packed adequately for this weather. At all. Also, I have learnt that Thai people have no concept of personal space. None at all. You should see how many people they can cram onto a bus. And you should be one of those people crammed onto that bus. Anyway…

So I left Adelaide yesterday (was it only yesterday???) accommpanied by much fanfare from my family. Totally embarrassing and I thank you all for that. I arrived in Sydney, had a while to spare and then caught the long flight. For those of you who don’t know, I hate to fly. HATE IT! So the idea of a 9 hour flight was less than appealing. And at Sydney airport, I got one of those “holy crap, what am I doing” moments. It passed when I realised I got the aisle seat I had requested and found that I was in a row of 4, with an older guy on the other aisle and no-one in the two middle seats. Score! And then down the aisle comes the lady….with the baby. Great. 9 hours + 1 screaming baby = suck-fest 2009. Needless to say, I was stoked when she asked to move to another seat. About 4 hours into the flight, I realised that older guy in the aisle seat was a nose-picking pervert. I would look over at him to see him either staring at me or digging for gold. Nice.

I arrived in Bangkok after my not-so-fun flight around 11.15pm local time, tired and smelling like airplane and with no idea where to go. Eventually I found my driver (not dressed in a safari suit as I had been promised), 2 Canadian girls, 1 Canadian boy and an American girl waiting and we were ready to go! Stepping out of that airport was like being slapped in the face by suffocating heat. We all looked at each other and just cracked up. I seriously did not realise the heat would be like this! It’s terrible. Everytime you move, you sweat. Meanwhile the Thai people look fresh as daisies.

It turned out I was the only one who had been picked up at that time that was staying at my dorm (Green Park Home) and I was dropped off first. The driver didn’t speak any english and neither did the security guy that greeted me with a bow, handed me a key, let me up three flights of stairs, opened my bedroom door, bowed and walked away. Welcome to Mahidol University International College! Thank god I scored my own room and don’t have to have a roommate. And I will thank every god throughout history that my room is airconditioned. Even if it will end up costing me a small fortune in electricity charges.

This morning I met some of my dorm mates, Danielle from Canada and Isabel, Svenja and Regina who are all from Germany. Danielle’s dad is over here to help settle her in and do some business so she spent the day with him and the German girls and I decided to take the bus into Bangkok, which is about an hour away by bus. We caught the sky train to Siam and went to the Siam Paragon (look it up. AMAZING, I fell in love), grabbed some Peri Peri chicken and fries for lunch (not very Thai but the damn spiciest burger you’ve ever had) and wandered around shopping for bits and pieces. Then the torrential rain hit (rain that we in Adelaide would go to war for), the streets flooded and everything was soggy and even stinkier than before. Lovely.

On the way back home, we were crammed onto the bus like sardines or cows being herded to slaughter for an hour. Yes, an hour. Standing. After walking around Bangkok for nearly 10 hours. We finally made it back to our dorm only to discover my mobile phone had been stolen right out of my handbag. I tried calling it frantically (those who know me well know my attachment to communication abilities), made several almost tearful Skype attempts home, and then decided that at least I still had my purse, my cards, my cash and my fabulous ipod and headed downstairs to discover new dorm mates! 3 more girls from America and one from Australia!! Picked me right up! Finally, an Aussie!!! And she gave me a tiny tub of Vegemite!

So tomorrow its off to Tesco Lotus (the supermarket) to stock up on food for the week, hopefully get some fresh fruit, new pillows (ours are enormous, too big to sleep on) and food that doesn’t come from the 7/11.
So far, it’s been a pretty interesting introduction to Thailand. Stolen phone, heat, humidity, but seemingly awesome dorm mates!!

I will upload photos when I have some more and will not ramble half as much next time!!!

I miss and love all of you back home!!! Feel free to shower me with emails, facebook messages etc to make me feel a little better about the theft until I manage to get a new phone!! xoxoxoxo