Day 1 – Bangkok, Thailand

About a month ago I bought my first one-way ticket. I chose Thailand as my first country, but from here the loose plan is to visit Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Then bop over to Japan to snowboard. After that I’ll head south to New Zealand before spending the bulk of my time in Australia (up to a year with a working holiday visa). At some point I’ll scoot over to Indonesia too (thinking of saving those beaches as a later treat). This will be the longest solo travel I’ve ever done. With no set plan or timeline, I’m thinking I’ll be exploring for the next year or so.

I’ve done a fair amount of solo travel but this time it feels different. It’s been over a year since I last went abroad (my last big trip I studied and interned in Ghana for 6 weeks, before that it was Switzerland for 4ish month). I felt somewhat rusty and anxious packing for this journey, but confident all of my old travel skills would appear as soon as I stepped out of my first taxi (I’d say plane but as I predicted, I got ripped off on my first taxi ride and spent 5x more than necessary on the ride. Oops!).

During my 24 hours on airplanes and first 10 hours alone in my hostel dorm, my mentality was a pendulum. Processing my decision in silence I swung back and forth between the panicked thought of “What have I DONE?!?!” and the calming notion that “I am stoked, this is exactly where I need to be.” Part of that anxiety was exasperated by my swollen left foot. After a perfect last day in the USA, snowboarding at Mt. Hood with my big brother and getting Mac n Cheese from Skyway, we got in a bad car accident on the way home. Magically, everyone survived and my ankle (I think it’s just a sprain and it no longer hurts) was the only injury. Very, very thankful to be alive. I immediately felt that something was looking over me, over all of us. It’s now my 2nd day in Thailand and already I am feeling comfortable and confident – that panic is dissipating. And I have the wildest introduction story. 😉

So what happened on day 1 to chill me out? For starters, I started talking. I stepped out of my first shower and another lady traveler had moved in to the room. Chatting with her and absorbing her advice washed away a lot of anxiety – it was exactly what my extroverted nature needed. Walking out to the lobby for breakfast I met another woman around my age who had just arrived from her travels in India. She rocked, and we paired up to take our first venture to the center of Bangkok. After an hour in the Grab (Thailand’s Uber), we arrived at Khoa San road, the backpacker hub of this city. I found an oasis of a hostel for about $5 USD a night (New Joe Guesthouse & Hostel, check it out). We dropped off my bag and went out looking for food. The first thing I ate was falafel, shame on me haha, but it was delicious. We wandered the busy streets, sipping on beers and stumbling across oddities (i.e. a crocodile roasting over a barbecue, great opportunity for Steve Irwin jokes RIP, and a lively Menorah lighting celebration). We befriended some Americans along the way, so when it was time for my new friend to return to her hostel, the hostel I previously stayed at, I hung out with the Americans.

We decided we’d go find a Ping Pong show. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I knew that these were a popular experience for travelers and involved ping pong balls and women. There would be no playing of Ping Pong. We piled in to a taxi and when we got there the ticket salesmen were charging an absurdly high price, 700 baht per person. I wasn’t about to get ripped off again so I bartered down to 400 baht each (and a free drink) and we went inside. In the middle of this small dark and grungy room was a square stage and with poles in each corner. The show incorporated ping pong balls, along with glow ropes, cigarettes, blow darts, pens and paper, and I’ll let you use your imagination from there. We left after 30 minutes feeling shocked, amazed, and a morally unsettled. I joined the crew back at their apartment for a couple games of cards and a beer to wash down what we’d seen.

When I returned to my hostel I met the 3 other women staying in my dorm room. After an hour of laughing and getting to know each other’s stories, one girl and I took a walk around the blocked and watched the chaotic scene of drunk party people returning home. We came back and crashed around 4 in the morning.

That’s it for now. I’ll report more as I settle in, photos to come!