A story of my first day in Bangkok
(written on Saturday, June 18, 2022)
In the earliest hours of this morning, I moved to Bangkok, Thailand.
The process of moving took three full days of traveling, including an overnight stop in Seattle to see one of my best friends <3
 |
| Mt. Rainier poked its head out! |
 |
| Elyse and I tourist-ing it up on the Great Wheel |
Flights: DC - Chicago - Seattle - Tokyo - Bangkok
 |
| The journey begins |
 |
| Japan airlines was like - this girl is way too big for a normal seat... |
 |
| They even had Japanese toilets on the airplane!! |
I was in my apartment at 1 am, and asleep by 3. It was a fitful night, jetlag and nerves keeping me from fully sleeping, but I got enough rest to function today. It’s Saturday, so I only had two goals:
1) Eat
2) Start to adjust
I failed at both.
I came with two big suitcases, but in fact my move is still ongoing because the bulk of my stuff has not yet been shipped either from Virginia or from Tbilisi, so I will be living out of my suitcases and the Embassy ‘welcome kit’ for the next several weeks or months. It's a strange balancing act, trying to decide what I should keep provided by the hotel (serviced apartment), what I should use from the welcome kit (which I have to keep track of for the next two years), what I should buy, and what I should wait for my version of to be delivered from home(s).
Over the last five years living in Tbilisi, I got married, bought an apartment, started my career, adopted a dog, and overall built a life.
When I moved away from home for the first time at 18 to go to university, I remember thinking wow, I can't believe all the stuff I really need fits in this tiny space! And I loved the feeling of being light and unshackled to possessions. I would certainly never call myself a minimalist, but from about 2012 - 2019, I was moving at least once a year, traveling constantly, generally in a state of flux and uncertainty, and pretty broke. Once I settled in Georgia in our own apartment, and started to earn some disposable income, unsurprisingly, I began to buy more stuff.
Of course, all that stuff isn't necessary, it's all replaceable and breakable and forgettable, but it's also the stuff that was the backdrop to the best period of my life (so far). I'm not a frivolous spender - by most measures I'm a stingy tightwad, in fact, and have some issues with decision making, which means that almost all my stuff has memories attached to it - if not of using it, of contemplating buying it, researching it, shopping for it multiple times until I found the right thing. I'm sure a good psychologist could unpack the mental complexes that make me reluctant to get rid of old things (yes, I did have this shirt in high school, thanks for noticing), but for better or for worse, it feels weird and bad not having my stuff.
That feeling of emptiness is amplified by the fact that I am actually alone. Bacho (husband #1) isn't joining me in Bangkok until September because he has to work, single-handedly holding up the Georgian bureaucracy (only a slight exaggeration). I know no one in this country apart from work colleagues who I've never met in person. I did a shamefully small amount of research because I was very busy and perhaps in a tiny bit of denial. It would be nice to have some of my dumb stuff to cushion the blow.
One way I have decided to cope with my weird-bad feelings is to restart this blog. So, you're welcome, mom and Indian spam bots.
Anyway, I thought I'd share the supremely uninteresting story of my first day, how I failed to both eat and adjust, and some first impressions.
My office put several staple foods in my fridge and pantry for me - coffee and milk, yogurt, bread, peanut butter, pasta, pasta sauce, mini croissants. I grazed for a bit when I woke up, and about mid-day I decided to venture out into the street to check out the neighborhood.
My first impression was the humidity. It was hot, for sure, about 34C/93F. It wasn't too bad until I started walking. After about five minutes, sweat was dripping down my neck, my back, and lower half of my face (masks are still mandated in public in Thailand). I quickly understood why no one else was walking around. There were plenty of people out, whizzing by on motorbikes or in taxis, but few on foot, probably because of the midday heat plus the lack of sidewalks on the sois (alleyways/ small roads).
One of the best aspects of my neighborhood in Tbilisi (Vake) is its walkability, shaded by large trees and with wide sidewalks on either side of the main streets. Yes, the sidewalks were cracked and mismatched but they were always bustling with people strolling with friends, shopping, commuting by foot, walking dogs, or chilling at the birzha, and there was a robust cafe culture. I haven't quite figured ut my neighborhood in Bangkok yet. Everyone says it's one of the coolest, full of bars, cafes, and even a few Michelin-star restaurants, and popular among expats. I did spot several foreigners - a Malaysian biking club in colorful spandex, a finance bro in salmon pink chubbies drinking a Starbucks frappuccino, and an unsettling number of old-out of shape-white-man + young-beautiful-local-woman pairings.
I walked in a big square from my apartment and back, stopping at a cafe I had researched for lunch. It was fine. I got nervous and ordered some lame sandwich, so that's on me, but the coffee was delicious.
I walked along one big road and several little sois. The big road had a sidewalk but wasn't pleasant with the noise, heat, and exhaust from the vehicles. The sois I was on were narrow and curvy with motorbikes whipping around blind corners, so I plastered myself to the walls of the houses and small (mostly closed or, at least, empty) businesses along the road. The neighborhood seems both more and less urban than Vake, Tbilisi. I'm in a high rise (29 floors) on a street of similar hotels/serviced apartments, but there are also tons of one or two story private houses or businesses surrounded by high walls with large green gardens that stand out when I look down from my balcony. There's also what looks like a Catholic church but I think is a housing development?
This is the only picture I took on my walk, oops. I promise I'll get some more to post!
Shiny beautiful scooters! I really want to get one
I ate my lame sandwich in the cafe, petting a Pomeranian who was roaming around freely and had apparently just had some kind of medical procedure because he had been shaved in very strange pattern, and he seemed mad about it...but he liked being pet.
Walking on the streets I was out of place - because few people walk, at least at mid day, and because I am pale and big and foreign. I swear I am like twice the size of most people here. I don't even get the old urge to lean and slouch to bring my height more in line with others, there's not even a chance. I just have to embrace it, like we are simply females of different species with different standards of physical presentation. Otherwise, I'll feel like a freak all the time. Motorbikes honked as they passed me, probably trying to pick up a fare (there are lots of motorbike taxis) or maybe jeering at me, who knows.
The rest of the afternoon I lounged at "home" in a strange, hazy melancholy, taking inventory of my new apartment, halfheartedly unpacking, trying to find some Thai music I like to pump me up, staring at other buildings' pools from my balcony (we also have a pool, I wasn't jealous, they are just pretty to look at).
About 6:30, it started to get dark, because we are so close to the equator. It's a bit strange, but a welcome respite from the intense sun. It was around that time that I suddenly realized I was starving. I had no energy to go outside again so I decided to order something from the popular and much-recommended app Grab. Grab is insane. It does everything. You can order a taxi, a driver by the hour, or even a driver for your own car like if you're going out drinking and want a DD. You can book hotels and "experiences," and hire a personal assistant or a cleaning service. You can order groceries, errands run, personal deliveries, and, of course, food.
Grab's features are all available in clear English, but the restaurants on the app seem to primarily list their items in Thai - crazy. Since I can't even read the alphabet, I was lost when there weren't pictures of the items. I managed to find a Chinese place with beautiful pics of the food and google-translated names of the dishes. The menu included gems like: "The old altar pickled rice noodles," "Saliva chicken," and "Wavy potato salad." I ordered everything that looked good, hoping for leftovers - spicy wonton soup, custom noodles with veg, smashed cucumbers, cubed watermelon and sweet Thai tea. They definitely thought the order was for four people, judging by the amount of cutlery included. When choosing each item, you had to select the level of spiciness. The options were:
1. A little bit spicy
2. Less spicy
3. Normal spicy
4. More spicy
5. Born for spicy
I like spicy food! But wasn't sure if I could handle Thai (or Chinese-Thai) levels, so to test it out, I got the wonton soup "normal," the noodles "less" and the cukes "little bit" (note there was no option for not spicy). I also selected "need some peanut" (as opposed to the other option, "do need peanut") on all the items, obviously.
When the food came, it looked incredible, but I immediately knew I was in trouble by the color of the spicy wonton soup. Pics of the little devils:
I took a slow, careful spoonful of the broth and slurped. Pure fire. The back of my throat spasmed as I sucked in a chili flake and I spit the soup all over the countertop and floor, gasping for air. It was by far the spiciest thing I have tasted in my life. But I was so hungry. After ten minutes (I drank half the bottle of Thai tea, it helped) I tried the noodles. I made it about four bites in when the pain in my mouth outstripped the hunger pains in my stomach. 15 minutes. Thai tea. Bread. The memory of the pain began to fade, plus my tongue was sort of numb at that point. I rinsed off a wonton in the sink and ate it. I ate another. Choked some more. Gave up.
The spicy devils were delicious (I think? Hard to tell, my taste buds are stripped...), but I could already feel the havoc they were going to wreak on my digestive tract, so I have exiled them to the back of the fridge. If anyone has tips for how to make them edible, let me know!
I was able to eat most of the smashed cucumbers. They were delicious, even though I had to take a five minute interval every few bites to prevent my tongue from going totally numb and stave off coughing spasms.
My fabulous supervisor left a bottle of welcome red wine in my apartment (twist top – genius). I wasn’t sure if I was in the mood to drink it after the chili assault, plus the only cups I had were the bathroom spit cups. But I opened up the welcome kit and right at the top there was a package of wine glasses, so I took that as a sign. Not sure if the wine was any good, to be honest, since my tongue has been destroyed, but I think I got hints of grape with a bouquet of alcohol.
A perfect end to my first day in Bangkok.
