Tomorrow I will have been in Thailand for a week.
Last Tuesday I arrived at the airport with my dad's words ringing very untrue in my head, "just walk outside and get a taxi." No, not exactly. You can't just walk outside Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok and 'get a taxi.' I waited for my two suitcases after passing through a relatively short line at customs where I got my $175 multiple entry visa stamped - at this point I can't imagine ever having the guts to travel further than I already am, but I hope it will come in handy later. I grab a wheeled push cart from the stack and load up my suitcases, weekender and purse. I decide to take an escalator -flat but in the shape of a camel's humped back- down to the ground floor while trying to keep my 50LB suitcases on the cart - I failed.
After asking several traveller's booths where to find a metered taxi I end up at the tourist police counter where someone who speaks a bit of English brings me outside. I show him where my friend's apartment is by pointing on my hand drawn map; he conveys my directions to the cab driver. Everything seems to be going well. The taxi driver is eager to practice his English, asking me many questions, spouting facts about Thailand, and singing along to out of date American pop songs on the radio. My friend's apartment is only 30 miles from the airport and we've been driving for about two hours. It turns out the driver does NOT know how to get to 3J court - the little apartment my friend is staying in.
I have always thought taxi drivers know their way around the cities they drive in best, but in Bangkok, they don't, it seems like no one does. The majority of taxi drivers come from the poor northeast and speak the least English; if you are going further than a few miles radius, you better be a good back seat driver. After a seventeen hour flight and a three and a half hour taxi ride (several pay phone calls and deep breaths included) i'm standing on solid ground.
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