We're in Bangkok!

After some very lengthy air time (about 24 hours transportation total!), Arati and I both made it safely to Thailand, and we just had our first real day of Bangkok. We're loving it. Smiles abound, and people have been so friendly to us.

Our first night was really yesterday, and, after Arati and I found each other in the HUGE airport, we were lucky enough to be able to stay with Jess' uncle, Owen Lammers, and his wife, Puk, who leave outside of Bangkok (how lucky/crazy that that worked out!). They treated us to a nice big bed, shower, and showed us some great Thai food upon arrival...we felt pretty lucky to say the least.

This morning (after LOTS OF sleeping), we got to our hostel, dropped off our bags, and were promptly directed by a nice Thai man to a tuk-tuk (an open-air 3-wheeled taxi), which took us to several wats (temples) and other sights for a few hours. The architecture, colors, statues, etc. here are truly breathtaking. There will be LOTS of pictures, I can assure you! We really liked the 40 ft Buddha and the reclining Buddha. We also got taken to some tourist centers (TATs) so that our driver could get "coupons" for gas, where several people tried to convince us to sign up for tours and such, but the very polite haggling was a small price to pay for the 50 baht (just over a dollar) fee that we paid our driver for our whole afternoon-long drive.

After the tuk-tuk driver dropped us off near the river, we took a river taxi further south and eventually got out to wander around in some open air markets, sample some street food (I got a barbecued banana and Arati got coconut wrapped in a banana leaf), and finally get some dinner in an open-air restaurant on the water. The view was awesome. Our whole day has been pretty much a sensory overload, but we are having a great time and are pretty excited to see what else is in store. Tomorrow we are planning to go and see some of the more famous wats and maybe go see a Thai boxing match tomorrow night. Then again, if we've learned anything in the last 24 hrs., it's that plans often change at a moment's notice...so we shall see.

Things are off to a great start, and (after a shower and some more sleep) I'm excited to see what's next. Keep in touch!