Bangkok

The weekend market, Chatuchak, should not be allowed - a market that could take a day just to walk through, selling anything from souvenirs, food, clothes, pets, decorations, paintings, to plants.....I have trouble holding on to my money when the market is only ONE street long. So naturally this market was the death of my wallet.

But back to this morning - after an uneventful (but pretty long) journey from the beach where Renee stayed, to Bangkok, I decided to check out their famous weekend market. Mario from the hostel told me how to get there by bus - for a fee of only 14 baht (40 cents!).

Let me first talk about Mario for a second. Mario is Burmese; he is 21 and works at the hostel. We chatted for a bit when he came into my room to check the beds. He studied Botany for his Bachelor's degree in Myanmar, and is passionate about it. But unfortunately, in Myanmar you either get a Bachelor's, or a Master's - not both. The kids with higher grades get to earn their Master's, and the rest get to earn a Bachelor's. After that, that's it. You either find a job in your field, or you can't. In Mario's case, you can imagine that it is hard for a Botanist major to find a job.

Mario said he wants to be a researcher. He was introduced to the labs in his last year of school, and fell in love with experiments. But that's not in the cards for him - he cannot get his Master's, and thus cannot go into academia. It was heartbreaking for me to hear this story. Here I am in my cradle of opportunities, having had a quarter life crisis not so long ago, about which field I wanted to pursue - I had SO many options; the hard part was narrowing it down. But there he is, with such a clear passion, but no way to realizing it, at least not in his own country. So he left, traveling to Thailand first, and getting the first job he could find - working at the front desk of a hostel.

Chase your dream, Mario. I'm rooting for you!

He is good at his job though - seeing as he got me to and back from the big weekend market for 28 baht, so I used the bulk of my money to buy clothes, drinks, more clothes, food, painting, lights, etc.etc. In my defense, everything was cheap...:p

I was so exhausted after this, but dragged myself out to check out to see Khao San road (the road where Hangover 2 took place) - it was my last night in Thailand! And I did not regret it -

I did not have the courage to eat this on my own though. This was something I needed friends to do it with hahaha.

At some point that night, I stupidly lost my debit card (I walked away from an ATM without taking it out, and by the time I ran back 20 seconds later it was gone - either someone took it or it was swallowed). This was a good enough reason for me to call it a night and go back to the hostel to try to cancel my debit card.

The next morning I got up bright and early to try to hit up the Grand Palace before the toxic sun and hordes of tourists set in.

OK it's been a month and I still haven't found the time to finish this post. I'm going to put what I have up first, and add to it later. But just briefly: the palace was brightly beautiful and hot, I found my med school crew and it was a good day with them at the floating market, and then we got a Thai massage so good i regretted not getting one every day. I ate a cricket and a frog, and then went to the airport to find my flight delayed. Met up with Christian and had a great time despite not being able to see a ping pong show. Thailand has been great.

Oh yeah also got stuck in Beijing for another day, hung out with Greg and roamed around the beautiful hometown :)