My Travel Buddy Arrives

Morning all! 

I am so flipping excited - my travel buddy Cynthia, who I went to NYC with during the fall, has finally arrived! Weehoo!!!

The beauty in the red (my other gal pal is unfortunately still in a snow bank in Canada...missing you chica!) 

Bag of watermelon on Khoasan Road

I kind of mixed up her arrival time, and I'm so (so so) glad that I double checked it right before heading out to the night market. I didn't make it there last night, and instead hightailed it to a van heading to the airport to greet her in style ;) 

I grabbed my first pad thai street food en route - so delicious! And only $1.50. Loves it. 

Bag of mango on Koahsan Road (see a pattern here..?) 

Instead of taking a regular taxi, I took one of the white mini vans - it costed only 100 baht (~$3.25) instead of the 650 baht taxi ride that I took my first night here. 

It was a bit too late to find a similar one heading back to Khoasan Road, I was told they stop at around 11pm. I tried to get my driver to come back and get us, but he said that he would be sleeping. 

Lame sauce. 

On the bright side, our taxi ride back to Khoasan Road was a bit cheaper - only 450 baht this time. 

We celebrated the only way we know how, with a cold one ;)

The party was raging on the street, random impromptu dance parties all over the place, but our room was far enough away from the road that it was completely quiet(!!). Best sleep I've had in days!!

We just had our complimentary breaky, with real coffee (great success!) and booked our hotel room on Koh Samui for the full moon party, and now we're ready to explore Bangkok some more :) 

Have a fibbity fab day everyone!

Arrival in Bangkok, Thailand

Hi friends! 

I did it!! I managed to arrive in Bangkok more or less without incident AND the airline didn't even lose my bag...pure amazingness!!

You learn to appreciate the little things after having absolutely everything go wrong, like my trip to Egypt ;)

Things went well at the Cairo airport, although the entrance to the terminal was closed or some unknown reason, and was a bit of a frenzy with everyone trying to shove their way through the door with all their bags when they finally opened. I didn't get any questions about the fact that I had stayed almost a whole extra month after my visa had expired. As my friend Bassem says, Egyptians are just too nice to me sometimes ;)

I flew with Qatar Airlines, and cannot recommend it more - the staff are awesome, speak really good English, the food is actually quite delicious...no complaints! 

I had a 12 hour layover at the Doha airport in Qatar overnight which was a bit brutal. There was a HUGE duty-free area, with random sports cars everywhere inside. Qatar is already starting to get ready for the next World Cup that will be held there, and had promo videos for the country on repeat and a huge display on the new airport they are building. People were posing for pics in front of it. Pretty funny stuff. 

It was quite a busy airport, so every single one of the outlets were being used by people charging their phones. I had to practically fight someone for one. I tried catching some shut-eye, but it was slightly difficult since all the benches had arm rests. So uncomfortable. 

After watching the sunrise, I boarded my plane for Bangkok. I was a bit nervous since I had heard that Bangkok is crazy busy and whatnot, but I shouldn't have worried - it is nothing compared to Cairo. 

My friend, who comes to Thailand every winter (smart guy, avoiding Canadian winters), met me at the airport and got me to my hotel on Khaosan Rd, which is known as the backpackers road. 

The traffic was practically non-existent and everyone stayed in their own lanes. It was amazing!! Haha nothing like Cairo drivers ;) 

I booked a room at D & D Inn, so it was an easy check-in. Once I dropped my bags, we went to walk around and grab some dinner. It was around 9pm so things were already in full swing on Khaosan Rd. I spent a couple of hours wandering up and down the streets, taking in the restaurants that were blasting the beats or had live music playing, the street food carts - I even saw some selling scorpions (with a sign saying 10 baht per pic, smart people), and the stalls selling all sorts of clothes and bags. I will have to try and restrain myself - I want it all! 

Only thing is that my room was overlooking the road, so it literally felt like I was trying to fall asleep in the middle of the club. I will hopefully be changing rooms tonight(!!). 

After a nice continental breakfast with real drip coffee (I'm serious! No nescafe!! I'm in heaven) I'm set to explore the city a bit before picking up my friend at the airport tonight. 

I have been here less than 24hours, but I'm already in love with this place!