Breaking News: Thailand is really, really hot

[By Kai]

Yeah, the title says it all. Thailand is shockingly hot. The moment we stepped out of the airport, we were slammed with a ridiculously hot, humid atmosphere that almost made me crumple up and die by overheating. Of course, even getting to the part where we stepped out of the airport was practically impossible.  


In a nutshell, we went to sleep at three in the morning, woke up four hours later, (if that) hopped on a plane and tried to achieve something resembling sleep on a crowded flight, spent an entire 12 hour day awake on a plane, and then, later, an airport, got on another plane, stayed up a few hours and then went to sleep again. Oh, and there may have been some flu-induced hallucinations thrown in there too. In all, about 23 hours of travel, so, hey, not even a full day! Sound fun? 


Next day, I got up, and happily felt pretty much completely rejuvenated. We went outside, still adjusting to the heat, and walked around the streets of Thailand for a while, dodging cars and motorcycles (lots and lots of motorcycles) who seemed to have no sense of safety whatsoever. I mean, everyone drives on the wrong side of the road! Gosh. Seriously, people. 


As we walked down the more busy streets, we were surrounded by street vendors trying to sell us various foods, some of which looked utterly disgusting (moldy, green oranges, anyone?) though some were pretty good, like the sesame balls we all bought and devoured. 

Our 1$ meal

Oh, yeah, that’s another thing that surprised me in Thailand, the money. My first meal, at a restaurant across the street from our apartment, cost 45 Baht, the Thai currency, for a meal that would have been, oh, maybe 8-15 dollars in the US. The exchange rate in Thailand is 30 Baht to the dollar, so my 8-15 dollar meal cost just about a dollar and a half in Thailand, almost a tenth of the price. So yeah.  That gets kinda confusing. 


I hear tomorrow we’re going to do some sightseeing, so that should give me something to write about.  Until then!