I guess I can begin this long journey with being woken up Tuesday morning to the sound of my apartment door being opened up by the owner. Air con! Air con! was all she said as she stormed into my room, closely followed by the A/C man at 9:30 in the morning on my day off, without any sort of notice or heads up during the previous day’s engagement of conversation. WTF, my A/C is fine! was all I could think as I tried my best to mentally locate all of my valuables scattered throughout my apartment before this strange A/C man in a suit began to do work in my room. iPhone, iPod, wallet, phone, passport, money, emergency stash of money, laptop, backpack, CHECK! I was all good and well aware of what was happening now.

I was planning on making a trip down to Bangkok that day to get a new Macbook Pro battery before my visa run to Laos the following evening. I was thinking I would be making the trip with Ricky, who at this point was becoming my reliable steed at keeping good company on various adventures into town. The A/C guy finally left for a moment of time long enough for me to put on some clothes (at this point, the A/C was off, and having a comforter halfway up your chest to cover up your rather lacking sleeping attire, gets you really, really hot, really, really quickly). I decided I would start my day at this point after a rather rude awakening. I met Ricky in the lobby and explained what had just happened and ended up leaving him laughing in Lop Buri as I headed toward Bangkok. He would choose to stay behind this trip.

Getting to Bangkok was as easy as ever. Just hopping on a bus at the known bus station and heading south for a couple of hours, winding down back country roads and picking up God knows who in the middle of endless rice paddy plains. There are some absolutely beautiful plains out in the countryside, stretching out with mountains far off in the distance.

We finally arrived in Bangkok, and I had immediately jumped on the BTS Skytrain to the stop close to Pantip Plaza, where I got my first battery. The problem with that battery was that it was the wrong battery all together. I needed one for a MacBook Pro, whereas I got one for a MacBook. I was sort of worried because I had managed to get a really good price for the MacBook battery, and figured the new battery either would be more expensive or wouldn’t even be able to be exchanged. The toughest part of communicating with the locals is actually communicating with the locals. Every time you want to communicate something, it is like a big game of charades. Lots of acting out and praying they can understand you. I obviously wasn’t clear with my initial request of a Pro battery.

This time I had success. I gave them my MacBook battery and laptop, and they immediately understood the problem. Thank God! I was a very happy camper and was eager to leave to go back to Lop Buri. At that point in time, it was around 3:30 or so, and I was hungry. I grabbed a quick bite to eat and then made my way back to Victory Monument for a bus back to Lop Buri. I got to Victory Monument, and couldn’t remember where the bus station was that I used last time, so I began to ask around for a bus back to Lop Buri...What a mistake that was.

I found this lady who would get me a bus back to Lop Buri. I thought Great! I’ll be back in time for dinner at the ‘Steak House’ with Ricky tonight like we had arranged. I was slated to be back in Lop Buri at 7 at the latest.

As I boarded the bus I checked one last time to make sure it was going to Lop Buri (after asking her literally 10-15 times). She nodded, repeating LopBuli (how the Thai pronounce the town) and guided me, along with a few others into a bus and we began out run to LopBuli.

I nodded off for just a couple of minutes, no more than 15 actually when I started to feel a little uneasy. I was not seeing the usual sights I had seen before, nor was the direction were going North, according to the compass app on my iPhone. We were headed West, way, way, way West...

I was hoping and praying that maybe we had to drop someone off and would shortly head north, like I had initially wished to do. When these hopes and prayers were not answered, I knew I was in for a trip. Fortunately, I was able to follow our path on the internal GPS on the iPhone, but not for long. That luxury was taken from me as we traveled away, further from any cell phone tower or GPS satellite I was previously connected to. It was really sort of scary traveling with a dying iPhone on a bus that you have no idea where it is going, full of Thai people talking around you.

An hour and a half later, we make it to this town called Ratchaburi, about 2 hours west of Bangkok. How Ratchaburi and Lop Buri sound similar still befuddles me. The worst part about the trip was not being able to express my situation to anyone. I couldn’t tell the driver that I got on the wrong bus because he would drop me off in the middle of nowhere, being unable to call a taxi down, or communicate with any locals. I rode out the trip and finally managed to talk to a few University girls who understood the word Lop Buri and Piboon. They began to laugh at me and how I was put on the wrong bus (in hindsight, it is actually pretty funny). They said to follow them, and everything would be okay. I was confused, tired, and worried, but decided they would know more than me.

Just before they hopped off the bus, they said the driver would drop me off at Piboon school. I was hesitantly relieved. Maybe my luck would be turning around soon? Let’s be honest right now...

Apparently there is a school called Pibul Songkramuppatham in Ratchaburi. In Thailand, when a word ends with the letter ‘L’, they pronounce it as an ‘N’. So with my school, it is called Pibulwittayalai, but we call it Piboon for short (vs. Pibul). It was definitely one of the more scarier adventures I've had in Thailand because I was on my own, not able to speak to any of the locals really or read any of the signs or know any of the main roads. Fortunately the bus driver suddenly realized my predicament and ended up setting me up with a bus from Ratchaburi to Bangkok. Thank God there was one passing through and picking people up. (Again, I must apologize for the google picture. It was dark, my phone with my camera on it was dying and to be honest, I was a little concerned. A night time picture did not come to mind immediately, but this was the school in which they would have dropped me off)

I boarded the bus and we were on our way back to Bangkok. When we arrived, it wasn't too late so I called one of my best friends Ty and asked him if I could crash at his apartment for the night. I found one taxi at the bus station and after a minute or two of bickering over the meter price (maybe a 140 baht trip) or the 500 baht he kept offering, I decided to leave and laugh at him as I left his taxi. I learned my lesson from my last 500 baht taxi ride and wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

I hopped in another taxi and finally made it to Ty's place. I was starving from being deprived from my dinner for the evening so while he made it back to his place (from a classroom where he and a few others were watching Lord of the Rings), I got two plates of pork and rice. I wish I had made it back to Lop Buri because I really, really wanted that steak.

Ty and I called it a night at that point since we were both exhausted and knew we had a big day the next day.

August 8th

Ty and I woke up and immediately made plans to watch Batman in IMAX which was an incredible experience. We met with fellow UNCers Wilton, Mary Katherine, and Emily and we climbed in the back of the jeep taxi which took us to

the theater for the 12 o'clock showing. We got a massive bucket of popcorn and four drinks for literally just under ten bucks total. It was so nice to finally get a good 'deal' at a movie theatre.

After Batman, Ty and I broke off from the girls to find me some clothes, since later that night, I was headed to Laos for a Visa run. I picked up the necessities at MBK, one of the worlds most reknown shopping malls. It is always an adventure stepping foot in there. We took a little snack break and managed to pick up some delicious sushi that was served on a water conveyor river. It was so cool! I managed to go to the same Kobune Restaurant on a later trip since it was so good. Ty was on a mission as well to find a camera, so between clothes for nearly a week and a camera, we had our hands full.

Once we had our last supper in Bangkok for a while, I headed onward toward the bus stop for my overnight bus ride. I left Bangkok right around 9:00 pm and we started to head north.

Below are just a couple of really cool pics I snagged

walking through Siam Center’s , which is the big center of almost all the large shopping malls in Bangkok. It was full of beautiful scenery and huge colors on the buildings and in the sky. I miss it.

<-Ty->