Bangkok

The first leg of our journey has been incredible. We arrived in Bangkok around one in the morning so decided to begin the right way by sipping Singha at an outside bar watching the World Cup with some locals. Of course it was made complete by a cockroach scuttling behind me on the bench seat.

Yesterday we ventured to the Grand Palace to see the Emerald Buddha and surrounding buildings. After tapping each other's heads three times with a water drenched lotus flower (to bring good fortune) we continued to the international meditation center. Though Carly said, "you owe me", as we entered (she wasn't excited about the prospect of a three hour meditation session) she, and I, ended up having an amazing afternoon... complete with a private introduction to Buddhism, lesson in meditation, and then trying meditation on our own in the "special room" with monks and students.

Today was another adventure... we bargained (not very well) for a tuk tuk to take us to Jim Thompson's House. After seeing the compound I can understand why rich people would stay in Thailand forever. Then we got a bit lost on a canal river boat but it was for the best because it led us to meet up with a very nice guy from Switzerland, Reto, who spent the day with us. We checked out the building recently destroyed by protesters, a giant high-end shopping mall, took the skytrain and metro, walked through the quiet redlight district then China town, until we finally decided we were starving so we stopped at a carnival where Carly and Reto snacked on fried cockroaches, frogs, larvae, and worms. I did eat a maggot. It tasted like peanuts. I will not do it again. Probably.

The last few hours of our evening ended near Khao San Road where we played cards with Reto and a Swedish boy named Phillip. Now we're packing up to catch an early morning bus to Siem Reap.

Awesome thus far. A few bug bites, sweating tons, and smiling a lot.