I can't believe all that can happen in 24 hours!! Where to start...

So we arrived at our hostel last night after our bus dropped us off at a skytrain station (like a subway but above ground). We met a girl on the bus who was also going to the Myanmar embassy the next day like us but she had no place to stay the night. So naturally she, Sara, joined us hoping our hostel would have an opening and it did. :)

This morning after breakfast at 7:30 am all 3 of us headed to the Myanmar embassy. We had arrived too late the night before to exchange money into Thailand Baht and we had no aplications yet. It was a good thing there were three of us. As I stood in line, which at that time was a short line, Seth went to exchange money and Sara collected the visa applications from a copy shop down the street that someone had told us about.

The embassy opened at a little before 9 o'çlock. We stood in line, filled out our applications and turned in our passports all before 9:45. Pretty easy unlike the rest of the day.

We decided to go back to our hostel but were stopped by a nice local talking to us. He asked if Seth wanted to have a dress shirt tailor made for him (Seth?) and then proceeded to ask about our plans for Thailand without waiting for an answer for the first question. Before we knew it he had gotten us a tuk-tuk. This was very different from Cambodia. We were off to a tailor shop and then to a tourist information place. We made our first stop where we told the driver we didn't need a shirt but he insisted that we "look for free." After taking 3 tuk-tuks today we figured out that to get a cheaper fare price the driver's will take you to one of these shops even though Seth insisted he didn't need a suit made for him. Made no sense to us.

Finally we made it to the toursit office to buy our tickets to our next destination, Koh Tao island. Thankfully our agent was Thai by birth but grew up in California since he was 2. We were so appreciative to have a native english speaker to set plans for travel. He also gave us tips for getting around Bangkok.

Next stop Khao San road to shop and get dreads! But of course with a few hiccups along the way....

Our travel agent, John, told us to take a boat taxi to the other side of town in order to avoid all the protests and demostrations. He also told us that instead of paying $30 for it, like all the tuk-tuks and others will try to make you do, look for the boat with the natives and only pay around $0.50. After over an hour walking, being refused by one pier guy and a very hangry (hungry and angry) Jessica, we ended up settling for a tourist boat taxi that was 40 Baht one way or $1.30. Much better thaan $30 but not the native taxi we were looking for.

We got to our pier after 30-40 minutes and we wandered around the streets because neither of the maps we had were detailed enough in this area of town to lead us to the correct place. So whatdo we do? We wander. We found a place to eat, Seth had a club sandwich since he wan't feeling good and I tried this famous Phad Thai. I wasn't impressed, but I'll try it again some other place to give it another chance.

We wandered some more and finally found a map and a helpful native (seems to be rare) that led us to the famous backpacker road. We found a guy with some cool looking dreads on the street curb. He felt my hair, showed me some examples of the ones he has done, gave me a price, and then we got started! It took about 3 1/2 hours with Seth sitting right next to me on the curb. I have to say my dreads look pretty funky. The first week or so they stick straight out. I look like I was in a wind storm that was filled with glue. Thank goodness for headbands and wraps.

It was dark by the time we left Khao San Road but we thought we would try to make it to one of the malls so Seth could shop for some shoes that he wants. We ended up being stopped on the way by a road block because of the protests (we think). The road was so crowded. There was a sky train near by so we just came home to our really nice hostel.

Seth has gone to bed and I've had pancake for dinner while I write this. This is a great vacation adventure.

Goodnight everyone and I hope your life is an adventure too!

Jessica