Arriving in Asia

The plane trip from Durban to Dubai, then Dubai to Bangkok, then Bangkok to Chiang Mai, was one filled with excitement, restless leg syndrome, and plane movies! Of course travelling by air is mostly just a long few hours of going through these motions:

1. Sit and buckle up.
2. Do some squirming exercises in your seat to try and get comfortable.
3. Smell some old Sauerkraut coming your way and be afraid.
4. Eat, and feel slightly nauseous.
5. Slurp some liquid, but not nearly enough. You're saving yourself from having to go to the bathroom.
6. Notice your feet are swelling like something out of Charlie and The Chocolate Factory.
7. Go to the bathroom, and smell some more nauseating smells. Also, fall a little bit in the toilet.
8. Check the screen that shows your plane flying over the Indian Ocean, which hasn't moved for the last hour. Have a few paranoid flashes about crashing and drowning.
9. Smell a fart, investigate, and surmise it's either the man in front of you to the left, or the drooly toddler the next row over. Ponder about how many fart culprits there are on aeroplanes the world over.
10. Do some more squirming exercises in your seat and realize your bum is numb. Clench it repeatedly while trying to look casual.
11. Watch a movie but fall asleep half-way through. Being the pedantic person that you are, rewatch the movie as soon as you wake up. At 4am.
12. Look out the window to see some fires burning through the night in Algeria. Erm...
13. Get served breakfast at the crack of dawn (dawn has literally just cracked in the sky outside your window, and it's unbearably bright). Feel nauseous.
14. Arrive, finally, and swear you'll find other ways of transportation in the future (you won't).

I had arrived in Chiang Mai. It was now September 2012, and I was starting my TEFL course in a few days. These are the pics I managed to get in that first weekend:


My first meal in Chiang Mai - veg Pad Thai.
The lady from my guesthouse with her beautiful dog. (She asked me to take this photo of them both!)
Thailand has all sorts of tropical fresh fruits.

Very cheap sad little chicken wings.
Many a sprout!
Thailand also has no problem showing off the carcasses of what you're eating!
Everything on the plate is deep-fried, except the cucumber!
A fruit shake stand - fruit shakes are one of the most popular Thai treats.
Some art on display at a shopping mall.
Robots and things.
Beautiful portraits.
A sign outside a Thai restaurant.
A pigeon-gathering at the moat in the old city.
A shot of the moat from a pedestrian bridge.
Gzzzzzz-sppoooorrrrkkk-ba-gooomfff!
One of many decorative statues at a temple.
More temple adornment.
A homeless cat who meowed at me from a high wall.
A canal running through the suburbs.
This is not what the Vespas at home look like!
The Warorot market arch.

1 comment:

  1. Hahah! SO true!! Funny post and cool snaps of the city. I remember when I first visited Chiang Mai ages ago, ahh the good old days ;)

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