The Land of Smiles

Hi and welcome to my blog about my trip to Thailand to teach English for 5 months. If you dont know who I am then briefly my name is Alan Murphy and I am a 22 year old university graduate from Ireland. If you want more than that then send me an email.

To begin I left Dublin at 7pm on the 18th of October 2009 with Bankok as my final destination via Heathrow. A fairly uneventful journey which saw me arrive in the airport in Bangkok at 3.30pm local time on Monday. Unfortunately the same could not be said of my bag which forgot to leave heathrow having not made it as far as the connecting flight i had to get. After 2 hours, most of which was sent talking to lost baggage people about my bag and where it was and how i would get it and when etc. Apparently it will show up the next day and i have to get in touch with them about the hotel im staying in. So thats fine, i next go as far as a phone and ring my local contact in Bankgkok (Philip was the coordinator for OEG, the group who set me up over here) and inform him of my safe arrival and the minor mishap i had with the bag. He lets me know that Im staying that night in the Louis tavern hotel which is where we will have orientation from Wednesday but im staying the 1st night at my own expense as im a bit early... All fine with that so i follow the instructions i had been given before leaving ireland about getting to the hotel. I go outside to the public taxis which have meters (very important) and hand over my hotel's address which is in both English and Thai. Oh and while doing this i have now stepped out into the heat of the day which was like gettting slapped in the face by something very warm. Having never experienced high humidity before this is pretty uncomfortable. Anyway, the taxi driver looks at it for a while and says ok lets go (in english which was a relief) and in i hop to a bright pink taxi....... About an hour later after driving all the way around the city of Bangkok (its a big city) we arrive at my hotel.
The two doors in the back, where im sitting, burst open as two helpers give me a hand getting out of the taxi. I walk up to the door and am met by a beaming porter who opens it for me and i step back into blessed air conditioning(AC). I walk up to a beaming receptionist and give my name, receive my room key and the porter (still beaming) guides me to my room and turns on the lights and the AC. I collapse on one of the twin beds after firing my small bag on the other. After a few minutes i get up and head back downstairs looking for some internet. Oh i forgot to mention my Irish phone doesnt work as i forgot to set it up but i'll look into it tomorrow. Im given a card for the pc in the lobby and sit down to inform my family i am not yet dead via email. While doing this a beaming waitress comes over and offers me something to drink. I ask for a coffee as im pretty much passing out at the pc. She drops it back with a big smile and leaves me to it..... for about 10 minutes when she comes over and asks my name, where im from and talks to me in the little bit of english she has for a few minutes before she leaves me to my emails and facebook. This was a small bit irritating at the time but thats because i was so tired, she was really nice and the next morning i felt like i had brushed her off a bit. Anyway i finish up on the computer, pay for the coffee and head to the resteraunt for my first meal in thailand.
Here i get greeted by (one of?) the manager(s) and guided to a table where he offers me a menu and asks what id like to drink, all with a beaming smile of course. The meal is fabulous if a tad spicy and i sit back and relax for the first time since getting to Dublin airport, all the while being serenaded by the karaoke. There are some thais (locals maybe) in having dinner and singing away, there must have been about 20 people in small groups who probably all got up and sang in thai. I get offered the opportunity to sing as well which i politely decline. Since ive arrived in the hotel ive had my every need catered for and a stream of staff offering to help if i show the slightest possibility of wanting something. This is really nice and puts me really at ease. I finish up and head for bed suitably sedated by the long hours of travelling and a good meal. I set an alarm to get up early in order to ring the baggage dudes in the airport with the hotel location and pass out. And so ends my first day (kind of) in Thailand, the land of smiles!