I'm going to Thailand: Pre-trip prep

Here I am, sitting in my parents’ house in Boston, getting ready for what promises to be a fabulous adventure in Chiang Mai, Thailand. I’ve spent the past few weeks gathering fancy clothes (the dress code for any professional types in Thailand) and information about this embryonic plan I’m about to birth.

I’ve gained these so far: several longish skirts, two pairs of dressy shoes, an armful of lightweight (and modest) shirts, a Lonely Planet guide to Thailand coupled with the Lonely Planet phrasebook for Thai (thanks Santa!), a magicjack device for calling people from a 617 number (yet to arrive, fingers crossed), hand sanitizer, the hopes of renting a motorcycle, several other useful objects, and several other bizarre anticipations and hopes.

January 6, 2010 marks the beginning of my trip. Kate Neely will meet up with me on the plane which leaves from Boston, MA and lands in Reno, NV. Our good friend Julia Berberan will be waiting with open arms and a mustachioed face to drive us to her home for a year (Americorps style). Her mustache hasn’t been entirely discussed, but fake mustaches look ravishing on her, and I probably won’t recognize her without one. In Reno we will spend four days desperately trying to keep ourselves warm in feet of snow with only our supply of thin and fancy clothes garnered in anticipation of the 80 plus degree heat of Chiang Mai in January. Between shivers we’ll spend time playing guitar and singing with Julia. Maybe in addition to the mustache Julia will bring us a sweater or two to cower under. Maybe.

From Reno we find San Francisco, the home of Asiana Airlines a.k.a The-airline-that-offered-the-cheapest-roundtrip-fare-to-Bangkok-I-could-find. It’s known as this to me for unknown and desirably not fatal reasons. Seat number 88 (lucky 8’s!) was more expensive. So I didn’t get that seat.

Flying on this unknown airline (perhaps it’s filled with the tiniest seats ever seen on a plane? Treasure Troll sized seats?) we stop in Seoul, South Korea for roughly the time it take to politely wave, then steer on to Bangkok. We land at roughly midnight and have to somehow find a place to stay (do tuk-tuks (people powered carriages) run at midnight? I’ll find out I’m sure, but not before I get severely ripped off by an extorting cab driver.) before we brace ourselves for a 12 hour train ride to Chiang Mai. In Chiang Mai we find Kate’s school, Chiang Mai University, my as yet undiscovered job teaching English to people who want to pay to learn it, cheap food, and motorcycles. No sweat. Or rather, buckets of it since it’s going to be at least 80 degrees and humid as a mop.

Pineapples galore! Pad Thai on every corner! Tuk-tuks racing between incensed cab drivers stuck in sweltering heat and traffic! All this so soon!

Love, Kasey