Dear Friends & Family,

No matter what continent you are on, the inevitable problem with switching from a beautiful, luxurious suite to a basic guesthouse, is that the guesthouse accommodations completely pale in comparison. In fact, the first glimpse of my room was rather disheartening: after a steep, steep, 4 story stair climb with my not-lightweight suitcases, the heat and humidity from my windows smacked me in the face as did the well-worn hot pink blanket, the teeny tiny desk, and the horrid florescent lighting. In fact, I shall not bother to show you all "before" photos of my new suite because the "after" pictures with my stuff scattered are rather more homey. In fact, I'm likely going to have to buy a lamp (as the lighting drove me batty after a minute and I am staying here for almost 5 weeks), and I had to quash an urge to obtain a plant, and I must, must figure out an alarm.

Standards aside, there is nothing wrong with the Wendy House. In fact, there is a lot right. It is clean, not crumbling, the staff has been friendly, and it has the promised amenities such as air conditioner (that I'm likely going to kill by running 24 hours a day), a 'fridge, a TV (that I have yet to try out), and my own bathroom (with zip, nada, zero storage). It is located on an alleyway of other "affordable" guesthouses and hotels and while the alley is dusty and one is forced to dive amongst the bushes when a car goes by, the budget guest crowd is evident and my internal safety alarm bell has not yet been set off. Although at 2:42 am, I was jolted awake by shouting; I did not understand the language, but was happy to note that the shouting was good-natured. World Cup, perhaps? Anyway, the Wendy House atmosphere is International dorm-like and I although I'm out of the habit, I could and shall love that atmosphere.

The best news about Wendy House is that it is a quick walk to the Bangkok Skytrain. The bad news about the Bangkok Skytrain is that none of my maps incorporate Skytrain stops and the signs were little help to me in regards to direction. Luckily, I'm located near the "Sports Stadium" and its stop - which is memorable. When I arrived at the station in the mid-afternoon, I did some "now what?" thinking and watched other patrons. Finally, I decided that I might as well get on the thing, travel a few stops and see where it takes me. I could always retrace my steps and as each stop is 10 Baht, $0.26, this exploration was financially reasonable. I obtained some change from a cashier, selected 2 stops on the machine, input 20 B into the machine and was issued a card with a magnetic strip. The card goes into the machine, the gates slide open, and then you repossess the card. The trains come often and are air conditioned. Every time I climbed on, I could barely suppress a sigh of relief in escaping the humidity. You give the magnetic card back when exiting at your destination.

As I wasn't able to completely leave my goal-oriented nature where the sun doesn't shine, my hoped-for Skytrain travel goals were to (a) figure out how to get around without car/taxi, (b) find a bank in order to pay Wendy House its due, (c) find a book store for a city map, (d) find a power surge protector (yes, ensuring that my computer is happy is still top of my list!) and perhaps (e) a grocery store. I soon realized that the next station over from mine, handily titled "Siam/Interchange station" is the station for Siam Square - a humongo mish-mashed Western-style mall complex and the location of my ECC school. I had to take a few incorrect trains to figure out how to get back - all in the name of exploration, of course - but finally got my bearings and headed back to Siam Square.

The "square" part of Siam Square is composed of lower buildings with Thai retail shops in maze-like formation similar to the "native" ones that I had run into yesterday but definitely a level or two higher on the posh scale, with names on the outside, hip music, and a crowd of hip shoppers - mostly teens, I think. I wandered around the square, keeping a sharp eye out for my school (which I found later while standing on the train platform to return to Wendy House), stopped at a bun place for a delicious 22 B sausage roll and 20 B "lemon tea" and then attempted to use an ATM to withdraw money for the guesthouse. It was declined. I'm already pretty good with the online banking and could tell you almost down to a penny my available balance (which, for the record, is in positive territory), so I walked into a Thai bank for suggestions on what to do. They referred me to the tourist information booth - which was closed. That was discouraging as it was 4:00 pm here and somewhere in the middle of the night in Seattle. Huh. After some vexation and thought, I returned to Wendy House to explain my dilemma, e-mailed the bank, and have permission from Wendy House to pay tomorrow.

Now hungry, I decided to return to Siam Square to work on my other goals (surge protector and map). And now I must confess that I'm in huge, huge trouble. Siam Square has an Internationally chic, large, shiny, echoey, Western-style shopping mall called the "Siam Paragon." The mall portion is filled with couture names such as Coach, Chanel, Valentino, Hugo Boss, Hermes, and many more. Admittedly, this isn't truly a problem for me as I'm scarcely better able to afford couture items here than I can at home. And I'm likely to prefer a trip to Phuket than a designer handbag. However, the "Paragon" part of the name of this mall is because there is the most amazing department store called Paragon also located there. Paragon is at least 3 times the size of your average Nordy's and definitely could hold its own in New York or Paris or Hong Kong. The place has everything. Upon entering, I was greeted by makeup: Helena Rubenstein, Bobby Brown, Mac and many more. It seemed like forever to make my way to the center escalators. I by-passed the clothing, admittedly mostly because it looks like my size will be unavailable, and quickly found that my favorite sections were the "Read & Write" section (all Thai for the "read" section but from the covers I could tell that they carried some of my favorites such as Harry Potter, In Her Shoes, Inkspell, and He's Just Not that into You) and the upstairs high tech section. I also browsed the lamps - I really liked one for 1,477 B - a mere $38 (the same would likely exceed $200 in a Western store) but shall look for something more easily disposed of. Although Paragon is the coolest department store that I've ever shopped in, again, this isn't why I'm in trouble.

After Paragon, I was hungry so I caught an escalator to the basement food court. Just your average expansive, food court with French espresso, homemade gelato, fusion Thai food, sushi bars, etc. However, I passed by them all as I just did not fancy the notion of sitting by myself to be served a meal when I spotted a grocery store. A grocery store really doesn't describe this place - and the aptly named "Gourmet Market" could be my Waterloo. Gourmet Market is akin to a high-end hybrid of Whole Foods and Uwyjimaya - and it is incredible. Plump, shiny, fruit, vegetables chilled to perfection, enough deli stations to make your head swim, not to mention rows and rows of everything grocery/drug-storish from tp to Pantene to teas to juices to frozen items to seafood to well, everything. Those who know me well know can probably picture my joy, my sheer glee as I wandered up and down aisles. However, mindful that I cannot cook and that my Visa isn't working, I contented myself with the purchase of a salmon Bento box for dinner (180 B), 2 apples (32 B), a Cadberry bar (24 B), plus milk & sugar for in room tea (35 B). Having spent ~300 B, about $9, I took my purchases to my penthouse suite. I felt a bit guilty realizing that the average Thai citizen, the street vendors that I passed and even our front desk attendant cannot afford to make Gourmet Market a regular shopping experience. But I can - within reason - and you can bet I will.

All and all, I'm settling in quite nicely. One can purchase a coupon for an hour's worth of web time for 60 B ($1.75) - and this includes wireless. I can utilize the wireless downstairs in the tiny Wendy cafe but I've also found that it works just fine while sitting on my bed. I suspect I'll be purchasing many of those coupons! Mostly so I can describe to you all my latest purchases at Gourmet Market.

My plan for tomorrow is a map and homework, I think. Thursday is my first cooking class. On Friday, I'd like to venture to a few tourist spots - I may just do a lame tour hoping that it'll help orient me to the city. Anyway, my real reason for coming to Bangkok - to be schooled and to school - is fast approaching.

With Much Love,

Laura