The First Day

2nd of January, 2012, Sasha House in Bangkok

So it's a new year and completely new stuff for me, thanks to the guys and girls at  Asia Exchange and Kilroy Travels, who made this whole studying in Asia thing possible.Yesterday around noon I took off from Helsinki Airport towards Istanbul on a Turkish Airlines plane. In Istanbul I would have a connecting flight to Bangkok, my destination. And here I am, currently residing in the Sasha House boutique-hotel for a night to chill away the horrors of 18 hours on airports and planes.

My first flight from Helsinki to Istanbul was alright, the food was crappy as usually on planes and the old guy next to me trying desperate small talk was actually quite cool. The Istanbul airport was awful and confusing, that's saying something since I'm not a total newbie to traveling by air, having been pretty much on every continent. But enough of that, I got onto the plane quite fine after a bit of darting around. The ten hour flight to follow towards Bangkok was just as awful as one can expect. There is nothing fun sitting next to a smelly guy who speaks no english and seems to have no regard for other passengers.

Once I got to Bangkok I was as happy and excited as one can be, the climate is amazing and the people are cool. You can feel the pulse and life of your surroundings during that long drive from the airport to your destination in the city, not to mention once you get to take the streets. Personally I chose a taxi this time around and taxis are fine if you haven't slept in 24 hours and carry two backpacks. And phew, the drivers around here are quite mental, luckily though I wasn't in the deepest rush hour so things went relatively smoothly.

Sasha House is an amazing, tiny boutique hotel near the Kasetsart University. For around 30 euros I was able to score a nicely decorated and extremely comfy room, perfect for shaking off that jetlag. The hotel is in the middle of the part of town where middle- and working-class Bangkok-ians live. There's not a single tourist around and the food from the street kitchens is still cheap and genuinely tasty.

Now with a belly full of delicious noodle soup and a few cold ones I'll be fast asleep and hopefully wake up tomorrow all fresh. Even though it's still a week for orientation day at the Uni, tomorrow is a relatively big day. I'll be seeing some apartments and choosing one to live in, I figure that's a choice I don't want to regret.