Bangkok Day 1

I touched down in Bangkok on Thursday afternoon following a two and a half hour flight from Macau.

About an hour later, I was through customs and out on my own. Needing to catch a taxi into Bangkok, I exchanged a small amount of money (at what I suspected to be a bad rate) and was only surprised later when I learned how bad the exchange was! From the airport, it was about a 40 minute taxi ride to the street where I'm staying.

I booked a room at the Green House Guest House, which caused some confusion as it turns out there are two Green Houses on the same street, no affiliation. After insisting I had a reservation at the wrong Green House, I eventually made my way down to the other end of the road to find the right location. Janet is going to have a much easier time when she gets here as I'll be able to escort her from the airport after blazing the trail...

The area where I'm staying is in the central part of Bangkok, where most of the tourist destinations are. The whole block is full of guest houses, backpackers, trinket and food vendors, bars, etc... Wikitravel referred to the area as a "backpacker's ghetto" and after arriving, I have to agree.

One of the first things I did after getting my room and dropping off my bags was to check the current RMB/Thai Baht exchange rates. They ranged from about 4.35-4.5 Baht = 1 RMB. The airport exchange had given me 3.4 baht/RMB! I thought I may have better luck at the nearby Western Union, but they were only offering 3.8baht/RMB. Everyone seemed to offer the same rates for Baht/USD (about 32/1) but for whatever reason, coming in with Chinese money it is hard to get a decent exchange. I finally found a little place that offered me 4.4 Baht/RMB and I exchanged my money there. So far, nobody has complained about counterfeit bills, so I guess it worked out fine...