My second AirBnB apartment in Bangkok was in the same general vicinity of the first one, but a little further back from the Chao Phraya. The husband of the husband-and-wife team was picking me up at DMS. The wife’s instructions had been something like to “exit the door facing the street and he would be at the first door on the right” holding a sign with my name on it. I went out a few door and thought that more than one faced the street. Basically, after exiting the building, I kept wandering up and down and around the corner searching for a man holding a sign with my name. The agreed-upon time was between 4:00 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. I started to panic a little around 4:45 p.m. The wife had given me her husband’s cell phone number, but, as we’ve previously established, my cell phone is never reliable abroad. I gave it a shot, anyway, but my call did not go through. I finally approached a young lady who’d been talking on her cell phone, asked if she spoke English (a little), then inquired if she could dial a local phone number for me. She was very nice, dialed the number and handed her cell phone to me. A. answered and said that he was on his way; would probably be there in another ten minutes. I gave him my exact location and he found me easily. A. spoke English quite well and kept me amused for the entire drive to the apartment. He’d gone to college in Colorado, where he’d met his wife, who is Romanian. He relayed his first experiences in and his first impressions of the United States, which were quite funny. I found it interesting that he said that his kids speak English and Romanian, but were no longer learning Thai. His wife and he believe that it’s most important that their children learn English, but also were furthering their education in Romanian, as they would probably relocate to Romania in the near future. Once we arrived at the apartment, he gave me a quick run-through and gave me directions on how to reach the Chong Nonsi BTS station. I quickly freshened up, changed my clothes and dashed down the street towards the BTS station.
Near the ticket machines at BTS, I met up with D., who had formerly temped in my San Francisco office several years ago – so many that I can’t remember when! While vacationing in Phuket, he’d met someone and fallen in love, which prompted his move to Thailand. They initially lived in Phuket, but eventually ended up in Bangkok, as there are more job opportunities. D. took me for drinks at Ku De Ta, which is exactly where I wanted to go! An added bonus was that he knows the manager there, who gave me a little tour of the facilities. There was a fabulous view and a very trendy atmosphere. Dinner was at a casual Thai restaurant nearby. I finally got my Thai iced coffee – black, with no cream. We shared white, yellow and red rice, chicken with cashews and beef penang. D. teaches English in Bangkok and told me that I could probably easily do it as well. The drawback is that Thais are racist against those with darker skin. He mentioned that many of his African-American friends found it difficult to find work, even when they were more qualified than those with lighter skin. I’d heard talk of this before and wondered how I would fare in Thailand as a darker-skinned Filipino, were I ever to move there.
Once dinner concluded, D. was going to flag down a cab for me. I preferred to walk back, though. It was a nice night, the area was safe and I’d be able to see more while walking. Unfortunately for me, I was so taken with the surroundings that I bypassed my street by quite a bit. I asked several people if it was far to get back to my street, most of whom kept suggesting a cab. I knew it couldn’t be far enough that a cab was necessary, though, so kept walking and eventually found it. The street simply looked a little different at this slightly later hour because most of the food vendor carts were now gone. I fell into bed, anticipating my first full day in Bangkok the following morning.
Me and D. after Dinner