Prepare yourself..

This is the first of many blogs about my adventure thus far. 4 months away on a crazy amazing adventure calls for a major update! I'm going to go through my written journal and post it on here, soooo here goes nothin'!

3/28: Had a really nice going away shindig with the family and friends. I requested to have fajitas because, let's face it, Asia isn't know for them and neither is Australia! We had a great time just hanging out. I was ready for my adventure, but I knew I would miss my family bunches! I had to put on my big girls pants and hop on that plane. A good friend of mine, Kendall, actually came to the airport to see me off! It was soo good to see her before I left!

The flight was very long and i'm sure I looked like a lost puppy. I've been on long flights before, but never alone. I am actually very proud of myself for not ending up in a difference country or missing any connecting flights! Although I do think I got pick-pocketed. My sister gave me a $20 for my birthday (and a yummy chocolate orange!) and I remember putting it in my back pocket and then I have no idea where it went after that. Maybe I spent it... That is quite a possible theory.. BUT, it would have had to be at the HOU airport because past that point I have used foreign currency. I may never know what happened to that $20! Why am I still ranting about it? Back to the trip..

3/29: Did not exist. I skipped forward in time!

3/30: Flew in to Bangkok and caught a bus to New Joe's Guesthouse near Koh San Road. It was a really neat feeling finally getting there because I as meeting my friend Allie and Elena. Allie told me what she was wearing so I could find here and there she was! Waiting under the patio for me! She had been in Australia August 2009-March 2010 and we decided to take a trip to SE Asia!

We got our room all situated and headed out to do some sight-seeing. Did I mention is was RIDICulously hot? We had to wear long pants and our shoulders had to be covered to enter the Bangkok Palace. I was sweating the entire day. I just tried to put an imagine on here, but it took too long! I'll add pic's later.

So, it's my first day on my adventure and we're headed to the palace. We're walking along the sidewalks of Bangkok and we go through this flock of birds and before I know it there are the ladies shoving bird see into my hands and shaking my arms so it looked as if I were feeding them. Then they demanded that we pay them! Please keep in mind I just exchanged money at the airport so I only had large bills. She demanded I pay her 350 baht which is about $12 USD. I looked at Elena and Allie and they had ladies demanding money from them as well! They didn't have any money on them, but I did. We should have just ran, but I was traumatized! and overwhelmed! I've lived in a box my entire life and my first day out of it I get attacked! Long story short, I gave her the only money I had on me (1000 baht~$33 UDS) and she said she'd bring change in her broken english. After that this big dude kind of usheded us away while I was waiting on my change, but he started yelling and all I wanted to do was get the heck out of there!

I know you guys are thinking this is terrible, and it IS, but that was the only crazy encounter I had the whole trip! Better get it out of the way at the beginning, right?

I got back to the hostel and hit the hay around 4 or 5 pm because jet lag set in. The protesting was going on with all of the red shirts all through the night. 24/7, really. The streets were filled with noise and loud speakers with people speaking Thai and it wassss just nuts.

It was a pretty rough first day.