The past few days have been incredibly busy. I found out the other day that I will no longer be teaching because the school I was going to teach at does not have a form that I need to get the work visa in Thailand. This was a bummer, but I should be able to get money back for my flight, so it isn’t the end of the world.
This means that my time frame is now skewed a little bit. I was planning on meeting Laura on Jan 5th to go to Everest base camp, but if she can meet up before that, then That is what will happen.
Yesterday was “H.M. The King’s Birthday” which is like 4th of July, New Years Eve, and every other holiday combined into one. Millions of Thais were dressed in yellow, which is the king’s color, and were swarming Bangkok because there was no work. I met up with some fellow couch surfers and 14 of us traipsed across the city to Chinatown, the Grand Palace, and some temples. We got to see the king in his car drive by, and a bunch of fireworks and parades. It is the biggest holiday of the year. My pictures do not do it justice, but swimming in a sea of yellow was a pretty cool experience. The crowds were clogging streets, parks, stores, etc… At one point we all got split up and locked in an unmovable mass of people. Amazingly, at the end of the night we all met up again after four hours of chaos.
Today I met up with Pete, a 40 something year old couch surfer from yesterday, and we had some drinks while I gave him pointers on Laos, because he is taking the night bus up there tonight.
Still trying to figure out what I am doing, it is between heading overland to Katmandu, or going through Cambodia and Vietnam.
The King’s Car
Paying respect at a temple
Sea of Yellow
Couch Surfers!