July 10,

Welcome to… Bangkok, Thailand!!!

We arrived at 0358! Scary, crazy time, but WOW!! We are in Thailand. We offloaded onto the tarmac and into the terminal via shuttle bus; through the most laid back immigration; and then collected our bags. Next Jeff called for a cab through Bolt. So 0438 we were loading into the taxi. The streets were basically empty and he got up to 135 kmph (84mph) for a good stretch!

We arrived @ 0501 to our hotel– we covered 32 km (20 miles) in 23 minutes! There was a security guard who let us in. We found the mailbox that had the key card like the picture showed. We got to the apartment and… the key fob did not unlock the door. It lit up the panel but did not unlock the door. We thought maybe we needed to enter a numerical code after that, but we did not know it, weren't given that number….. HUMM… so Jeff tried to contact our host through Booking.com.  …And nothing… for essentially two hours. So Jeff called Booking.com and explained our predicament. They tried to call the host and could not get them either. Booking gave us the option to cancel and they would find us a comparable accommodation. But we decided to wait a bit more, because the host does not have to respond to a message for up to 24hrs. This did not help us, but we were willing to try a bit longer. Jeff meantime started looking at other options. After four hours (0900ish) we decided. Jeff called Booking and cancelled. A resident who lives there knew of the place and knew someone who had stayed in the room and tried to contact them for us… But they did not respond to her. So we cancelled through Booking and Jeff found an Airbnb. (Booking had sent us a optional place, but it did not have very good reviews.) The new place looked way smaller and cost a bit more, but it was available and way better reviews. At this point, we were both punchy and fighting sleep deprivation. Jeff went ahead booked the new place and they got in touch with us right away! They had to get it ready. We found out it was in the very next building! So we tagged behind someone into the lobby, to wait there. The host had the key card delivered to us via a motorcycle delivery service! (Everything is delivered this way! As we were waiting there, we saw many lunches and packages delivered this way.) Anyway, we took this key card and we went to our apartment… It worked! We got in!! It was around 1230. Welcome to The Moniiq.

For whatever reason, we did not get the other place. It may have been a God thing!?! Questions?? We explored and started a list of stuff to get, kind of unpacked some. But we were tired!! We went out needed to be moving to stay awake. There is a 7/11 right close to us, so we went there. The best comparison is a QuikTrip/Kwik Shop back home. We got some things. Then we got our first street food in the parking lot there. We got four roasted chicken skewers, and a roasted chicken thigh/leg combo. We went back to our place and ate our first Thai street food. It was great. 

After we finished we unpacked some and went back out. We went to a local hospital to check on allergy testing for me, and they accommodated me right away. I filled out paperwork, given a bracelet, and someone escorted us to an Ear, Nose, Throat Doctor's Office in the building. They took a brief history and saw the doctor. Then they drew blood and said they would call in 7 days for the rest! Okay! That cost us $105.

We now left and walked back. On the way we saw something we had not seen before: a gas station with the hoses coming from the awning! There was not any gas pump tanks. It was wild looking! Back near our place, we stopped at the 7/11 again. We got some snack type stuff for supper. After we ate we showered and crashed! It was 1930, but we were like the living dead–so tired!