Arrival and our first day in Bangkok

It's Sunday, October 28th, 2018. We've been waiting for this day for a year. In the morning the last things are packed in the backpack, the apartment is winterized and we say goodbye to our neighbor. By the way, my backpack actually only weighs 9 kg. However, I have the heavy clothes on and there is also the hand luggage...

My parents pick us up at 9 am. At first they look disturbed because I had Rastas braided the day before. Admittedly, I still have to get used to it. Every time I walk past a mirror I'm like, "Wow, awesome change. Hopefully in a few days I'll like it."

We drive into town and meet the family at the bakery. One last time German baking art for the next four months. Since I'm a real pasta junkie and prefer to eat whole grain bread, I'll probably really miss it. Max's father, my parents, sister, brother-in-law and niece are there. We are happy that we all made it to one table again. For the next few hours I fill my stomach at the buffet (good thing I'm already wearing leggings for the flight).

And then it's time to say goodbye and off to the airport. I'm slowly getting excited, but positively :) The German weather is showing its uncomfortable side today.

The plane leaves in the early afternoon and 11.5 hours later, at 7:30 a.m. local time, we arrive in Bangkok. Of course we did NOT sleep on the plane, even though we had the deluxe emergency exit seats.

We take the Citybahn and Skytrain to Khet Sathon, the district where our Airbnb accommodation is located for the next two nights. Since everything was air-conditioned up to now, we are now coming into contact with the muggy and warm climate in Bangkok for the first time. With 2 rucksacks per person we walk a good 1km to our accommodation and are drenched in sweat when we get there. We are welcomed very nicely and the most important thing: the room has air conditioning and the shower is cold!

We acclimatize a bit, slip into the short clothes, look for a train connection (WLAN wants to be used) and start walking. On the way we pass the outside canteen of the hospital and try Thai food right away. Fried noodles with crabmeat and peanut sauce (which unfortunately isn't peanut sauce, but damn hot) and a steamed bun filled with black sesame cream. The sweet fluffy thing is a dream

We explore the city around Sala Daeng a bit. We find everything exciting, interesting and simply different. However, the combination of tiredness and the sweltering heat is giving us a lot of trouble. And there are no benches to die! What for. The Thais just run around. You probably don't need benches. So we make our way to Lumphini Park. Lake, shade and benches. What more do you want? I also promptly fall asleep on the hard stone bench. At the moment it's the creepiest place in the world. And a huge advantage of my Rastas: I always have a built-in pillow with me! Unfortunately Max doesn't let me sleep :( "You have to fight jetlag!" Ahhhh...

But the park is really nice. You sit in the countryside and have a great view of Bangkok's modern skyscrapers.

Around 5 o'clock in the afternoon we are completely exhausted back in our accommodation. Instead of taking the train, we walked a lot. Actually, we want to go out again later to eat something. After all, we only had the snack from the hospital canteen so far. But at 6 p.m. I sleep. Beaten for 14 hours! That should be a new personal record.