Tried to do a little work in Bangkok

01.03.2020 - 17.03.2020
View Coronavirus 2020 on baixing's travel map.

March 1, 2020

I got to Bangkok in the morning. I checked into my hostel. They put me in a room full of Thai prostitutes. Everytime I came in the room they were pulling their phones out of their crotches, giggling and getting dressed really fast. I wanted to throw up all the time. Sometimes I could even see the inexplicably confident neckbeards on the other end of their video calls. Blech. I'm happy they have each other.

I didn’t have any summer clothes so I had to go to a thrift store to augment my extensive carry-on sized wardrobe. I thought I was going to teach english in Myanmar so I bought 6 dresses for work.

Then I was starving so I went and bought the most Thai thing I could find. I can't remember what it was, it looks like laarb.

March 2, 2020

I had my first food assignment with an Israeli guy. He told me all about his band and how cool he was all night long. We ate a lot of Thai food, I had some of the best Pad Thai in my life and also the best laarb in my life.

There was a broken tile and *gasp* some kind of bug in the washroom. It all went in the report!

One of my dresses I got at the thrift shop.

At the bar, they were having happy hour so we got double the drinks we would normally have gotten.

March 3, 2020

I finished my report early and I was pretty hungry. I asked the lady that I had planned to go with, if she could come for lunch. She said she couldn't, so I went by myself. I had an amazing flourless chocolate cake. The service was the best I had in Bangkok.
Another dress.

March 4, 2020
I walked to the Myanmar embassy to apply for my visa and then walked back - 2 hours total.

I went for Italian and, I had eaten so much the night before I wasn’t too hungry. However, I had to do this assignment. I am such a hard worker! Lexi met me there and we had a great time. She was the best person to join me on my last assignment. I wanted her to come to all of them after that, but the other 12 assignments got cancelled due to the corona virus...I was devastated. All my plans went out the window for the 3rd time… That corona virus.
Another dress that kind of looked like a tent.

And a scratched up bathroom door. How awful.

March 5, 2020

I wrote my report in the morning and picked up my visa in the afternoon. Another 2 hour walk.

I had a really great dinner on the sidewalk to celebrate. I was also feeling homesick for China. I missed the little plastic chairs and tables.

March 6, 2020

Since I had nothing else to do, I went to random tourist places I hadn’t seen before in Bangkok. So that means I went around town to places that aren’t really high on the priority list for anyone.

The National Art Gallery was ½ closed for renovations but I still paid full price.
There was an temporary exhibit full of naked ladies. I thought I had seen enough naked Thai women already.

There was an old water tower in the backyard.

The National Museum was really great.

My favourite part was looking at the palanquins. I immediately began recruiting volunteers for my palanquin team. All positions are still open.

March 7, 2020

I was soooo bored I checked the couchsurfing app to see if there were any events and I was lucky. Some people were walking around on a foodie tour. I had another plate of delicious pad thai wrapped up in an omelette and went to a museum I had already seen.

I got some Thai tea in a bag and just generally died of heat exhaustion.

This is also how I met Fanny, my friend from France. She was working in logistics so she was very busy at this time. After our "foodie" tour, we also went to a meetup.com event at Terminal 21. This would become my own private dining room for the rest of my time in Bangkok. It was clean, cheap and good and air conditioned.

March 8, 2020

Fanny lived about 10 minutes walk from where I lived so we got together often. We wanted to go to a flash mob for International Women’s Day but it got shut down by the police. I didn’t know if it was for corona virus or if it was because unsanctioned gatherings were not allowed in public parks. Yesterday, I had seen people in a huge group working out in Lumphini Park, so it didn't make a lot of sense to me. Nobody explained it very well either.