China

Because of my complete lack of time and internet connectivity my posting is going to be mostly retrospective. I just arrived in Bangkok with my friend Brad for our week long stay! So far, we have managed to navigate immigration, take a train and a subway, and find our hostel tucked into a cute little alley! I am excited about what is to come in Bangkok and Phuket.

I left for China on the 8th after spending the night in Charlotte with Brad's family. The trip began with some drama as we realized our flight to D.C. was delayed and was eating away at the 45 minute layover we had between flights. After a little running in Washington-Dulles we made it onto our flight to Beijing in time to sit on the tarmac for an hour! The plane was also changed and so were our seat assignments. Brad and I ended up 5 rows apart and my new seat being next to a Chinese man who could not speak English! We were both upset about being shifted away from our travel partners but the packed plane and language barrier made it impossible to reconcile our problems. After some help from the Mandarin speaking flight attendant, the man moved with his wife and I received a new seat mate who agreed to switch with Brad. 

Alex Brad and I in the Charlotte airport!

The 14 hour flight wasn't nearly as bad as I anticipated, however it most definitely was not great. Brad came prepared with movies on his Ipad and we were distracted every couple of hours with airplane meals. We arrived in Bangkok 8 hours before the rest of the group, exhausted and excited. After collecting our things and passing through customs we managed to grab a taxi (that initially refused to take us to our hotel but eventually gave in, I don't think he was very happy with us). It took a little more than an hour to make it to the Sunworld Hotel in Beijing traffic, however there was ample time to observe the scenery, cars, and the some times terrifying driving style. Unscathed we arrived at the hotel absolutely exhausted. I think we could only stay up until 9 PM before crashing while watching Chinese TV. The rest of the group came in around 12:30 AM, at which point I was wide awake! My roommate Alex came in from a separate flight and we caught up and settled in!

I am planning to insert photos later because I did not bring a camera chord to upload photos (rookie mistake).