Day 4- Bangkok, Thailand-3/18/09

We got to sleep in until noon for our check out from the hotel.  Our only activities of the day was our flight to Bangkok.  I had emailed the Gibbons who were past neighbors of ours from Maryland who are in the Army and now stationed in Bangkok, Thailand.  They invited myself and my roommate over for dinner.  We landed at the airport and immediately headed to their house.  It was only supposed to take about an hour but of course it took longer because of traffic and the driver told us he knew where it was when we got in the car…but of course did not.  He had to stop about 5 different times in the pouring rain to ask for directions.  Anyways we finally got there at around 6 pm.  Honestly it was a bit of culture shock to be around so many Americans again.  They lived in a gated international compound which resembled Grandma and Poppa's neighborhood in Boca.  We didn't even feel like we were in Thailand anymore.  The neighborhood was centered around the International School Bangkok and had an international grocery store and a Starbucks.  We sat around and talked to Michelle for a little while before Robert got home from work.  She had to reintroduce me to all her daughters as I didn't really remember them, but the one that was a baby when they left is now 6 years old and walking and talking.  A few minutes later we sat down for dinner, a traditional Thai meal that their housekeeper Apple had prepared.  Robert is doing research in a Thai Army Lab on a vaccine for Dengue Fever, interestingly enough one of their daughters contracted the disease on a weekend visit to Cambodia.  The disease is often called the "bone crushing disease" describing the way it feels.  Their housekeeper also had an interesting story which I was able to use as a project for my Immigration Law class.  She is a refugee trying to seek asylum to the United States.  Every few months she has to go to the border and go to a refugee camp there and register with the UN when they come.  After dinner Michele took us to an international grocery store where we were able to stock up on some foods from back home, even thought they were about 3 times the price.  We then went back to their house for some fresh baked cookies and ice cream while watching American Idol…all good creature comforts from home.  We left around 8 or 9 pm and headed to our hotel in Bangkok.  Since we were late someone had already claimed our room so we had to take a few minutes to sort that out but it all worked out.  We went to a night market to try and find Mack, Linda and Jess but apparently we ended up at a different one than them.  Then we went to a bar on top of a skyscraper which offered amazing night views of the city and $10 beers.  We stayed for one drink just to get a night view of the city from so high up and once again the pictures don't do the view justice.