Thailand

Thailand is very, very hot

When they (and by "they" I mean other travelers, guide books, your handy kindle guide, etc) warn you "Thailand is hot", what they fail to mention is how hot. So, I will clear up this tiny little discrepancy right now. Ready?

Thailand is fricking hot.

We got in last night around 8:30 Thai time to a 27 C sauna. (For those of you unfamiliar with Celsius, just multiple 27 by 9 then divide that by 5 and add 32 to the number. I know, I know... it's math. But, then again, everyone else in the world seems to be able to figure this out so maybe we Americans should give it a go as well, yeah?)

The air conditioners in every building, car, hotel, room, restaurant, etc. is cranked to HIGH everywhere you go and still the soaking wet heat blankets everything. Right now, at the Hotel President Park where we are staying, the air conditioner has not dipped below its lowest setting of 19 C since we walked through the door.

A note about the President Park:
We decided to upgrade our room last night after we looked at the currency conversion rates and realized that a Deluxe Suite would cost less per night than the apartment we stayed at in Melbourne. It's like $0.03 USD to $1.00 THB (I know, more math). So Deluxe Suite here we come!

The room is nice and big: a sliding wooden door separates the bedroom from the living room. There is a built-in double sink, a washer/dryer combo machine, a microwave, a fridge, stove, a water boiler and more shelf space than anyone could possibly need unless they were living here. There is a nice comfy couch and a flat screen TV where we watched Roger Federer soundly best Andy Murray last night to win the Australian Open Finals. The bed is spacious and there is a remote control unit next to it that looks like that questioning machine in Blade Runner that Decker uses to determine if Rachel's a replicant or not. It controls the lights, the A/C, and every other function in the room. The room is gorgeously hardwood everything and very comfortable feeling. Downsides include a bed that feels like it is carved out of stone (I'm not exaggerating here) and a strange smell of mold and cigarette smoke. Of course, that could just be Thailand itself that smells this way.

Everywhere we go, people are smoking cigarettes. As a former smoker who recognizes the need for a nic-fit every now and again, the level of cigarette consumption in this country is hard to bear. The first two rooms we were shown were on the smoking floors (one on level 7, the other on level 8) and walking through the halls was like cutting through a fog. Luckily, we were moved to the 15th floor (a non-smoking room) but the smell still permeates everything. Underneath that smell is a mold smell that makes me thing that the A/C business here in Thailand must be a billion Baht industry, specializing in turning over units regularly.

Today we are foregoing all the tourist-y stuff we planned on doing and are instead heading to the mall. That's right, you heard me! The Mall. It has over 2000 stores and is one of the largest malls in the world. I am very excited to eat authentic Thai cuisine at one of its many cafes. Helz yeah.

We are off to swim through the humidity where the forecast calls for 30 C weather on top of that. More to come.

-d@n