Time Machine to Thailand

My first career, back in the day, was as a customer service agent for a major air carrier. As any airline employee will tell you, one of the best parts of the job is the flight benefits. Being able to travel for next to nothing is a huge perk, and a good one since it's never been a job that would net you any kind of fortune! My friends and I were always all about our next destination, and we would scrape our money together as often as we could in order to travel. It usually hinged on whatever airline might be offering the best employee rate, and for this trip, it was China Air, LAX to Thailand for $145 round trip. 

This was 1993, when planes weren't always packed to the gills and special rates were available for airline staff based on shared ticketing agreements and goodwill. You could also get special rates at hotels and for rental cars. Nowadays,  it's a lot harder to travel standby and the hotel deals and car deals just don't exist like they used to, thanks to the internet and the eight million discount travel sites out there.

Apparently, this was also before we learned to pack light. What the hell are we even doing with all this luggage??

We flew into Bangkok and checked in at our hotel, which wasn't anything special but was also something like $10 a night in U.S. dollars. It was clean, it had a private bath and a shower. We were in our 20's. All good.

Our first adventure in Bangkok was a boat tour on the river. This was a great way to get a view of the city, and a somewhat sobering reality as to daily life there.

  

We also did a tour of the Grand Palace.  There are no shorts or bare legs allowed inside, as it's considered very disrespectful. Conveniently, they rent long wrap skirts just outside the palace walls! 

Those skirts were not very comfy in the 100-degree heat, but the palace was beautiful.

We wandered the city, exploring the markets and laughing hysterically as we naively trusted our lives to the crazy tuk-tuk drivers! And because I am a sucker for those kind of things, I did the "make a wish and set a bird free to carry it" game that locals like to play on tourists (you pay to set the bird free with your wish. The birds are tame and come back a little while later to their owners and food, lol! I guess the bird vendors are making their own wishes come true!)

After spending a few days in Bangkok, we made our way north to Chiang Mai. I remember the hotel there was smaller, but much nicer. I don't know what Chiang Mai is like now, but back then it was quieter and less touristy than Bangkok. More recently, it has been listed on TripAdvisor's "Best Destinations in the World" list, so I'm guessing it's still as beautiful as I recall.

In Chiang Mai, we did a day-long trek through the jungle. We hiked, rode elephants from the village to the river, then took a bamboo raft down the river and back to our vehicle. 

At the time, I had no idea that the elephants used in those kind of tours are often mistreated, and I probably wouldn't do a tour like that today. 

I think my favorite thing about Thailand was the people. Here I am chatting with a little girl who was trying to sell me some necklaces (of course I bought some, how cute was she?!)

A note on the Thai people: We got lost in Bangkok one day when one of my girlfriends and I decided to venture out on our own. We started walking, thinking we were heading in the direction of a jewelry store my friend had heard about. As we walked, we realized we’d left the main drag of the city and were getting deeper and deeper into more industrial areas. It was the middle of the day, so we weren’t overly concerned. Eventually, we realized we were the only two women walking out on the street, and the shop owners and workers around us were eyeing us suspiciously. Suddenly a young man in a suit approached us and asked brusquely where we were going. When we told him, he hailed a tuk-tuk and put us in it, sending us on our way with a shake of his head. For a complete stranger to step in and send us in the right direction, speaks volumes to me insofar as the heart of the people there. 

Working in the airline industry, I knew I was never going to make much money. But there are other kinds of wealth in this world. And how can you put a price on tuk-tuk rides through Bangkok at night, exploring the jungle on the back of an elephant, the kindness of strangers and most of all, a lifetime of friendship. We never had a lot of extra cash on all those wild vacations we took together. But oh, we were so rich.