Sitting here, looking out the window of this Starbucks coffee shop window, I see blue, hot pink, yellow, lime green, red and bright orange taxi cabs, all waiting to inch their way up in the traffic line. I see a man in a striped plaid shirt standing somewhat oblivious to all the events going on around him as he rubs the sleepiness out of his eyes with a Monday morning Bangkok Post paper in hand as he waits to order breakfast from one of the many street side vendors that cook anything from fried chicken gizzards to squid on a stick or to drink, a sweetened condensed milk and coffee concoction. A woman with an armful of colorful flowers purchased from the flower vendor across the street comes walking into the coffee shop as she hurriedly purchases her coffee and is on her way out, off to a busy day in just a blink of an eye. The fish distributor sells beta fish, gold fish, tiny neon blue fish, red fish, blue fish, one fish, one hundred fish or more (!) in plastic bags stapled to a ten foot long pole that he carries throughout the streets... These men and woman, as well as American diplomats, Indian business men, Australian tourists, and Burmese beggars all pass me by as I observe the morning bustle of this busy street of Sukhumvit, here in big city of Bangkok.

These last couple of weeks has not been my traditional ‘international’ style of travel. Though - nothing has been ‘traditional’ in my life in the last many months. Wait, in reality, nothing has been ‘traditional’ in the last 28 years of my life…

Maybe nothing except my morning cup of coffee…

Tomorrow marks the first month anniversary of being married to my precious husband. Two weeks ago tomorrow marks the day my husband and I put the very last of everything we own into storage for at minimum, the next six months. Tomorrow, it will be two weeks ago that I experienced the thrill of knowing that in less then 18 hours I would feel the sensation on my own skin of at least an over 100 degree weather temperature shift… going from the frigid frozen -12 degree F weather of Anchorage, Alaska to the 80 – 90 degree F temperatures of SE Asia. Oh yes, the thought alone was invigorating. But to be here now, in Thailand, sitting in my capri work-out pants and tank top, hair pulled back in a pony-tail with sunglasses resting on my head as I finish my morning coffee and prepare to go for a run through the city park – through the warm early morning 77 degree F air, I am more then invigorated, I am renewed. Rebekah plus warmth equal aliveness, rejuvenation, an inspired soul… It is really lovely to have metamorphed as a result of thawing out since being here.

We arrived into SE Asia via Anchorage to Taiwan and Taiwan to Bangkok. The flight was uneventful overall, despite being four hours late out of Anchorage to Taiwan. This did not affect us as we had a long layover in Taiwan before proceeding to Bangkok. We arrived in Taiwan to eat a bowl of soup before proceeding on through immigration in order to get out and about and experience the culture of Taiwan during our 7-hour layover. After receiving stamps on our passport we grabbed a local city bus and toured throughout the city of Taipei. This was a quick and general re-introduction to Asian life.
We arrived back to the airport in time to catch our flight to Bangkok. Things went smoothly upon our arrival as we got a cab from the airport, checked into our hotel, freshened up a bit and headed out to walk the streets of Sukhumvit – downtown area of Bangkok. We spent a few hours walking, embracing the scents, sights, sounds…

Our first few days in Bangkok were spent exploring and acclimating to the time, weather, each other etc. Monday morning, was my husbands first day of work and beginning Tuesday night, I was on my own for four days, as he has to be away for work related events.

As I mentioned above, this is a very unique trip already for me, as rarely have I ever traveled internationally and spent time in or have I lived in the large metropolitan city, living with modern conveniences including running water, air conditioning, heck, even internet in my very own home! A more typical travel scene for me consists of travel to under-developed, war –torn, and third world countries, living in IDP camps, huts, low budget hotels or orphanages; this is indeed a role shift. As I am used to working in rehabilitation centers, with the homeless and orphans or working on behalf of an ngo writing up a grant etc. this trip in all in all very different. I am here to support my husband, experience Thai life, explore as time allows/I desire and eventually begin volunteering with an ngo part-time. In two weeks I begin going back to school for a masters degree in Professional Counseling/Psychology through a well known/respected University via distance (online) learning. This works well for me as I will do my school work throughout the day while my husband is at work, but still allows me time to volunteer part-time, embrace Thailand and travel on the weekends.

I am really excited about starting school again, especially to be moving forward in the direction I have always imagined that I would – in the area of counseling/psychology/spiritual renewal. It has been nice not doing school work since August 2008 when I graduated from Alaska Pacific University, but I am ready to proceed on in my education now.

On Saturday, we went to a weekend market where nearly anything you could imagine from small exotic turtles to fancy wooden hand carved photo frames to petunia plants were available to buy. Following the market we headed to another market called the Kings Market where primarily fruit and seafood is sold. Here you are offered samples of nearly anything you want, and have the chance to buy all of it! We bought some extra large shrimps and ate them all right on the spot. I had quite an appetite at this point in the day and had no problem devouring the shrimp, fresh pineapple, and freshly squeezed carrot/passionfruit juice dinner with dried papaya for desert.





Following this meal we took the underground railway to the train station where we obtained a schedule for the north, south and east bound trains as we are planning our upcoming weekends. So far they include the islands in Thailand to the south of us with a hop and skip over to Cambodia, a trip to Chang Mai to visit with an old time college friend from nearly 10 years ago who lives there with her husband and son. We hope to cross the border into Laos from here. Nothing is concrete, but we have a lot of options and ideas. We are certainly desiring of taking up on every opportunity.

Sunday was spent resting in the morning, enjoying a yummy breakfast together and heading off for church. We enjoyed our time at church, re-connecting with the friends we met the week before as well as meeting new friends this week. As this is an international church service, we have been meeting folks from all around the world, including Asia, Europe, Africa and South America as well as America.

We have established a tradition of eating out at our favored restaurant where we get the best most scrumptious Som Tam which is Thai Green Papaya Salad. This is our favorite traditional Thai dish… ok, we LOVE them all! (As long as they are lenient with the hot chili’s)! In addition to the Som Tam we enjoy eating the fried Asparagus with garlic and Shrimp and the Green Chicken Curry with Rice.



Green Papaya Salad, Fried Asparagus with Garlic and Shrimp, Green Chicken Curry



Not much left... !