Day 0: Getting to Bangkok

My first flight left from SEA to TPE at 11:30 PST and lasted just over 12 hours. I had an aisle seat, but to my right sat a girl in the middle of an accounting degree from Central Washington University. She's damn good at chess and I couldn't win against her. My in-flight survival strategy was to begin the flight by doing nothing for as long as possible. When I became bored of doing nothing, I would do something slightly more interesting: listening to music. When I tired of that I would move onto getting my butt whooped at chess or watching a movie -- progressively more mentally stimulating things. In this way I attempted to stave off boredom for as long as possible. It was a partial success.

I'm about to board my flight from TPE to BKK. Will update after some sleep (I land 0:05, Saturday Bangkok time, which is about 9:00 PST, Friday, Seattle time -- a little less than 24 hours after boarding for my flight to TPE).

Update: Landed in Bangkok around 0:00. Despite being early Saturday morning, there were hundreds of people waiting in line at immigration. Thirty minutes later I took a public taxi to my hostel in the Lat Krabang district. The taxi driver insisted that the meter was broken and that the ride would cost me 300 baht. I'd heard of this exact thing happening before, and insisted the meter did work and that 300 baht was far too much. Communicating was awkward and difficult because the driver knew English as well as I know Thai (i.e., almost nothing). He eventually agreed, and even seemed good natured the rest of the ride. I wasn't sure whether to be offended or suave about successfully navigating the secret handshake between local and farang that says "Nice try, but I won't be hustled this time".

In Lat Krabang there were locals and travelers alike out at the party bars and the street food stalls were still serving meals. Eat-Ting hostel had been closed for the night, but the owner was still cooking street food outside. She had the hostel manager at Wanderlust hostel come by and give me a ride to his business, where I stayed the night for the same price.

As I entered my dorm room for the night there was another traveler from Belgium leaving that moment to catch a flight to go trekking through the jungles of Malaysia. Otherwise I had the dorm to myself. The mattresses here are much firmer, like a wrestling mat. The shower head, sink, and toilet all share the same room. I slept only two hours but feel fine.

Wanderlust hostel dorm room