Getting Settled In

At long last I have arrived in Bangkok and settled into my new apartment situated on a small side street located near the UNDP office. As I go through the culture shock I am still experiencing both get lag and emense heat. Today in particular is a hot one up near 36 degrees but with a clear blue sky.

The plane ride here was something of an endurance test with a total of 28 hours of travel (21 in the air) on very little sleep to begin with. United Airlines though is a good company with each flight leaving on time and in some cases arriving early. A plus was that there was plenty of leg room, the inflight meals were pretty good for airline food standards, and the movies were watchable. On the plane from Tokyo to Bangkok I met a Thai living in America and travelling back to Bangkok to spend sometime with his family here. It was a good thing we met as he was fluent in Thai and made the transition from the airport to the apartment very easy in addition to the first two days. Once we arrived I checked into my apartment and he checked into a hotel near my place and then we went to a local bar for a few drinks which was good as it exposed me to a typical bar that locals would go to. Great beer and the karioke singers were also pretty good. The second night we met up we went for dinner at a Japanese restaurant then went to a club in the downtown area. He met up with his cousin also and a friend of his cousin who joined us after the meal and to the club. I finished the night by feeding an elephant, which was being guided down the street by its handler, some fruit.

My office building is incredible. To get into the building each person must pass through a metal detector then have their bags scanned under and x-ray machine. Once in the building though the facilities are top notch. There is a nice patio café on the ground floor which I think I will regularly go to for my breakfeast and there is also a nice patio on the 4th floor which will be where I eat lunch. On the floor where I will be working you can go to a lunch room order what you would like and then they will deliver it to your desk for you. This is a nice extra little feature which I believe a lot of the staff use as the work does not seem to let up ever and this allows the staff to continue to work while at the same time having a little snack or a full meal at their desk.
On Friday morning I met my boss who seems like a very nice man. Batdelgar Luuzan then showed me around the building, introduced me to the people working there, and then we discussed what I will be doing for the first two weeks while he is away on field missions. My first task is to become familiar with the template that we will use to gather information from the three PPP iniatives we intend to include in the final publication. I will be going over the template to understand, edit, and think through. One of the things that I will need to pick up, probably at MBK, is a cell phone as this will become a major means of communication with Batdelgar while he is away and also when he comes back.

After doing a little exploring today I am now off to grab a bite to eat. Still getting used to both the whole experience of eating here plus the exotic food.

Laa Kawn,

Andrew