We met, sopping wet, at the vegetarian restaurant near Roxi's school. Roxi had already bought them out of our favorite not-meat meat sticks (they taste heavenly). We got spring rolls stolen from Indonesia and a curry with rice to go with our sticks. Honest to goodness, you'd never know any of this food was vegetarian and even if you love meat, you'd eat there every meal of your life for the rest of your life. They don't repeat recipes hardly ever, according to our inside source: The Roxistar Food Critic.
We ate to bursting before our last 3G1M experience in Nong Khai.
Then Amanda and I drove back home.
Out apartment was almost all the way packed. We finished the last of it, got our bags outside and somewhere dry (I'll remind you it's monsoon season and it was definitely monsoon-ing.), and gave the apartment one last wipe-down.
Then we made our way to the train station. The first load was myself, Amanda, a purse between my legs, and Amanda held two suitcases (one on each side like a bodybuilder - it was badass). Amanda stayed at the station while I did five more loads by myself. The most hilarious one was when I put my giant blue suitcase in the crevice where my legs should have been, put a backpack on my back, and "surfed" on the moped from the apartment to the station.
Then while Amanda watched our belongings, I went into town to check out of our apartment and return the moped. It all went smoothly and I even got a picture of both my main squeezes:
The lovely man who rented us the moped drove me back to the train station and Amanda and I set in for a long afternoon of waiting while it rained around us. She read a book, I eavesdropped what little Thai I could pick up while writing a letter to my cousin Mary.
We also so the most un-Thai event while waiting. A homeless man had been camped out across a bench and as more and more passengers showed up the more people needed a place to sit. A station police officer came to wake this man up and was soon assisted by a station employee. We were both uncomfortable by the directness and rudeness that was being exhibited while trying to get this man to move. Normally, a Thai person would wake him up, give him some sticky rice, a 20 baht note, and also call him a TukTuk.
Roxi showed up around 6 with sticks and vegetables. We sat and chatted for 90 minutes until our train pulled up. PP would have wanted me to tell you that it was a silver train with one orchid stripe and one purple stripe. He would have full details for you, but I do not. I can only tell you that we were Car 5: Bunks 15 and 16.
Roxi and a lovely train assistant helped us get our bags up and into our seats before we sat in the air conditioning to cool off. I'm not sure how, but somehow we have the same amount of belongings on that train back down as the time we took it up. However, I know for a fact, we bought a lot in Nong Khai. It makes me feel very good about both our packing skills and how much we've managed to parse.
We had a tearful goodbye on the station (ok Amanda and Roxi did). I feel like I left a piece of my heart in Nong Khai and another with the dear friend waving from the station. She even wrote us little goodbye notes tailored to both of us.
It was an overnight train leaving at 8pm and arriving at 6am. We got to Bangkok about 1/2 an hour late. I'm sure you've noticed a pattern here in Thailand. We got a taxi to the apartment complex that our friends Martin and Johann live in and we camped in the lobby until we could sneak up to the second floor.
We hung out by the pool for the rest of the afternoon waiting for the boys to return home. We ate dinner with them and around 6 a woman named Ann swung by to let us into our new apartment. That's right, we have a new abode!
We live in a 24 square meter apartment. That is about a 258 square foot apartment and considering it's a large square, it means we're living in a 16'x16' room.
This is the cutest shoebox I've ever lived in!
When we talk about it, we split it into 4 or 5 sections. For this blog, I'll say 5.
1. Porch
2. Kitchen
3. Bathroom
4. Living Room
5. Bedroom
I even made this handy visual:
1. Porch - outside. Still counts for square footage in the apartment! If you think about it, our apartment is 258 square feet. The porch is 7'x3' = 21 square feet. 258-21=237.
If you'd like some context for how small this amount of space looks like in other contexts, click here!
b. Washing machine - no drier, those don't exist here
c. Rack to hold drying laundry on hangers
d. Sliding glass door between the inside and the outside
2. Kitchen
e. Small table that fits two very close chairs for eating
f. Apartment sized fridge with a freezer!
g. Sink #1 (WE HAVE A SINK)
h. Countertop
i. Cupboard storage for kitchen goods
3. Bathroom
j. Shower complete with hot water!
k. Sink #2 (WE HAVE TWO SINKS)
l. Toilet
4. Living Room
m. Small shelf we've turned into our Pinterest-worthy shelf
n. Television (it came with the apartment. We did not buy it.)
o. Cabinets
p. Shoe storage
q. Front door
r. Table that springs up to double as a desk
s. Couch that lays down into a full size bed (come visit us and test it out!)
t. Couch-side table
5. Bedroom
u. Bed (approximately a queen)
v. Air conditioner
w. Closet
x. Sliding door segment - clear
y. Sliding door segment - clear
z. Sliding door segment - opaque
I did not plan this to have exactly the alphabet in our apartment, but it is making me incredibly happy.
The apartment complex also has a small restaurant for take away food, a gym, and a salt water pool!
I do mean to brag when I say that our apartment is completely unpacked in these pictures.
The move was long and hot, but the apartment is adorable and I really think we're going to love the little hole we found! The only thing that made it better was getting to video chat with Alex this morning!
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