The First Few Days

The first day after my arrival in Thailand, my brother drove me, my sister, and my mom about 30 minutes outside of Bangkok to "Ruen Kaew," a family-run store with an impressive collection of exotic, eclectic, oriental, colonial, decorative artifacts. The store is about the size of Home Depot (I may be exaggerating a little), and it's packed with very interesting stuff from all over Asia. My mom picked out a door for one of her garden villas. I almost got myself two wood carved cat dolls just because their poses are so funny and remind me of Gus and Pandie... but then I remembered that I have good taste.

After we left Ruen Kaew, my sister took us to her favorite Ramen place in Bangkok. The name escapes my memory at the moment (actually, I never learned it), but I will update this post with the name once I find out. Anyhow... I still prefer Ken's Ramen (in Boston), but this isn't bad at all. The charshu (pork) is very tender and tasty. The broth and the noodle are okay, but the egg is excellent! Cooked to perfection! Oh and we ordered extra pork, 7 slices of which came in a small side plate, and it only cost THB 50. BEAT THAT!

That afternoon, I got myself a new SIM card for my lovely iPhone. I need to write about this because the whole experience was so pleasantly absurd. In the US, you get your cell phone by waiting in ridiculously slow-moving line at your local AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon store to fight over what plans and contracts you DON'T want (been there, done that). Here in Thailand- I went to a mobile phone store called Serenade which is beautifully decorated with comfy leather sofas, chandeliers, flowers... basically it looks like a lobby of some high-end boutique hotel. Once I arrived, the receptionist seated me on a white leather couch and asked whether I'd like tea, coffee, or soda. Once the beverage was served (with cookies), a designated sales lady came out and asked me exactly what I needed in the plan, ie. how much I use the phone, what time of day I use it most, and what my favorite numbers are. She then disappeared for a couple minutes then returned with a list of 10-15 phone numbers that have my favorite numbers in there with good patterns (such as 7755, 7575, 5577, etc.). After I picked my number, she showed me what plans were available and recommended one that she thought would work best for my usage. I signed the contract which is very non-committal- you can change your plan or cancel at any time with no penalty. I left feeling very pampered, and of course with a SIM card for my iPhone :)

Once I got home- I had some questions about the plan that I got, so I called the customer service. I was put on hold for a bout 10 seconds. The person on the other end was very polite and helpful. What's funny was that once our conversation was over, I was taken to this automated rating system for the service. I was asked to rate, on a scale of 1 to 10, how satisfied I was with the service I received, but then you're only given two choices: press 1 for 10 and press 2 for 7. You cannot give them any other ratings, so what's the point of this "scale"???

This is getting too long. I'll write more later. Ciao! :)