After doing my final inspection of the important things and documents that I would bring, we headed off to UST. After a month of waiting, the day has finally come. We were too excited that some of us arrived really early while some did not take their breakfast for fear that they might not make it to the meeting place on time. From there, we met our tour guide from All Points, Ms. Maricel. Ma’am Jinky told us that Ma’am Tin was rooting for her to be theirs but luckily, we got her.

We arrived at the Centennial airport at about 8am. We were so psyched that we took pictures of us holding our luggages while waiting for our turn. When it was my turn to present my e-ticket receipt and passport, I felt that RUSH flowing within me. “This is it, I can’t believe we’re hours away from my dream country”, I thought to myself. I fell in love with Thailand way back when I was in my highschool years. I really admire their culture and I even chose Thai exotic cuisine as my topic last semester in English. When all of us got in already, we gallivanted inside the airport. Some bought sandwiches or food to eat but we find it very expensive. Besides, there will be complimentary food inside the plane so we just waited for it. We boarded the plane and enjoyed the food, music and the 3-hour flight. Come afternoon, we arrived at the Suvarnabhumi airport. And I was literally amazed with their facilities and how BIG their airport is. It was really magnificent. The Thai people resembled us and I find it funny that some think we’re Thai. After checking out, we headed to the bus with our Thai tour guide, Uncle Pete.

The trip from the airport to the grand palace took about 35-45 minutes. Uncle Pete was telling stories about their culture while we were busy admiring the beauty of Bangkok. When we arrived to the place, I was gobsmacked! The gold, the amazing details of the temples and how religious the people are. I can really say that Thailand has one of the best cultures in the world. We toured around the place, went inside the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. But first, we took our shoes off before entering. Again, I was amazed with the temple. It was a huge privilege to be there.

We went to Siam Niramit to have our buffet dinner. It was the first time that we’re going to eat AUTHENTIC Thai food. Their som tam was great, didn’t really enjoy the noodles though. While waiting for the main event, we watched the Thai cultural show and we couldn’t help praising them and comparing them with the Filipino traditional dances. The main show was extraordinary. I have never seen such performance as perfect as theirs. I was in Utopia that time, I was blown away with their performance. Not a single criticism came out from me. Me just sitting at the back watching them was already too much for me for Day 1. I enjoyed it so much that I want to literally cry and spread those tears of joy.

After the show, we checked in at Centre Point Petchburi. We were lucky we’re in the same floor as the others. We were still feeling that hype so we checked out the rooms of our blockmates and we exchanged small talks about how happy and delighted we were that time. When the hype finally subsided, we decided to sleep for it’ll be a long day ahead tomorrow.