I should have learned by now that it best for me to take English speaking tours at the beginning of my visits to new cities. It makes a huge difference. The guides always welcome you in with history of the area and point out things you may not have noticed, or if you did, you didn't understand. I booked a tour with Absolute Bangkok Tour. My tour guide for one of the floating markets was "Mod". This wasn't her real name, but it must have been the easiest shortened version for westerners. She was very friendly and told me history and information about Thailand, Bangkok, and Buddhism while we drove to the floating market. 

My biggest concern about landing in Bangkok alone at 11pm was that I wouldn't be able to get a cab and that my hotel front desk would be closed and I would be forced to sleep on a door jamb clutching my backpack until they opened. A little dramatic maybe, but you never know when it says 'late arrival guaranteed' just how late they mean.  I'm pretty sure now that Bangkok may be the city that never sleeps instead of New York. 

The taxi queue was easy enough, but when I arrived at my assigned taxi stall #16, there was no cab there yet so I was a little confused. I felt a microsecond sense of pride when an English speaking caucasian man asked me how this taxi process worked, and I was able to direct him to the taxi kiosks like I was a well-informed traveler.  That sense of pride was very fleeting, as I then began to try to communicate with my taxi driver. 

This morning I started my journey to Southeast Asia.  Before I quit my job, I knew I wanted to use some of my time off to volunteer.  I am doing some local volunteering as well as an international volunteer placement.  

Years ago, I had seen an article about a UK-based organization called Accounting for International Development (AfID).  I had always tossed around the idea that I wanted to volunteer in a developing country someday, so I took note.  The organization matches accountants with non-profits in developing countries that need accounting and financial guidance.