August 30

Luckily, Syd survived the night, and I got about 2 hours of sleep. We departed the plane and caught a cab to the Radisson (pronounced "Lad-E-son") and checked into the hotel my parents so generously are paying for so we will be safe in this dangerous city! We got to the hotel around 1pm and Syd crashed and slept all day to try to recover from her food poisoning. I, on the other hand, took a much needed shower and headed out for the town! I took the hotel shuttle to MBK shopping center. I was blown away when I arrived by the size of the place. Words can't describe how huge it is and how much chaos it contains. There are so many stores and food stalls and a supermarket and kiosks selling "fake" goods. After being overwhelmed I tried to find a place to eat dinner, but their where too many options. I had to just pick one and go with it. I sat down at "Noodi", a place with many Asian dishes. I got glorified ramen noodles. A guy next to me from Australia was also dining alone and we started talking and ended up not having to eat "alone." My dinner was $1. I then took the very organized and clean public transportation (skytrain and metro) to a pick up point for the hotel shuttle van, caught the last one back, and crashed- I'd only had about 3 hours of sleep in the past 60 hours.