Lauren and I arrived in Bangkok at 2am. Most of the bus services were closed, so we hung out in the airport until 6 a.m. waiting for the sun to rise.

We started playing dice and waiting. One of us would absentmindedly prop our feet up on a chair and the other would knock them down. Showing someone the bottom of your feet in Thailand is very offensive — the equivalent of flipping someone off.

It became a running joke. Whenever someone would get far ahead in the game, the other person would flip the bottom of her foot and make a face.

At 6 a.m., we headed outside. The airport bus took us straight to Banglamphoo, the backpacker neighborhood of Bangkok, where we would be staying.

We went from hotel to hotel inquiring about rooms. Most were full — people hadn’t begun checking out yet. We found one that had an open room, but there was no room except for the bed and the shower looked like water would run straight into the room.

We finally found a place for 180 Baht. It had a shared shower, but there was a ceiling fan and a little more space than the last place.

We dropped our stuff, changed out of our jeans, and headed out for breakfast.

During the flight to Thailand, we were given French Toast for breakfast.

“Enjoy it,” Lauren said, “This may be the last American breakfast we have for a long time.”

We found a coffee shop in Banglamphoo for breakfast, a place we had wanted to stay but they were booked up, and sat down.

The menu read, “American breakfast (eggs, sausage, toast, coffee), French toast, Pancakes, Omelettes.” So much for no more American breakfast.

After breakfast, we wanted to go to the train station. There would be a bus map there, we thought, and a travel agency that we could get to handle our visas.

We started walking in the direction of the train station. We were stopped by a Thai man offering us a tuk-tuk. A tuk-tuk is like a huge go-cart with passenger space. In Lonely Planet, they’re listed as “Dangers and Annoyances” because they have no meter or standard pricing. They also rarely take you where you want to go.

The man kept insisting that we should go visit a half dozen tourist places. No, we said, we were only going to the train station. Finally, he agreed to take us to the T.A.T., a licensed travel agency near the train station, for 10 Baht. Lauren and I hesitated but finally relented. We didn’t know we were getting the best deal ever.

At the T.A.T., a agent known as “Moo Moo” helped us. He would take care of all our visas for us, he said, and the price he quoted was the same as it would have cost for us to do ourselves.

He also wanted to sell us several packages in Thailand. We didn’t want any of them, but we decided to buy one, because we worried he wouldn’t do the visas otherwise. We bought a “V.I.P. bus and boat” package to Koh Tao, the island we were planning on visiting. It was US$27, much more than we would have paid if we did it on our own, but Moo Moo promised us it would be very convenient. We would come back on Sunday, drop off our passports to him, and grab the bus that night. The bus was timed to meet the boat, he said, and when we woke up the next morning, we would be getting on a speed boat and in Koh Tao no later than 7am.

We relented and paid for the trip.