Adventurous couple days....

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Well, in the last 36 hours, we've been very busy. We took a 3 hour truck ride in our lovely convertedpick up to Ayuthaya yesterday morning. We had lunch at Sherwood house - a guest house run by a British ex-pat. Its a combined guesthouse,restaurant and swimmingpool. Odd.

Then we boarded a converted rice barge where we cruised down the river. We stopped along the way and went to an elephant conservatory. We got to feed the elephants - which was cool but messy. They seem to have very runny noses. I skipped the bike rideandlounged on the boat. We ate dinner on the boat and thenplayed board games. I went to bed early - am almost feeling human again.

This morning, we got up early and made food offerings to the monks. We then took a bike ride to a knife factory, a mushroom farm, a snack factory and then to a school where we taught an improptu English class. Thenwe got back on the boat and came back to Ayuthaya. We're on our break before we do some temple tours and then we're boarding an overnight train to Chaing Mai.

Every where we go, peopel are very friendly despite us not knowledge and, frankly,we're starting to looka little rough. :-) We have 2 almost civilized days in Chaing Mai before we head outinto the hillside for 3 days. I will completely appreciate my shower when I get home!!

I'll post photos later.....I forgot to bring the cable! Will do it from Chaing Mai.....

Christine

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Photos

Rice Barge
This is the boat we stayed on

Rice Barge deck
We hung out here and slept below deck

Feeding the elephants
The baby elephant was only 1 month old.....They ate pinapple and sugar cane....

Offerings to the monks
We got up early and made an offering of food to the monks. It used to be that the monks relied exclusively on village offerings for their food. Now thay also cook.