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Canal Tour
Beginning of our Canal tour on my first full day in Thailand!Sorry this isn't very up-to-date. It took a while to get my computer hooked up to the wireless network! I miss everyone at home so much and it has only been a week and a day! But so far on my trip....
I went on a canal tour on this crazy small boat with my four other roommates and our guide, Boon. He is extremely cool and is only 19 so basically doesn't go by the rules the organization gives him, nor does he try and stay in budget when he takes us out. So this of course makes everything way more fun haha. But back to the canal, we stopped off at a few different places along the way. One was a Lotus garden. Very very pretty. Another stop was a fruit farm and this crazy thai man took us on his asian "tractor" to rice fields. It was the craziest ride of my life. I wish I had it on film. I thought we were going to crash into a pond a hundred times. After that we tasted lots of different fruits specific to this area. Incredible! My mom was worried I would starve over here but so far
food has been amazing! However, I do get tired of eating rice all the time.
The next day we visited the Grand Palace which was, like everything else, beautiful. The same day we also visited Wat Pao Temple. Our guide for the temple was a Monk and told us a lot about the Buddhist religion. We also saw a bunch of Buddha statues. There are a lot of rules when you are around a Buddha or a monk. For example, no shoes while in the room of the Buddha but that goes for many buildings. Also you can not point your feet towards it because feet are considered very low in Thailand. For a Monk, women are never allowed to touch a monk or even sit near him or walk by him. Then yesterday, we went to watch a ceremony on the river for the king. It is the 60th anniversary for the king this weekend and let me tell you, it is a huge deal. People here love the king. You know how we wear something like our school on our shirt or favorite team. Well here, they wear bright yellow shirts with the king symbol on it. And
yes, I am going to get one before I come home! So the celebration lets everyone have friday through tuesday off from work! yea, quite a holiday. So tonight starts the true celebration. Oh yea, and while watching the ceremony we met our first other Americans in Thailand. They are from Georgia but are leaving today. We had dinner with them last night in Kao Song, but more on that night later. haha.
So I know what I will miss first by being here... My car. yes, the Sentra will be missed. Transportation is just a hassle sometimes here. We take for granted the ability to hop in a car when we want and go wherever. To get anywhere, people take buses or taxis. In the city, you can also take the sky train or the subway. However, I am in a suburb, so we always use buses. Well no buses come to where I live except this tractor-like wagon. Ill have to take some pictures of it, haha. Then that takes us either to campus (which is very nice but Ill tell more later) or to a bigger bus stop where we can get on a bus to
different parts of the city. However, there is no bus schedule (they laughed when I asked) because Thailand isn't exactly worried about being on time. And even if we happen to get on the right bus, we have to track down someone who speaks english to see what stop we get off at. I am probably making this sound bad but usually it ends up very funny and amusing. Every trip to the city is definately an adventure. People in Thailand are so so nice to us. Everyone on the streets, in restaurants, or markets always love to try and help Americans. Okay, so my computer is over heating but way more later! --La Kawn!
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Tim
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so i just wanted to let you know how jealous i am. the farthest ive gone from home this summer is.....auburn. i know, i know, im quite the adventurer. anyway, hope you have lots of fun (shouldnt be hard to do). if you ever need southern food or anything feel free to ask, ill be glad to have it drop-shipped to ya.