Singburi and Temples!

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The last couple of days have been so busy!!

On Sunday afternoon we arrived at the house in Singburi where we are staying for the next 3 weeks. It is about 3 hours north of Bangkok and it is lovely but very basic. There are four of us sharing a little room which has no storage but ot does have an en-suite bathroom. The water here for showers is cold but in this heat they are amazing!! It is so humid and sticky and it is so noce to have a cold shower when you get back from a day out in the sun.

Yesterday, Monday, we just went for a walk to the local market to get our barings a bit and then in the afternoon we went to a little craft centre to make some bracelets, then headed back to the house for dinner at 5pm. Dinner is at this time everyday which is good but it is a bit early so we are all starving again by 10pm...we are all on the Thai diet for the next month of rice and noodles at 8am, 12noon, and 5pm!
After dinner, about 30 local school children came to the house to perform traditional Thai music and dancing for us and they were so good. They all looked amazing and the dancing was brilliant, we were all brought up to dance too and taught a few basic Thai dance move but they all put us to shame and some were only 5 or 6-years-old!

Today, Tuesday, we visited 3 temples, one of which was in ruins, saw two lots of elephants and then had dinner on the river during a 1.5 hour cruise, it was lovely. The temples were amazing, some of the Buddha statues are huge and religion is such a huge part of life here. The elephants were cool too but I didn't ride one in the end. It seemed a bit cruel as they were chained up and trying to move and it didn't come close to seeing them roaming around Africa! We saw the sanctuary where they lived too and they seemed well looked after but it still seemed a bit strange to see them chained up.

We are all just relaxing now at the bar opposite the house, very cleverly placed, and then I think having an early night as we have a Thai language lesson in the morning and going the main town, Singburi, for the afternoon and to a BBQ for dinner.

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Photos

The whole Thai experience group
All of us in Bangkok on the first day

Khaosan Road, Bangkok
This is THE backpacker street in Bangkok. It is heaving with bars, shops, clubs and street sellers and performers...amazing for nights out

Our room from the outside
There are 2 rooms in little bungalow style houses. There are about 10 little houses in the garden of the main house where we eat.

The main house
This is at the front of the house where we eat everyday and just relax.

The house TV 'room'
Here there are cushions and things to watch TV, as you can see none of the communal areas are rooms as such because it is just so hot all the time

Thai dancing
The local school children performing the Candle dance