Geo: 14.344, 100.561The Ayutthaya Kingdom existed from 1351 to 1767 and took into it lots of the surrounding towns of northern Thailand including Sukhothai. It eventually grew into the nation of Siam, which has roughly the same borders as modern Thailand. In 1765 it was invaded by Burma (now Myanmar). After a lengthy siege, the city capitulated and was burned in 1767. Ayutthaya's art treasures, the libraries containing its literature, and the archives housing its historic records were almost totally destroyed, and Burmese brought the Ayutthaya Kingdom to ruin. The ruins of the historic city of Ayutthaya are listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. The modern town of Ayutthaya was refounded near the old city, and is now capital of the Ayutthaya province. The entire town, old and new, is still surrounded by an ... read more

Geo: 13.7308, 100.521Can't come to Bangkok and not see a lady boy* show right? The travel agent's office in my guest house recommended this one, and even got me half off the ticket, and it was so great. Better than I had expected it to be. I've been to my share of transgender lip-sync shows, but the caliber of this one was really the tops. The cast was huge, and the costume changes were so frequent it made your head spin! The dancing was really great and so professional these ladies deserved the big Bangkok spotlight. (No knocking the homegrown Lady Boy show I say on Koh Phi Phi Island, but this is thriving metropolis of Bangkok and this show reflected it.) Here's the shows website. I'd totally recommend it. www.calypsocabaret.com*Just to explain the lady-boy thing. ... read more

Geo: 13.7308, 100.521And it's nice to be back in a big city again.I'm pooped, long travel day getting here.I'm going to rest a few days and chill before I take up my 'sponge stance'.I can't soak up any more culture/cuisine/language/history for a bit.Cheers to a mini-vacation on my vacation.... read more

Geo: 7.73174, 98.7764OMG has it been 7 weeks since I posted last! I knew its been a while, but jeez. It's not totally because I'm a slacker, not totally. I decided that didn't want to post any more entries if the photos weren't ready to go up at the same time. I think the way I was doing it before (doing the entry that day and the photos when I could later on) was a bad user experience and confusing to some (not mentioning names Mom and Dad =). Tee-hee. Ok so that was part of it and the other was that I got sick right after the last post on April 22 and was laid up for a week on Phi Phi. Nothing major just some kind of throat infection, but it required a trip ... read more

Geo: 7.75454, 98.7671So Dew was given a flier about helping to keep Phi Phi clean. There is an environmental group that organizes beach clean-up efforts for different parts of the islands. On the 22nd there was a group heading out to Monkey Beach to help clean up the beach. Dew and I volunteered to go. It was a few hours well spent and we got to meet a lot of other well-meaning people who gave an afternoon out of their holiday to give back. We combed the beach and collected garbage into bags. We collected so much garbage that there wasn't room enough for us to fit into the long tail boat with it. So one boat went back to the pier full of garbage, and the other boat went back with as many people as ... read more