Ancient City (Day 2)

May 14th
Today we got up at 6 and had breakfast at the hotel with foods that I would never have thought of to eat for breakfast but it was very good and I embraced the new cultural experience. We got on the bus dressed as tourist this time. Not like yesterday where we had to wear pants and closed toe shoes to be respectful to the king and the government. We went to the ancient city which is a replica of the real one up north in a rural area that we would not have the opportunity to see this trip. It was cool very hot again and I quickly sweated through my shirt and was very uncomfortable for a few hours. When the tour was over we went to a floating market and I bought my mom a gift and then drank a beer at the outdoor food court. Before we were leaving they were driving a post into the ground and they asked the larger people in our group (IE me) and we attempted to drive the post into the ground. But we did not have the rhythm that the locals did so we got showed up by a few 100 pound Thai men!

We then got on the bus and then went to a temple nearby which had nuns and monks that had houses paid for them by donations in a marsh… we walked along raised pathways and saw Huge spiders and mud skippers… it was very interesting seeing all the monks meditating and being so close with some spiritual being that I really don’t understand yet.

We then went to a military pier where we had an authentic Thai lunch with fried fish, squid, shrimp, cooked fish, and fish balls… it was very good but the next day my stomach was killing me because of that meal I think…. Thinking about it I believe my stomach was hurting because I ate at McDonalds and had chicken wings and they were delicious but they killed my stomach later in the evening ;). We then came back to the hotel and were given free time to go and get our cell phones for this trip and to go shopping at the mall that was next to our hotel. The mall was incredible, it put all the other malls that I have been to shame because of the amount of variaety and little shops that are run by single owners. We went to the Nokia store and bought a phone for just under 30 dollars US which does more that what any phone in the US would do for the cost. We then returned to the hotel where we went up to the pool to have some drinks, relax, and cool off for a change. In the pool we decided that we wanted to live up Bangkok to its fullest on the last night so we tentatively planned to go to a club in the downtown of Bangkok which is the most popular and most fun in the entire city. We were going to have Bank our Thai peer who studying along with us take the group to this place but when we were about to leave we were stopped by Patriya and she informed us that the violence in the city center has gotten bad and we should not go into the city whatsoever. We were a little disappointed but we then found a local club that we could go to instead and have just as good of time and stay safe which is the key thing in the city of Bangkok at this time. While at the club we stuck out like sore thumbs and as any good American will do we were definitely the most drunk people at the bar dancing to the club music that we knew. It is getting a little old having all the people stare particularly at me because of my height because I think they have never seen someone of my size in their lifetime. That’s it for today…. It was dam busy