Ayuthaya, Khorat, Pattaya, and Koh Chang

Well, like I said in my last post, we have been moving around a lot.  We have less than a week left in Thailand, so I figure I should attempt to give a brief update on everything that we have been up to....

Like I have already said, we were able to walk across the Bridge over River Kwai in Kanchanaburi.  It was pretty neat to see, and even neater that we got to walk all the way across it.  I'm pretty sure that nobody would ever come to Kanchanaburi if it wasn't for this bridge, which makes it nice because there really isn't much of anything going on in this town.  We really enjoyed it here, and would go back again just for the nice atmosphere (great people) and our cute bungalow.

Ayuthaya (not sure about the spelling)...This is the ancient capital of Thailand.  I was really interested in coming here because it's full of ancient ruins, well, what is left of temples due to wars and aging.  The place itself I didn't care for as much, things were pretty overpriced, but the temples were really beautiful, because they all seemed so natural compared to what we saw in Bangkok!  We paid a taxi (taxis here were 3-wheeled trucks, where you sit on the back) to take us around to all of the important 'wats' (temples).  It was extremely hot here, so it was definitely a good decision to do this. We went to see like 6 different wats, we saw giant sleeping buddhas, hundreds of sitting buddhas, we saw a bat infested temple, and we walked amongst all of the crumbled buildings.  Many parts of Ayuthaya was actually flooded while we were there, so we actually had to take a boat to get up on one of the temples!

Khorat...Ray's dad spent one year near here during the Vietnam War, so we wanted to make a stop in here to see if there was anything left of Camp Friendship.  We were only here for a short period of time, but we were actually able to find out that the Thai soldiers are currently using the camp (which meant that we couldn't go)...however, as Ray was at a bank machine, I met a Thai man that wanted to speak English to me.  It turns out that he also worked at Camp Friendship, so we talked to him for quite awhile...well, really it was him telling us numerous funny stories, while we attempted to listen.  It was so good that we found him!

Pattaya...We only stayed here because we needed to.  The place seemed to be party central, but not for people our age, more for middle aged foreign men that were there with their Thai girlfriends (or...maybe not?!).  It was interesting here.  We took a bus from Khorat to here, and stayed the night so we could get up early and take a mini bus to Koh Chang.

Koh Chang...we are finally here!  There isn't much of a beach.  The 'white sand' is actually under the water, so laying out kind of sucks...but the swimming in amazing!  Everytime I look in the water, I want to jump in!  It's so blue and clear, and the sand is so soft...and rock and creature-free!  I haven't had any encounters with any jellyfish yet which is good, although I still have my fingers crossed!  We are staying in another cute bungalow, on the beach, called Sang Arun.  We have a tv which actually plays English movies...so it's definitely a bonus for us to have that and news!  Most of our time has been spent playing in the water (we bought a beach ball which escaped, but came back to us today), eating breakfast on the beach, eating street pad thai (I'm obsessed with it!) on our little deck, and drinking delicious coconut smoothies as the sun goes down.  We also went elephant trekking which was so awesome!  We went through a company that is located in the jungle, so the elephants get to live in a good place.  There were 10 elephants.  The one that we rode was 20, and it was 'playful'.  I don't think it liked to follow instructions, and it pooped a lot!  We got to feed her when we finished the trek.  During the trek, I luckily didn't see any snakes, just lots of big and funny looking bugs and spiders.  My favorite part of the whole thing was at the beginning when we were able to feed and touch a 50 year old elephant.  I think that she really liked me.  I fed her so many bananas and she wrapped her trunk around me...I was with her for awhile....

So, it's Thursday now.  There are lots of touristy things to do on the island, but because it's touristy, everything costs quite a bit of money (not really, but for us backpackers it does).  So, the rest of our days will be spent doing some more swimming, reading, and relaxing.  We leave to go back to Bangkok on Sunday, where we have to pick up our Indian Visas......

Some observations about Thailand:  1.  There are dogs EVERYWHERE.  I mean, you walk somewhere, you will see at least 7 dogs.  The monks do not believe in putting animals down, so unfortunately very injured or sick dogs walk around, and then because they don't belong to anyone, they multiply...like mad!  2.  There are many, many transvestites.  Again, I mean...MANY.  It's a very common way to live here...the guys that are dressed as girls really look like pretty girls, good thing I am not a single guy! (HA)  3.  They love the party scene here!  4.  Everyone wears yellow collared shirts to show their respect for their King.  4.  There are geckos everywhere!

Okay, that's all for now.  I feel that my brain may be a little fried from the sun.  This is all that I could think of at the moment...sorry if it wasn't a very interesting post!  Hopefully, I can get a few pictures up for you.                                             

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