We left Chiang Mai on Sunday morning....in typical Stone family fashion, when my host family and I went out to the car to leave for CMU to drop me off, the car battery was dead....no surprise really. This happens quite often in my real family. I just kinda laughed about it. But we had to push the car out of the drive way and then my host father had to jump start it and then we were good to go. We went to CMU and they helped me with my luggage. Eventually the time came to say goodbye and we exchanged hugs....can you say AWKWARD. Oh well though. I was outa there!! :) :) :)
We all boarded the tour bus where we were instantly transformed from "students who are not foreigners" to "tourists". Our bus was lovey with
We visited a few more temples and some of our first of many many ruins on our way to our first stop for the night in Sukhothai. There we stayed at a lovely hotel called the Pailyn Hotel. We went swimming there and had a wonderful dinner!! That whole day is a bit of a blur in my mind now....I guess nothing to exciting happened.
The next day we got up bright and early and were on the bus by 8am! We headed straight for the Sukhothai Historical Park where we rented bikes and rode around all the ancient ruins! This was one of the funnest things EVER! I had a hot pink bike that I named "Charming" because it had a sticker that said that on it. We rode around all morning and saw some of the big Thailand attractions! The huge talking buddha. After returning the bikes we went to the buddha casting factory where we met the guy who makes most of the buddhas that we see around Thailand. It was kinda crazy! We learned all about the process of making one...first you make it all out of wax...then you cover it in cement then burn the wax out and then fill it with bronze or some type of medal...then you shine it all up and sometimes they cover it in gold. It seems like quite the lengthy process. And how sad it is that these are all idols.
After that we headed for another hotel in Pitsanulok...still not sure where that is. But I was there. haha. We saw some more temples and took a nice swim! The next morning , we headed for a folk museum with random stuff from old Thailand. You know how I love museums! NOT! We went to way too many for me on this field trip. haha. The museum didn't open as early as we had thought on this day because they were having some buddha statues blessed by monks, so we had to go across the street to the "Bird Garden". As much as I hate museums, I would have taken the museum any day over this bird place. This place had tons of exotic birds. They were kinda cool, but with my huge fear of birds and only being blocked from them by this tiny little fence, it was SCARY! The birds I saw were birds that only could be thought up in a nightmare...scary huge birds! Check dropshots.com/mkinthailand for pictures of these beasts!
After the museum and the bird garden we got on the bus and went to Lopburi. We saw our first "khmer" style temple...which we called a "khmer kobb" because the chedi looks like a corn kobb. The only reason one would go to Lopburi is to see this temple because it is covered in monkeys.... 4,000 of them. Yes, that is 4 with three 0's. It was insane. They climb all over you and take glasses and anything they can get their little hands on. I am now officially creaped out by monkeys. I didn't buy any food because I did not want them to touch me. haha. I walked through the ruins of the temple and on the ceiling were tons of bats....so on the outside were tons of monkeys and on the inside were tons of bats...my favorite combination....
I survived and it was quite the experience. One that I will probably not need to do again. haha.
We went to the hotel in Lopburi where there were huge monkey statues everywhere. Even the room was monkey! The lamp was in the shape of a monkey and the bed frame had monkeys on...I couldn't get away from monkeys! We went swimming and had some fun. Then for dinner we ordered PIZZA!! It was so worth the 120 baht....$4!!
The next day we headed for Ayuthaya! This was the capital of Thailand after Sukothai and before Bangkok. We saw some more ruins. These were my favorite ruins of the trip. They were so huge and so grand! We hit up some more museums and historical study centers....my favorite. haha. Dinner was so fun. We had it on a boat. We saw all the ruins on the river at night and had an amazing Thai meal. Then there was dancing and karoke on the boat. Super funny.
The next day we headed for Bangkok. We stopped at some more ruins and then at the summer palace. The summer palace was super fun. We took a golf cart around it to see everything. To go into the ordination hall you have to put on a skirt...so we borrowed some free ones and walked in. It was pretty cool.
From there we went to Bangkok. Took a little swim in the pool and then in the evening we took a canal tour. We bought bananas on the "real floating market"...but since it was all closed up for the day it was just a man in his boat. But it was still fun. We fed some fish...I think it's the thing for tourist to do...they sell bread on these boats and then you feed the fish...and these fish are HUGE!! and UGLY!
Our hotel in Bangkok was the nicest of the trip. We even got a welcome drink. haha. It was some interesting fruit juice. Not the greatest thing ever, but free.
Finally on Friday we left in the morning by river bus....we boarded it with all our stuff and went to the royal palace. We dragged all our luggage around so we could go to spring break right after we were done.
The royal palace was pretty cool. We saw the emerald buddha which I must say was kinda anti-climatic. It was a lot smaller than I had thought it would be. But it was all decked out in gold. Definitely something to see if you go to Thailand. We walked around the palace grounds for a little while and then it was off to spring break!
you are funny, Mary Kate....and I had to laugh about the monkeys and birds. Love you!
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