food, food, and more food.

Since the last time I blogged, not a whole lot has happened, but I shall attempt to fill in the more important details.

So after an amazing day at the elephant camp on Saturday, we attended a Thai cooking class on Sunday.

our kitchen at the Thai cooking school.

another beautiful kitchen at the Thai cooking school.

chef courtney  :]  wolfgang puck, look out!

The cooking class was held at an organic farm called Thai Farms and was in a local village removed from the city.  The set-up of the whole location of the cooking class was very nice; there were lots of windows in the big room where we were all cooking on individual gas stoves.  The stoves and individual countertop spaces were arranged in a big square so we could look at each other and make funny faces while we were learning to cook.

my self-made meal of Thai vegetable soup, chicken and basil, and red curry.

We were given a list of various choices beforehand, and I picked red curry, Thai vegetable soup, chicken and basil, pad thai, as well as mangos and sticky rice for dessert.  We cooked all day and stopped for lunch in the middle of the day eating our curry, soup, and chicken dish; we all ate outside at a long, wooden table; it was great.   

After more cooking, we took the pad thai with us to eat later, and finished off the day at Thai Farms indulging in our fresh mango and sticky rice – delicious.

I never even knew I liked mangos before I went on this trip!

my pad thai!

my pad thai in a "Thai to-go" bag!

After a long day of cooking and eating, we arrived back at our guesthouse and all crashed!  The nap was well deserved though and felt great.

When we woke up, a couple of us decided to go and check out the “walking market,” which apparently comes to Chiang Mai every Sunday evening.  I could not believe how many streets were blocked off for this market to take place, it was incredible.  You would make it to the end of one street and have three possibilities for other streets to embark down – should I continue walking forward, go left, or turn right?!

As the night went on, the market really filled up too; the streets were overflowing with people.

I was extremely glad we were visiting this market in the cool of night though; walking through the uncovered market with the sun beating down on us wouldn’t have been half as fun.

Seeing as we were all still stuffed from our day of eating homemade (by US!) Thai food, we opted for dessert rather than another meal.  Noah enjoyed a chocolate waffle, and Erin, Aaron, and I opted for fruit smoothies.  There are so many fruit smoothies here – I love it.

(Author’s note: In case I haven’t already mentioned, there are two Erin’s and one Aaron on this trip; three in all.  We are still working on finding an appropriate way to discern between the two female Erin’s.  :] )

Walking home from the “Walking Market,” we stopped at a little side shop and purchased post cards.

I’ve already mailed two of them!  Oh and in case anyone was wondering, it only costs 15 baht to mail a postcard from here to the United States.  That’s roughly 50 cents; quite a bargain, I know!

I just hope my postcards actually make it to their destination :] ..we shall see.

On Monday, the school were we are attending classes while we are here, CMU or Chiang Mai University, was holding their Graduation ceremony so school was cancelled!

Not much happened on Monday; I read a lot for the Asia Literature class we are taking with the professor who brought us to Thailand, and completed our first reading assignment.

Monday evening a group of us went over to visit a school where Burmese students who are mostly migrant workers go for two hours in the mornings or evenings to learn English.  We aren’t quite sure what the exact name of the school is, but the sign outside reads, “Thinking Classroom Foundation.”

There are three different classrooms for each level of English the students are at – Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced.

Mr. Sai who runs the school seemed pretty excited to have us there, and Coe students have volunteered there in the past as well.

the entrance to the Burmese English school.

After visiting the school, Drexler was nice enough to take us “cool dudes” out for a lovely Thai dinner.  A few brave souls at the table tried frog legs, although unfortunately I didn’t hear one positive response on those; mostly I heard that they were kind of crunchy due to “bones”…  Sort of glad I didn’t branch out for those.  The barbequed chicken we all shared was quite delicious though.

On Tuesday, we went to school and learned more Thai language, as well as having a class dedicated to informing us about the ongoing conflict in Burma.  It’s crazy to think that living in northern Thailand, the Burma-Thai border really is not that far off.

Before that class, I had heard some about the conflict there, but my knowledge was rather limited.

It was amazing (and incredibly sad) to hear about how bad the Burmese really have it, and the fact that this conflict and oppression has been taking place since 1962 – yet the government who put themselves in power continues to stay there, and the outlook for when things might change seems uncertain at this point.

Coincidentally, the very same day of our class on the struggle in Burma, was our first night teaching English to Burmese migrant workers at the MLC.  Going into it, I was sort of unsure of how well I would do with teaching English, but it went much better than expected.  I, along with two others, were placed in the “Advanced” class and pretty much served as people other than the teacher for students to converse with and practice their English.  It felt so nice to use a skill, speaking English, which I feel I probably take for granted a lot of time and to be utilizing it to truly help other people.

Most of the students there were in their teens and 20’s; I don’t know what I was expecting exactly, but I guess I wouldn’t have guessed they would be that young.  It probably works to our benefit that we are all about the same age as most of the students; it gives them the opportunity to practice with native English speakers who are close to them in age and can relate to them on a certain level.  The students in the classroom we worked in all seemed to have pretty upbeat attitudes about life and even learning English which was refreshing and touching; especially considering the circumstances most of these people come from.  

This ended up being a very powerful and enjoyable experience.  Erin and I agreed that our faces hurt from smiling so much.

The night was made even sweeter when on the way home we were finally able to indulge in ROTEES!

We were walking along passing a bunch of people and street vendors cooking up all sorts of food.

We were chatting about how we were all still pretty full from dinner, and I commented, “About the only thing I could possibly eat right now is a rotee..”  And what do you know?!

The very next vendor we pass is a woman who happens to specialize in rotees!  It was fate.

For those who’ve never been introduced to the deliciousness that is a rotee, it’s a Thai desert, basically like a crepe.  You can get a rotee with just about any topping: sugar, condensed milk and powdered sugar, condensed milk and chocolate, strawberries, chocolate and bananas, etc.

There is actually a “rotee man” who sets up shop right outside of 7/11 (they have a TON of 7/11’s here) on the corner of the street market full of food and right across the street from our guesthouse, but sadly he has been MIA since our second day in Chiang Mai.

I’m hoping he’s just on vacation or something, but we’ll see.  No one quite knows where he up and left to, but it’s probably a good thing we aren’t tempted by his delicious fried dessert every, single evening.

Although before finding rotees elsewhere, a few of us would literally go and check every single night to see if he was back yet; we were dying to try rotees!

It was worth the wait.

I tried the rotee with chocolate syrup, condensed milk and sugar; it was soo good.

I am quickly finding all of the food to be incredibly delicious here… this could be rather dangerous.

On Wednesday, we had more classes at the university.  We even learned about the legend of the Thai Rice Goddess.

After a full day of classes (aka two, with a two hour break), we came back to the guesthouse for an early (Iowa) dinner, and it was off to teaching.

We had another rewarding and powerful night; especially as the teacher had to explain to the students what the word “refugee” meant.  There were two new volunteers in our “Advanced” class that evening and in telling a story about schools they had visited in another Thai town mentioned the word “refugee.”  A Burmese student named Shamela, who’s rather lively and isn’t afraid to speak up (even in English), quickly raised her hand and asked the teacher, “What is ‘refugee’?”

Towards the end of class, we were also invited to yoga in the park by Shamela, and we are planning on trying that out this Sunday – more to come on how that goes.

Later on that evening, a bunch of us sat on the rooftop (they have a nice little patio-like area up there) and enjoyed beverages.  I discovered 7/11 to have the quintessential “Big Gulp” that night!  Coke never tasted so good.

The next day, Thursday, was just another day in Chiang Mai.

We went to school and attempted to learn more Thai – we’ve moved on to food and ordering and all of that fun stuff!

That evening Drexler took us all out to dinner at a noodle shop so that we could practice the wonderful Thai we had mastered earlier in the day :]

I ordered large, flat rice noodles without soup and with pork.  They were quite delicious.

It was fun being able to practice our Thai on actual Thai speakers in real-life situations, especially granted Drexler was right there should we mess it up completely and need back-up.

After the yummy noodles, we took a group field trip to a now-infamous bakery among our group.  A couple of students stumbled upon the bakery on one of our first days in Chiang Mai, and the rest is history.

That night was my first trip to this bakery, and wow, was it worth it!

We typically don’t get a ton of bread here, unless you specifically seek it out - like when ordering American breakfast food at our guesthouse, so seeing such a wide-assortment of yeast-based products was quite a treat.

I indulged in the chocolate croissant; needless to say, it quickly became a new favorite.

Today is Friday, which means the weekend and more exciting sights and trips…

Soon to come.

the land of smiles.

Monday was our first full day in Chiang Mai and after getting all settled into our guesthouse, our professor took us out and about to see some of the city.

The first place we went is a nice, little bookshop run by an Irishman named George.  After that, Drexler let us loose to explore some of the city and assured us we would be able to find our way back to the guesthouse if we just followed the mote.  It is amazing just how many tourists you see here in Chiang Mai; that and the number of little shops and restaurants lining the streets – it seems like they never end.

Some of us departed from the bookshop on a quest for food.  We ended up at Daret’s House which is in the apparent backpacker’s district of Chiang Mai and which is also supposed to be the “original” backpacker’s restaurant.  I thought the food was very good and reasonably priced.

Later on that night we went out as a group for our first official meal from the street vendors, in the night market across the street.  It is overwhelming at first with figuring out what all the vendors are selling and how to order it, seeing as practically everything is in Thai.  Having someone with you who actually knows what’s going on (as well as who speaks the language) and who is able to sort of show you the ropes is definitely an invaluable resource though.

The meal we ate was sort of plain, but for the price, not bad at all.

The front gate at Chiang Mai University

Tuesday was our formal introduction to CMU, or Chiang Mai University.  We had our official little “orientation” in the morning, complete with coffee, tea, and light snacks.  Everyone at the university is extremely friendly and hospitable; we are so very lucky to have them welcoming us as guests and students in their school.

After orientation, we walked over to the uniform shop.  About half the trip was already prepared and brought uniform-appropriate clothing with them, and the other half still needed to purchase this.  I, of course, was part of the second half mentioned.  Haha.

But it was a lot of fun uniform shopping, trying on the different styles of skirts they offer, and finding out that when it comes to Thai school uniforms, I wear a size XXL in my button-up shirt!  :]

That night a couple of us decided to eat on a budget and returned to the night market.  We found a street vendor whose menu had an English translation portion and decided that was good enough for us.
The food was really good until I heard my friend sort of gasp and point, “STREET RAT!”  My initial reaction was to say, “Aladdin... where?!” but unfortunately we weren’t that lucky.

Rather, it was an actual rat – three to be exact.  We watched in slight horror as one of the rats jumped on this little strainer-like bucket thing and tipped it over.  There were a couple of lettuce pieces still in the bottom and that rat had his eye on them.  We also were able to witness the rats as they climbed back down into the gutter which runs right through the market, passing all of the vendors.

I mean I guess we should have expected such things with an outside street vendor market, but it was still rather surprising, and an unfortunate discovery which will most likely stay with us for every future meal we eat there.

The next day, Wednesday, we started our classes at Chiang Mai University.

We either have morning class, which is from 9-11am, or afternoon class, which is from 1-3pm.  And on some days we have both morning and afternoon classes.

Erin and I in our snappy school uniforms!

Our first day of class was spent learning some fundamental basics when it comes to learning Thai; the various tones, some of the phonetics and consonants used, etc.  Not the easiest stuff to learn or master, but definitely helpful when it comes to immersing oneself in a foreign language.

After school, Erin and I ventured out for some lunch and ended up back at Daret’s House.  I definitely was not disappointed; it may be a “backpacker hangout,” but the food is good.  We both had beef with garlic and pepper accompanied by rice…so delicious.  The pineapple and orange smoothies were amazing as well!  Not to mention, you can’t beat outside dining in this wonderful weather; it’s so nice.

On our walk back to the guesthouse after lunch we saw a nice old man with a cart near the mote selling food to feed the fish with.  It was only 10 baht for a bag of fish food, so we decided to indulge ourselves!

Feeding the fish was actually a lot of fun; the fish are crazy.

The fishy food seller.

You throw in some food and they all splash and jump about, fighting for the little nuggets of food.

No matter how far you threw the food out in the water, as soon as it hit, the fish went crazy.

That evening we all went out to dinner as a group to a very nice Thai restaurant which I currently cannot remember the name of; I do remember Drexler telling us Elizabeth Taylor ate there once though, so I guess now it’s slightly famous.

For our evening entertainment, a few brave souls decided to throw down 400 baht (rather than 600 baht for ringside seating) and see what Muay Thai boxing was all about.  The multitude of fliers lining the streets of Chiang Mai promised “8 WORLD CLASS FIGHTS” with a special “international” fight as the big finale between a Thai fighter and an American.  When in Rome, right?!

Well, needless to say, the Muay Thai boxing wasn’t everything it was cracked up to be.

Even the special “international” fight at the end actually ended up being between a boxer from Spain and a Thai; pretty sure there was never an American boxer lined up for that night to begin with.

From a handful of similar experiences, a couple of us have decided that this trip’s saying so far is without a doubt, “Well now we know..” (Laugh and shrug shoulders)

Thursday morning was nice; we were able to sleep in for one of the first times post jetlag due to the fact that school wasn’t until 1pm that afternoon.

Thursday’s class was our first true introduction to basic Thai.  I thought the teacher did a great job, and she was very understanding as well as encouraging; we all definitely need to practice some though.

That evening we all ventured over to Watchediluang Varaviharn for what is referred to as “Monk Chat.”

Monk chat brings out all sorts of people (and surprisingly lots of dogs too) :]

“Monk Chat” is when anyone can visit the Wat (temple) and ask Monks various questions they are in need of answering; anything from what Monk life is like, to Buddhism, to Thai culture and more.

Drexler told us it helps the Monks practice their English, so that’s good.

A bunch of us chatted with a very nice younger monk whose English was a little rough and difficult to understand at times, but he was definitely trying.

It was pretty interesting to find out that “Monk Chats” even exist; what an awesome avenue for people to utilize in conversing with Monks and potentially finding explanations to questions they themselves cannot answer.

My favorite part about this Wat was a portion of it towards the back that is in ruin.  It was missing a huge chunk from the top, and it looked as though other portions had either just fallen off or withered away due to the elements or something.  It was soo beautiful though!  I took a ton of pictures.

After our adventures at the Monk Chat, a group of us walked over to El Diablo’s for a fine Mexican dinner. They served us free chips and salsa, so that was a nice perk, and the chips were an interesting interpretation!  As Noah pointed out, they kind of tasted like large Fritos.

I had a chicken burrito, which was rather delicious, especially considering that it was a Thai-Mexican burrito!

From there we walked over to a night market where vendors were selling souvenirs and other goodies.  The two boys bought some things, but Erin and I were conserving our money; not to mention, anything we buy now would have to be toted around with us to Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

As we were walking back to our guesthouse from the night market we saw a pretty large outdoor soccer field/complex thing and stopped so Aaron (who plays soccer for Coe) could check it out.

He ended up being able to buy some shorts from their little shop and play in a pick-up game right then and there, so we sat outside in the nice evening weather and watched some Thai soccer.

On Friday morning we had a 9am class on Buddhism taught by an 84-year-old (yes, and EIGHTY FOUR YEAR OLD) Oxford-educated professor, who apparently is Thailand’s most premier expert on Buddhism.

His lecture was pretty interesting, especially taking into consideration the source.

Listening to him speak was a treat.  After class, Erin and I ventured to the Fern Forest Café for a couple of “Iced Milos,” which is a nice chocolaty drink similar to Ovaltine (“More Ovaltine, please!" :] ).

After discovering the deliciousness of an “Iced Milo,” I just may have to reconsider my dislike for chocolate milk…

While at the Fern Forest Café, which happens to be rather beautiful, we were able to start on our first reading assignment for Asia Term, the first ten chapters in A Child of the Northeast.

After doing some reading, a couple of us ate dinner at a Chinese restaurant nearby.  Unfortunately the food wasn’t that great, but I haven’t had to say that many times so far on this trip.  Aaron dined on DUCK FEET at the Chinese restaurant!  Rather brave, I must say.

Later on that evening, Erin, Noah, and I checked out the North Gate Jazz Co-Op, which ended up being a lot of fun.  I can’t say I had ever heard live jazz music before then, and it was pretty awesome.

We also grabbed a late night bite at Thailand’s own, “Mike’s Hamburgers,” which I learned has been “Converting Vegetarians Since 1976.”  The seating was on red stools up to the bar, and the food was pretty delicious.  OH, how much I love French fries!  Even Thai French fries  :]  Oh and for anyone who was wondering, Mike’s serves breakfast starting at 8am, and continues to stay open until 3am in the morning for anyone desperately craving some greasy, American food.

After our bellies were full, we ventured back to our guesthouse and called it a night.

Saturday, which is today, has been without a doubt my favorite day on this trip so far!

Today we all embarked on a journey to the Maesa Elephant Camp, which also happens to be in Chiang Mai.

WOW.  This place was amazing.  I cannot begin to express how much I loved it.

Everyone was so friendly and accommodating, taking our pictures, having the elephants pose with us, etc.  We were able to feed the elephants bananas and sugarcane – it was so much fun!  They took the food right from our hands too, and did not hesitate to try and reach for more, possibly even steal the entire bunch of bananas or sugarcane right out of your hand if their trunk could reach that far!

You would be SURPRISED at how much these guys can eat!

Grass? Banana? Grass? Banana? How about BOTH?!

I kept laughing!

It was truly awe-inspiring to be so close and personal with these gentle giants; including actually interacting and witnessing their intelligence and humor right in front of your very eyes.

SUCH a little cutie!

There were also BABY ELEPHANTS!  The youngest was about a month old we were told; oh my, he was simply precious, standing right next to Mom the entire time we were around him.  I can’t get over how cute he was.  The other elephants were beautiful as well, each in their own individual way.

Some of them were old and wrinkly with saggy elephant skin and tattered ears, and yet still adorable.

There was also an elephant show!  We witnessed soo many various tricks and talents I was left wondering, what can’t elephants do?!  Haha.

You should've SEEN him dunk!

There were elephants playing soccer, painting pictures, playing harmonicas (yes, they made music!), hamming it up for the crowd, beating an audience member at balloon darts, and even scoring baskets in elephant basketball!  Unbelievable sounding, I know, but you just had to be there.

The very best part of the day though, hands down, was our elephant ride!!!!!

Erin and I threw down the collective 800 baht and we were off.  It was incredible.  Sadly, I cannot remember the name of our elephant…  I do remember that he was 48-years-old though!  And fit as a fiddle, i might add.

The mahout, or elephant trainer, of the particular elephant we rode was very nice.  At one point he even hopped down and took pictures of Erin and I atop his elephant as we slowly moseyed along.

THANKFULLY my camera lasted the entire day, and did not die until we were just about to depart the camp.

Overall, everyone at the elephant camp seemed very nice, I just truly hope that they act the same way to the animals when we aren't around and actually treat them well.

Before we departed to go back to the guesthouse, I invested in a tasty raspberry smoothie and it ended up being the perfect ending to a wonderful day.

we are here. finally. :]]

We have officially arrived in Bangkok!

Well actually we have been in Bangkok for a couple of days now; I just haven’t found the time to document it yet.

The travel getting here actually wasn’t as bad as I had expected.  Our first flight out of Cedar Rapids was delayed three hours so we would have missed connecting flights, so thankfully they had to rebook us.  This turned out to be a blessing in disguise; instead of flying from Cedar Rapids to Denver, Denver to Seattle, Seattle to Tokyo, and Tokyo to Bangkok, we were able to hop a flight from Cedar Rapids to Chicago (about a 1-hour flight), Chicago to Tokyo (11 or so hour flight), and from Tokyo to Bangkok (6 and a half hour flight).

I was surprised to find that there wasn’t more legroom on these long flights, but I guess that is because we flew economy.  Looking at the business section of the plane things were rather different :]

They fed us so much on both flights, and surprisingly the food wasn’t that bad – it was pretty good actually.

We arrived in Bangkok late Thursday night, after midnight, and went straight to where we were staying – the Bangkok Christian Guesthouse – and crashed.

The rooms there were modest – which is to be expected – but still rather nice, and the beds were quite comfortable which is always a good thing.

Our first full day in Bangkok we all tried to sleep in (as much as our bodies would allow), enjoyed a delicious breakfast provided by the Guesthouse (they even had french toast!) and went out exploring the city.

We were fortunate enough to take a boat ride through the river that divides Bangkok; I guess the other side is called The Old City, and we were able to see why.  Drexler said Bangkok and the boardering city on the other side of the river are positioned similar to cities like Dallas and Fort Worth.

I also heard that Bangkok is supposed to be “The Venice of the East” – another thing I never knew.

The boat ride on the river was amazing, but definitely eye—opening. 

We saw tons and tons of houses built right on the river, with their foundations and main columns of support residing right in the water.  For some of these houses, I have no idea how they manage to stay together – they literally looked like shacks, pieced together with available materials that might holdup and withstand the weather conditions.

Next to those houses, of course, were huge estates, who’s construction you did not doubt for a minute.

It was incredible to see the contrast, which was so apparent, all the way up and down the river.  Although I suppose the same is true should you simply meander through the streets of Bangkok – or any major city for that matter.

One of the things that struck me as rather interesting was all of the Thai’s we would see as we were boating on the river; they were obviously conducting just another day in their lives, and yet here we were stealing a glimpse.

What was even more was when we would pass a Thai person or a group of Thai’s and they would take it upon themselves to wave at us first.  It made me smile every time, and wave back of course, but I couldn’t help but think, “These people see tourists just like us, all day every single day, and yet here they are, still waving.”  That to me, was incredible.

My friend Erin made a comment to me during our connection in Tokyo as we were walking through the airport about how we were about to be/are the minority.  A status we will maintain for the duration of our stay abroad.  The more I was able to think about her comment, the more I realized being the true minority for a while is probably something all people should experience at least once in their lifetime.

I could definitely see where it would give you an entirely different perspective on things, and perhaps be able to put yourself in another’s shoes more easily, in certain situations.

Our first stop on the boat ride was at Thonburi’s Snake Farm.  This was definitely not something I had seen or done before, so it was a worthwhile experience.  The main attraction at the Snake Farm was a Snake Show; quite a shock, I am sure.

The Snake Show was cringe-worthy but entertaining all the same.  We saw crazy men dance and provoke all sorts of different snakes; everything from cobras, to vipers, to a python!  It was quite wild.

There were also zoo animals at this Snake Farm.  Seeing the various animals was neat, but I felt pretty bad for the animals themselves.  Especially the black bears, they looked rather frazzled and hot.  There were a couple of beautiful peacocks there though, and some funny guinea pig-looking creatures.

After the amazing Snake Farm, we were off to our first temple of the trip.

It was Wat Arun Rajwararam, or the Temple of Dawn.  The design and architecture were both very pretty and intricate, and luckily we were able to climb up pretty high on the temple.  The stairs were amazingly steep too, but thankfully there were railings.

Outside the walls of the temple were many different people selling their various goods, and my friend Erin and I were able to try a real coconut for the first time.  We were given a straw to drink the coconut milk and a little spoon to scoop out the innards.

That night we ate at a delicious Thai restaurant, right by our guesthouse, called Bua.  It was wonderful.

On Saturday, we took the SkyTrain to a weekend market in Bangkok.  The market was humongous, and just as Bob warned us, “They sell everything in the world there.”

It was mind-blowing.  The market itself was like a huge maze or labyrinth; I have no idea how people navigate that market with a certain shop in mind, and actually have a devised plan on how to get there.  It was like Ikea, once you're inside, the only way out is to follow it to the end.

Another drawback to the market was that it was super hot; although if you were lucky enough to find shade, it made a definite difference.  One of the most unexpected things I saw for sale there were lots and lots of puppies, and even little mice or hamsters.

I bought a side bag and two watches.

Saturday night we ate at a more traditional or authentic Thai Restaurant, also just up the street from our guesthouse, and amazingly they had Taylor Swift playing the entire time we ate our meal!  It was so weird hearing not one TS song in Thailand, but her entire album playing in a whole in the wall Thai Restaurant.  It is rather shocking how much American music you hear  blasting from certain shops on the streets of Bangkok.
Saturday night, our last night in Bangkok, we went out to our first Asian bar experience and funny enough we ended up at an "Irish Pub" right up the street from where we were staying called Molly Malone's.  It was a pretty quiet night in this Thailand Pub, but we all had fun spending time together nonetheless.

Sunday was our last day in Bangkok and in the morning a couple of us went to a rather large park.  Actually, it too was huge.  We joked that it had to have been the Central Park of Bangkok.  The park was wonderful; it was lush and shady, lots of trees and grass.  It also had an endless assortment of meeting spots, picnic tables, pavilions and so on.  There were so many family and friends out enjoying the nice breezy weather and each other’s company.  There were old women singing, men playing what appeared to be some form of checkers, people actually ballroom dancing in one area, men practicing their Thi Chi, and even people just sitting together to chat and relax.  There were also walkers and runners, bicyclists and the sort, normal scenery in such parks I suppose.

Oh and we also saw kimono dragons at this park – three, to be exact!  Two were sunning themselves by the water, and one was actually swimming in the water.  One of the dragons was rather huge!  I can’t imagine going to the park and expecting to run into these creepy and massive reptiles.

After the park in the morning, we gathered as a group and set out for the day.  We went to two temples, both were located in the same section of Bangkok and were massive tourist attractions.  The amount of people and traffic and tour buses was astounding.  At the first temple we were lucky enough to see the likeness of a massive reclining Buddha, with mother-of-pearl on his feet.  This was an amazing sight, and I am so glad I was able to witness it in real life.

The second temple we went to houses a replica of Angkor Wat as well as the Emerald Buddha, which apparently was stolen from Laos.  I’m not exactly sure why Laos hasn’t come to recollect their stolen property yet…haha.

After all of our temple hopping, we headed back to the guesthouse for a bit to wait for when it was time to head to the train station.

We had an overnight train to Chang Mai to catch at 7pm.  The overnight train ride actually ended up being a lot of fun.  Drexler said he had never rode in the type of train (Indian-style apparently) for this trip which we had, but everything ended up working out.  We just hung out on the train, ate dinner, talked and laughed, until we got tired enough to call it a night.

I wasn’t sure how I would fair sleeping on a train, but surprisingly I slept great, and actually enjoyed the sleep set-up and accommodations.  I slept on the top bunk and had no problems at all, my pillow and blanket were even comfy.

The next morning, today (Monday), we arrived in the city of Chang Mai at around 11am.  Two individuals from the University were nice enough to pick us up from the train station and take us to where we are staying.  We showered (thankfully!) and got all settled in.

Chang Mai seems to be a pretty nice town so far.

More to come.  :]