Ayutthaya

Last weekend I traveled about an hour north to the old capitol city of Thailand, Ayutthaya. We visited the old palace of King Rama the 5^th, and saw one of the seven major Buddha statues in Thailand. The city was filled with what were essentially ancient ruins, because all the brick structures were either partially or fully destroyed, and the sides were charred black from fire. Some of us decided to pack backpacks and stay the night in the city so we could take the train north to Lopburi, a monkey city another hour away. For the rest of the day we visited a floating market, walking the boardwalks and getting a foot cleaning from lots of tiny little sucking fish for about three dollars. The tickling was almost unbearable but my feet were incredibly soft afterward. We found a hotel for the night and got dinner but found that there really wasn’t much to do in the city other than the sightseeing we had done that day. We settled in at a small bar eating fried banana crepe’s listening to a band and drinking Chang’s for the rest of the night.

The next morning we rode the train north to Lopburi, which was actually probably my favorite part of the trip. In this dirty open-air train surrounded by thai’s going to work or taking care of their children I couldn’t have been happier to listen to music and stare out at the countryside of rice fields and see the rounded mountains in the distance. We got to the city and started walking for a few minutes looking for whatever monkey attraction was supposed to be there. We spotted a grey monkey run across the road, and another up a telephone pole. In seconds we realized these monkeys were everywhere, on buildings, drinking out of sewers, it was a little alarming actually. After twenty minutes or so of running around either from monkeys or to get some good pictures, we decided we’d seen enough and got some breakfast in a café near the train station. Then we caught the next train back to Bangkok for a night on Khoa San Road, my favorite market and place to hang out in the city. We found a cheap hostel and shopped around, had lunch under the trees of a side-street, and spent the rest of the night exploring the area and dancing and eating. The next morning we went up to a roof-top hotel pool some friends of ours invited us up to overlooking the city. Then after hanging out for a few hours and getting sufficiently sunburned we left to get lunch and head back to our university.

Chiang Mai

The second week of my trip we all loaded into another tour bus and drove north for 9 hours to the second most popular city in Thailand, Chiang Mai. It was absolutely incredible, first driving up in small red trucks to a temple on the side of a mountain, and then driving even higher to a remote village with gardens to walk through and things for sale on the side of the pathways. Then we went to a place called the Royal Flora 2010 which was a Disneyland style park where we rode in little tram-car things around to different sections of the park that were dedicated to different countries. I actually still am not sure what the main idea was of this place, and we were all pretty exhausted at that point after the bus ride and being up since 6 am. Later that night we were driven to a place in the city for dinner, we entered into this wide open outdoor area carpeted in red and set up for dinner for three or four hundred people to all sit on the ground at place-settings. There was a dance area in the middle and a stage at the head of the ceremony area, and we all ate watched a traditional set of dances and performances.

The next day we loaded back into the busses and went to Maeteman Elephant Camp. We rode elephants over rivers and through the jungle and took an ox-cart back to the camp. Then we had a large buffet-style lunch which was delicious as usual. We split off into groups of 6 afterward to float down the river on rafts, and it was beautiful to see the small villages along the river and be in the mountains. Long boats would pull up to us selling coconuts and beers and other drinks. We went on a hike afterward along a river of nine waterfalls, I split off with some friends to hike all the way to the top, and we jumped in and climbed up as far as we could go on the rocks above the falls.

We ended the day taking tuk-tuks into the chiang mai nightlife, dancing at a reggae club and watching fire throwers into the night.

Arrival

After travelling for over 19 hours I arrived in Bangkok late Wednesday night on the 7^th of January. My orientation was scheduled to begin the next morning at 8 am and after a lot of help from a friendly thai woman and some people I met on the plane, I was able to get a cab to take me to a hotel near my campus. The next couple days were a blur, with an orientation and tour around the school campus, and a trip into Bangkok the next morning. In and out of sleep, I settled into my apartment in a multi-colored building that houses all of the international students, and woke up to get onto a sea-world looking tour bus that took us into the city. We visited the Royal Palace, went to lunch at a restaurant on the river, and visited a place called the Mansion where the King and his wife used to live. Our tour guide Henry took us around to tell us about everything we were seeing.

Most of the people from our program decided to stay in Bangkok that night and we visited the backpackers market called Khoa San road and hung out in the city eating amazing street food and exploring around.

It took a week or so to finally start waking up at a decent time, and to be able to get through the middle of the day without suddenly needing to pass out. I also really had to get adjusted to the food, and for a while usually expected to break into a sweat or have stomach pain and heartburn half the time right after eating. After living here for three weeks now however I’ve loved discovering the best places to eat and some of my favorite new dishes.

My university is located in a province 30 minutes south of downtown Bangkok. The campus is beautiful, full of modern buildings in the middle of a neighborhood lined with markets and street vendors and shops. I’m really loving exploring new places around the town with my friends from my group, and the longer we've been here the more we hear and learn about new places to go eat and visit. 

This first photo is of my hotel room after my flight and an hour or so of attempting to get here: