Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Bangkok to Chantaburi

After Savannakhet Katie and I returned to Bangkok in order to meet up with Iain and Jen and all the Scottish relatives who are on their way to see my cousin Annie in New Zealand.

Pictures would be nice at this point, to illustrate just how much fun we had... dinners in open air markets, shopping on Kao San Road, my cousin Callum getting a Thai tattoo that either means "Peace, Prosperity and Good Fortune" or "I came to Thailand and got a shitty tattoo". But alas, Katie's camera has failed completely. We traded cameras when we parted ways.

She left Bangkok early to visit Cambodia on her own, having been there last year I chose to stay behind and hang with Iain and Jen and the Scotts. I was worried for about 3 minutes but when we heard from her the next night via the cell phone borrowed from Iain everything was fine. She is due to arrive back in Chantaburi tomorrow.

Today Iain and Jen had to teach until about 3pm, which was nice, I was able to do laundry and check the internet. Its an amazing feeling to have clean clothes after 5 days of travelling in dirty clothes on a series of filthy buses.

This afternoon Iain and Jen and I visited Wat Khao Sukim just 20 kilometers from their town. It was beautiful, amazing mountain views and a very cool sunset.

We took a little trolly car with some Monks to the top of the mountain:




Iain and I on top of the Wat:




Jen and I unfortunately dressed very similar today, which means Iain looked even more like a Mormon husband from Utah with more than one wife:


I took a picture of Iain and Jen with the Chester Village Newspaper who prints peoples pictures from around the world. Are you happy now Mom?


The Wat was being restored and we were able to make a donation and write our names along with other family members names on the roof tiles they will use. They were blessed by the head Monk right in front of us, very cool that this will be there forever.


We ended the night with dinner next door to Iain's house, Lek's Restaurant. We called ahead and they had so many dishes waiting for us, fish, rice, a pork dish called Larb, and some amazing lemon soup.
It already feels like the end of this part of our journey which is so sad. Everyday here seems like a month, we get to experience so much, but at the same time it has gone so quickly that I am heart broken to leave.
There's always next year! Or as Iain says, move here now! Who knows....
- Posted by Tracy

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