easiest week ever

I only had to teach one day this week! We had Monday off for the King's birthday. On Tuesday, third through sixth grade spent the morning at the movie theater, watching a documentary about the royal family. Wednesday was normal, but we had today off for Constitution Day.

A few of the girls and I spent our day off riding bikes and checking out some 500-year-old ruins in Ayutthaya, the ancient capital of Siam.

Our magic school ID badges didn't get us into the ruins for free, unfortunately, meaning we had to pay 50 baht at each one. My fellow bikers weren't interested in doing this too many times, since we'd already been to see Angkor in Cambodia back in July.

We ended up only really exploring two different ruins. I would've liked to see more, but democracy wins, I guess. Maybe I'll go back some Saturday.

from Laos to Chiang Mai

I left you all hanging at Laos, but I wanted to mention the last week of my vacation.

Mariela and I spent 16 hours over two days traveling up the Mekong River by slow boat to get back to Thailand from Laos. The first day, we had the "luxury boat," which earned its title because of the padded car seats nailed to 2x4s that made up the passenger rows.

It was fine for eight hours. The breeze came in off the water and we were comfortable enough to read and journal and even nap. We spent the night at a super-dodgy guesthouse in Pak Beng. At no other point on this trip was I afraid to fall asleep at night, but we did, in fact, live to see another day.

The next morning we had a scrumptious breakfast -- an egg, ham, and cheese bagel and muesli with yogurt and fresh fruit -- before heading down to meet the boat.

It was exactly the same as yesterday's vessel except for one unfortunate detail. We were on the edge of our seats, literally, because the wide, comfy car chairs had been replaced by rickety, narrow, wooden benches with loose floral cushions so flat there might as well have been no cushion at all. Observe our chagrin.




It was a long eight hours. We spent that night at a non-sketchy guesthouse in Houay Xai. This one was on a three-tiered pricing system. See the photo for details. We must have chosen "cheaper price," because ours didn't come with toilet paper. It was OK, though. We nicked some from the room across the hall.

The next day, we crossed the river into Thailand and spent the day riding various buses on our way to Chiang Mai.

We stopped in Chiang Rai to see the White Temple, or Wat Rong Khun. We also perused a small gallery of the artist's other work. Most of it was very Buddhist, but there were a few unique paintings that caught our eye. One pictured George Bush clinging to a rocket blasting into space and waving. Odd. Another interesting piece had a title that was something like, "The Dominance of the Male Organ Over the World." I almost bought a postcard of that painting, but I couldn't decide who I'd mail it to. You don't want to send the wrong message...

golden buddha: wat traimit

School was out on Wednesday for the Queen's birthday, so Mariela and I decided to make an excursion to the famed Golden Buddha. It's three meters tall and made from solid gold.

There weren't any convenient buses, so we took a taxi. The driver wanted to use the expressway because of a traffic jam. The toll for the expressway was 45B, and we still hit a little traffic there because people were trying to get to the Grand Palace. 110B later, we were there.

We walked up to a magnificent, but closed, gold and white temple. Adjacent to it was a somewhat less impressive temple with chipping, faded paint. We took off our shoes and went inside.

There was a large golden Buddha statue at the front of the room. It looked to be about three meters high. We sat down and looked around. The walls were unadorned, unlike other wats we'd visited. The red carpet covering the floor was worn and shabby. It seemed an unlikely home for one of the three most important Buddha statues in Bangkok.

Mariela asked me how many carats I thought the Buddha might be. Then we got into a conversation about the difference in carats. We watched a monk perform a ceremony with some worshipers. He tied a string around each person's wrist and flung holy water on them. Drops flicked on us, too.

We got up to leave, went outside, and started perusing our map to figure out where the nearest Metro stop was when a tuk-tuk driver sidled up to us. We started talking about the Golden Buddha and he pointed at the pretty, new, white and gold wat and said, "Oh, no, it's up there. But it's closed until next month."

So that answered Mariela's question: The statue we saw was made from 0 carat gold...

We were somewhat annoyed that we'd paid all that money for the taxi ride and hadn't even seen the Golden Buddha. The tuk-tuk driver offered to give us a ride for 20 baht to our next destination.

Then he told us we had to made a stop at his sponsor's store. This is a common tourist trap, but usually the tourists don't find out they're making a stop until they're already on the road. The driver stops off at a store and tries to get you to buy something, because he'll receive a commission from the store owner.

We started to tell him, "No, thanks," but he told us we could just go in the store for ten minutes, look around, and leave. We didn't have to buy anything. And he'd lower our fare to ten baht. We said OK. It was daytime, after all. What could happen?

He told us the store shirts. We expected a souvenir shop, but he pulled over in front of a tailor, got out, and gestured for us to go inside.

I had to wonder - does that technique really work? Do people just decide to go have some tailored clothes made on a whim? I tend to think not.

Anyway, we looked, left, and got to our destination with no problems.

I'm calling this one a 0% because we didn't see the Buddha we came for, and we paid a lot to get there. Maybe next month.

i <3 siem reap

Our hotel in Siem Reap - The Golden Mango Inn - has been great. They are friendly, accommodating, and oh-so-helpful with arranging transportation for sightseeing.

Alyssa, Mariela, and I got an early start this morning with our tuk tuk driver, Sopon. The hotel owner had written out a list of temples for us to see in the best order to avoid crowds.

The weather was cool and perfect. It's never that cool in the morning in Bangkok. I loved it.

The first temple, I think, was my favorite. Ta Prohm, or the Jungle Temple, is nearly 1000 years old. It's beautiful and green and peaceful. Massive trees have taken over parts of it. Their roots snake down over the stones like anacondas on steroids.


We stopped for lunch across from Angkor Wat, one of the most well-known (and crowded) temple complexes. There, we were harassed by children selling souvenirs. They stood around our table the entire time we were eating, trying to cajole us into buying something.

I looked through one boy's postcards, but didn't see anything I liked. He seemed bitter about this, calling us "stingy tourists," and telling us never to come back to his country again. He kept pouting, "Why you look but you no buy?" He was probably eight years old. There were a couple of girls selling bracelets, too. They made me sad. Kids shouldn't have to go out and harass tourists every day to earn a living. Kids should be in school laughing with their friends.

After lunch, we went to my second favorite temple: Bayon, the temple of faces.

Tourists like to take photos posing where it looks like they're standing nose to nose with a big stone face. It's like Cambodia's version of the holding-up-the-Leaning-Tower-of-Pisa photo.

We saw a few more temples in the afternoon, but had to call it a day around 2:15. The Cambodian sun was almost unbearable; I've never sweat so much in my life.

We headed back to the Golden Mango, napped, and relaxed until dinner time. When we started getting hungry, we walked down to the front desk to ask about food options. They offered us free transport to a restaurant near the Old Market.

We spent 40 minutes shopping, ate some delicious Khmer curry and chicken amok, and headed back to the hotel. One of my first goals after getting back to the U.S. is learning to make Khmer curry and chicken amok.

Overall, a lovely day. Siem Reap gets two thumbs up.