THAILAND

I was going to do a post earlier but I accidentally switched the computer so it wrote everything in Chinese so I decided to do it later. So far Thailand has been a lot of fun and it is a very cool place. On my first day I went to a Elephant village where retired elephant workers go to. I got to ride them twice once by myself with the elephant master bareback! I was afraid that I was going to slide off! Then I rode it again on a seat with my friend Kirsten and our elephant master made us grass grasshoppers. It was a lot of fun, but very warm.

Then the next day I went to the Tiger zoo which was more depressing. They were not very nice to their animals and used a lot of uneccesary force. The tigers were afraid of their trainers and were forced to jump through rings of fire and the crocodiles were sedated and were dragged by their tales and their eyes were poked. The only highlight was that I got to hold a baby tiger and to feed him milk! It was very sweet and the cub was very soft, I didn't want to let go of it, and the time holding them was way too short.

Then the rest of the time I have been in Bangkok, I went to my first hostel and I think that it is very nice. There is a very pretty courtyard with a koi pond and is surrouned by plumeria trees. And it is only 300 bot a night so it less than 10 dollars and it is very cool and the showers have only cold water but it is very refreshing. Also it is right next to Khoi San Road which is the backbackers place in Bangkok, so it is very international and very trendy. It has been extremly hot in Bangkok and I am pretty sure that I have never sweated so much in my entire life, it is 97 degrees plus humidity, I had to buy tank tops.

Besides hanging out at Khoi San I have been doing some culturual things. I went to Grand Palace which was very interesting. It was 350 bot for non thais and I thought it was pretty over priced for 5o more I could have gotten a guide but me and Kirsten were trying to save money. The buildings were extremly beautiful and ornate, the details were crazy, but I didn't really know anything about the buildings. But it was good even though I think it was overpriced. What I thought was way cooler was the reclining buddha and it was only 50 bot. It was the biggest statue of Buddah or anything that I have ever seen. To do a decent comparasion for everyone to picture the scale of the statue is the Statue of Liberty reclining on the ground in a temple. That is what it was like, it was crazy.

But besides those things all Kirsten and I have been shopping the streets because there are a lot of cool things to see, but we have been eating a ton of street food! It is all so good and its very cheap and knock on wood I have not gotten sick yet. But it is all deliscious I have gotten pad tai, fried noodles, bbq sticks, corn on the cob, mango and sticky rice, and these very good pancake things that I get with sugar and condensed milk. I have been resiting the DVDs because I am trying to hold out for Vietnam. Those are the highlights so far and I will try to update soon!