Update from Chiang Mai

Hi All!

So after leaving Bangkok on Monday, I headed to Kanchanaburi and stayed right on the Kwai River for two nights. It was gorgeous! On Tuesday I took a bus to Erewan National Park and hiked to 4 different waterfalls. I felt like I was truly in a tropical paradise as the monkeys were swinging in the trees and the fish were nibbling at my toes!













Wednesday I took a 4 hour bus ride to the ancient city of Ayutthaya. I spent all day walking through some amazing ruins there until I hopped on the overnight train to Chiang Mai.




I've spent the last couple days in bed with a cold but today I went to the pool and had some really good Pad Thai with a couple ladies I met here at the guesthouse.

Tomorrow I start my first week of Thai Massage training!

More photos

I will try to continue to post photos on Picasa if you want to see more

http://picasaweb.google.com/anniegrimes13/Bangkok#

Exploring Bangkok

I saw a friendly political march today and the people there were more friendly there then I've seen my whole time here. A woman working took me around and tried to explain the politics of it all but I couldn't really understand. It was nice to see some smiling faces though.
Then a waterfall fell from the sky. It was so refreshing, I walked back to Shanti for 20 min in it!








Yesterday I rode a ferry to see the Grand Palace and surrounding temples. Sooooo much real gold!


















Thursday I went to MBK to find a Thai cell phone. This pace wasn't a shopping mall, it was a ten story shopping city! Gotta love the hot pink taxis too!


Sorry the photos are a litte bit messed up....haven't figured out how to organize them yet.

A quick hello from Shanti Lodge

Hey all...I finally made it to Bangkok after 24 straight of traveling.
It's ok that it was so long because it took me just about the whole flight to figure out what time it was when we left, how long the flight was, what the time change was, what time it will be when we land, what time it will be where we came from when we land and what time it was where we're going when we left! I think the answer was 12.

I have to admit, it's all taking some getting used to. I'm not sure whether the sun is rising or setting sometimes. But I didn't have to change my clock from Chicago time at all; it just says 6:30pm on Wednesday when it's actually 6:30 am on Thursday. HA! I have no idea what to do at daylight savings time.


So I'm staying at a sweet little hostel-type place in the Thewet neighborhood of northern Bangkok. It's really nice and clean. There's a vegetarian restaurant and most people here speak english. The best part is that it's covered with tropical plants! There are orchids in the showers....real ones. I hope to put pictures up soon!!!

TTFN

On the road in our big truck for 32 hours! Then we made it home to Wisconsin, unpacked and had Amish doughnuts! YAY