In full swing

So my trip is finally feeling like a real trip. It has been a fun week. Overview: I did a trip to Kanchanaburi where the movie Bridge over the River Kwai was filmed, hung out with Ruth and Chris in Bangkok and also saw Poonsee, a family friend. I think I shall tell the stories backwards starting with yesterday.

Weekend Market

OMG, A-MAZE-ING!!! The absolute best market in the world. I do not say that lightly. Thousands of stalls, with everything you could ever want, cute designer clothes, really nice art, shoes, jewlery, some traditional stuff. Like a mall but cheaper and better. Teeny tiny little stalls that maybe two customers can be in at a time and then these small alley-ways that you have to push your way through. Ruth and Chris and I spent about 5 hours there. I mean, a shoppers dream come true. I tried to restrain myself as I'm at the beginning of my trip and trying to conserve funds, but I did get a few tank tops and a ring. Such a fun day.

Muy Thai-Ruth bought me a ticket to Muy Thai Boxing for my birthday. Which was awesome bc it was really expensive. But super fun. There were nine rounds and we got first class tickets so we were ring side. It is a mix between boxing and martial art and actually kind of beautiful to watch. There were nine different fights with each fight having five rounds. The boxers get points for different things and then the winner is the one with the most points. Or, as happened in one round, someone gets knocked out. One fighter broke the other's arm and he had to be taken off on a stretcher. Other than that though, there wasn't as much gore as I had imagined. The biggest fight was the 7th one. It is kind of crazy how the crowd gets really into it as the rounds go on, betting and screaming. I was almost more interested in the whole scene than the boxing. Overall, a very cool thing to do. The only drawback that it was a million degrees and muggy in there. So Ruth and I kept falling asleep. Yes, its not just for movies anymore. Then we walk outside and you think you'll get some relief from the heat, but oh of course not, it doesn't really cool down at night. Anyway, that was fun and it was great to hang out with Ruth and Chris. They seem like they had a great trip and are on their way back to the US as I write this. Sad to lose them, but what can you do?

Also managed to see Poonsee and her family, my uncle's homestay family from when he taught English in Thailand years ago. That was mostly uneventful. They were quite kind and she took me out to dinner at this fancy restaurant. I felt kind of like I was imposing bc her husband is quite sick and needs her a lot, but also felt like I should see them kind of as a family obligation. Anyway, she sent her driver to get me, brought me to their house, went to dinner and then he drove me home. Was a nice night.

Kanchanaburi

A small town about 2 hours from Bangkok. Was so nice to get away from Bangkok. I took a little tourist mini-bus, which was a bit more expensive but was supposed to drop me off right at the hotel. Well, not quite. Well, first I was on the bus with a whole bunch of Israelis, who, of course don't shut up the entire time. Then we get to the town and they take us to this one guest house. All of a sudden the driver starts screaming at us, "get out, get out." We're like, "where are we" he's like, "you're here, get out." I'm kind of like, why didn't you drop as the town. He says, "if I drop you there you say you want here, if I drop you here, you say you want there." He starts taking our bags out and screams some more at us. We're all just really confused, but I figure that he gets a kickback from that guest house. So I start following this Brittish couple who have the lonely planet, which has better maps. Anyway, I find the Jolly Frog guest house after taking a ride from a guy on a scooter bc it was damn hot. Beautiful idyllic setting, right on the river. I figure, I'll stay in a floating room. Ugh. I was in there five minutes before I went to the lady to change my room, I needed to be on solid ground. Anway, rooms left a little to be desired, kind of made of paper with non-flush toilets, but cheap restaurant attached, nice hammocks and chairs and a nice lawn. I hung out for a bit reading until I overheard a guy asking someone else to go on a bike ride and kind of butted my way into that. So, made a new friend, Mike, from Canada and he and I explored a cave wat (temple) and a graveyard from Japanese POWs from WWII. I guess Thailand was with Japan for a bit but then wanted to switch over to Allied forces and thus, Japan got mad. Anyway, Japand built this railroad, now termed The Death Railroad, to get from I think Burma through Thailand, and then I'm actually not sure where it went after that, maybe Vietnam? Anyway, many soldiers died while builidng the railroad, so that's how it got its name.

While in Kanchanaburi I saw the bridge which is part of the death railroad, and also these amazing 7 tiers of waterfalls. You can swim in them, but there are these fish that eat the dead skin off your body when you go in the water, which is a bit creepy feeling. I swam some and also hiked up to the top. I was sort of a keen comercial tromping through in my sandles while everyone else was taking their shoes off and on. Anyway, that was nice, did it was tour so made it all a bit easier and I saw all the tourist things in one day.

The night before, I went with these three guys to a "disco cruise." We paid about $3 to go on this boat, you bring your own drinks, but they give you free ice. So anyway, we don't know much about it but figure, why not? So we get a ride there on a sangtheuw, the back of truck kind of thing with a bunch of thai people. Then we get on the "boat", which is really just kind of a flat barge with tables, no motor of its own or anything. Slowly the boat fills up, we're sitting and talking having a nice time. All of a sudden, music starts blaring. I mean, we cannot hear each other if we scream at the top of our lungs. The lights go down a disco ball starts turning. It certainly feels like a disco cruise. Finally, a motor boat comes and connect to the barge, and pulls us, oh I dunno, a quarter mile down the river, and then leaves us there! So there we are, on this boat with really loud music and disco lighting and a bunch of Thai teenagers dancing and we're stuck-can't get off. So we just laugh and enjoy. Night goes on, we get moved one other time to the other side of the river, the at around 11:30 it brings us back to the dock. At around 11 I was so incredibly ready to get off that boat, but what could I do? I was moored. Anyway, it was a fun night, really hot as well bc we're on the river but not moving. Very little air movement. About an hour into the night I look around and all of the guys have their shirts off. Was quite a sight.

Anyway, that's about it for now. I got my passport back, so now i have a visa for Vietnam and I am leaving tonight on a train to Chang Mai. Things are going well and I'm excited to go up north.

I miss you all.

Dina

xoxo