Ayutthaya

Okay, now that I've gotten the randomness out, I can hopefully spit out something more interesting.

Yesterday I spent the day exploring Bangkok...kind of. I found a gym, which if you know me at all, you know I'm stoked about. I also found a delicious Indian restaurant. Here's a picture with the owner. :-P And she's Thai, but her Indian food is prob the best I've ever had!

I also had these AMAZING grilled bananas from a street stand. The ones grilled in peel are like pudding but 80x better (no white sugar, haha) and the ones grilled outside their peel are firm on the outside, so the sugar is carmelized and... kind of firm on the inside too-pretty much like a banana. lol Anyway, I'm totally trying that when I get home. Cept the bananas were smaller, but I think its the same just not on steroids :)

It is Buddhist lent right now, which to my eyes means that the people give money, food, and flowers to monks as well as on shrines (which are everywhere by the way). They also bow to the shrines and buddhas and burn incense and put gold gum wrappers (not really gum wrappers but they look like it. foil-y stuff) on the buddhas and hold flowers to them as they pray. They seem a very religious bunch, but then again that's coming from me. There are a lot of rules about the different places I have been since a lot of them are related to Buddhism (since its the main religion of Thailand, duh). First of all, no shoes in royal or religious places. The king is kind of like a demi-god. You cannot tower over buddha. I think that's why most of the shrines are built so tall or up on pedestals. Here's some pics of various Buddha's/shrines (sorry everything is sideways).

Just kidding the cat's not a Buddha. But to me it's a god ;-)

Most of these are taken in Ayutthaya, which is a province that's modern buildings are built around the ruins of the ancient city. We visited the ancient royal palace, where all the buddha's head are chopped off because the Burmese chopped them off during a war...sorry I'm not more knowledgable than that, but I believe it was around 400 years ago. I didn't think that was quite long enough to be considered ancient but hey, whatever.

We also saw some elephants dancing (some painted like koalas...WTF), and yes, I rode one Katie! :-) Here's the pic though you can't really tell I'm on an elephant. Two of the girls (women?) that were on this trip with me just finished me school in England! It was cool to talk to them. It's only 5 years since they don't do undergrad. And they can only apply to 4 medschools. iteresting. Anyway, they are going into residency for 2 years now. The other tour members were a wedding planner from Italy and her father. Cute.

One last random note: the mosquitoes here are STEALTHY! I've only seen ONE and have been bitten nearly 10 times. They are tiny and quiet. We breed some trollish mountain species at home I think. :P I need to start taking my B-vitamins so they'll leave me alone! And wear bug spray...haha