Bangkok, Floating Market, Hua Hin

As mentioned in the last posting, we had a wonderful time in Bangkok. Despite the lack of sleep, we put in a full-days worth of sight seeing and cultural enagement. We started off by taking a water taxi down the Chao Praya river to visit the Temple of Dawn, a magificent and ornate buddhist temple. Some of use climbed to the highest level and took in the view of the river and city below. Later we got to see the largest reclining buddha in the world. Our breath was taken away by its beauty and size. While on the temple grounds, we were blessed by a Buddhist monk with holy water. Later in the day, we spent about 2 hours at the largest weekend shopping area in the world. It was like a swap meet, but bigger than any we had every seen. It was so overwhelming, we probably only saw about 1/10 of it during our two hours there. We ended our day with dinner cruise on the Chao Praya river. The setting was great, but the food could have better. We were entertained by traditional music and dances. At the end, the dancers pulled several of us, including Dr. Perrotta and Dr. Wright up to the dance floor and taught us how to do the graceful moves of the roam vung (circle dance), only we weren't quite as graceful as the dancers. The students took lots of photos and we fear what they might do with them!

In the morning, we left Bangkok for Hua Hin. On the way, we stopped at the world famous Floating Market. It was an amazing experience. Our group was put into four different wooden boats at a launching point, and then we quickly sped to the market area of the river. An amazing variety of food and souvineers were sold all along the river, from other boats or small huts along the river. In a few spots, there were so many boats, we thought we'd never get through. We had a great time taking in the sights, but also trying some of the local fruits such as mangos, lychees, and drinking coconut juice straight from the coconut.

We arrived in Hua Hin in the early afternoon. The place is absolutely beautiful. The students impresed us though. Rather than hit the beach or the pool, they starting working diligently on their presentations of chapter readings. Tomorrow we begin our orientation and preparation for work in the ESL classrooms in Trang.

We've only been here a few days, but already we've learned so much and greatly apprecaite the wonderful people we've met, the incredible sights we have seen, and the new cultural insights we have gained.