Age of Aquarius

Alright, I just wrote a wonderful post and then somehow it got deleted, so here is what I remember in abbreviated form...

Some things I have noticed about Thai culture include everyone riding around on these tiny motor bikes, entire families will pack onto one bike with a little kid on the front, dad driving, mom and another kid squished in behind and some crazy pile of groceries strapped on, sometimes with another kid holding on to the top of the groceries pile for dear life as the bike careens out of control roaring down the street, through traffic, in, out, and around the yellow line. The middle yellow line is considered to be more of a guideline than a rule. It also really funny when you tell someone you are an American they let out this accented exclamation of "OHHHH!!!" and give this huge double hand thumbs up and yell out "AMERICA!" Then proceed to tell you where their third cousin twice removed went to visit in the US and how much they loved it, its hilarious.

We just came from the mountain town of Ayutthaya where we went traipsing around waterfalls and getting chased by monkeys, well im getting chased by monkeys. Now before you start thinking about how cute monkeys are let me interject this little story which we have now titled, "The day Juli almost got monkey rabies." Here's what happened...

So we were wandering through this national park on our way to go swimming in these 7 tiered waterfalls

when all of a sudden we see some tourists up on the trail pointing at something, we get closer and see there are monkeys in the trees staring at us with their furry little faces. So of course we get out our cameras to take pictures when we see a mama monkey carrying her baby,

so I go to get a picture of that too, and while my attention is focused on the mama monkey a little See You Next Tuesday sneaks up about 9 inches from my feet and hisses, I look down and it is raised on its hind legs, fangs and claws bared and hissing at me, so I start backing away slowly and it jumps up screeching on its legs and starts chasing me and biting at my feet.

I high kneed it out of there screaming "OHSHITSHITOHSHITSHITOHSHITSHITOHSHITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!" so quick that it would have made any former sports coach of mine proud, except the screaming profanities at the top of my lungs part. Unfortunately I only saw the beware of monkeys sign after the attack incident.


The ruins were really cool too. We rented bikes and peddled to about 5 of the 58 intact Wats (which basically just means temple).

Wat Maha That was the most sacred in Ayutthaya during the golden age. In the reign of King Song Tham the principal pagoda collapsed through the foundation but it was later restored in the reign of King Prasat Thong. The monastery was destroyed and burnt in the last was between Ayutthaya and Burma in 1767 AD.

Wat Maha That


Buddha head carved in tree bark at Wat Maha That


Singed Buddha

This Wat was my favorite because it was the most well preserved after the ransacking. The 3 chedis are an infamous Ayutthaya icon.

Wat Phra Si Sanphet


Chedi close up of Wat Phra Si Sanphet

This Buddha was 80 feet tall erected in an ornate red room that smelled like jasmine incense. It was massively cool

HUGE Buddha Booty


We have since moved North from Ayutthaya to the capitol of the North called Chaing Mai. Tomorrow we are taking a cooking class where hopefully, cross your fingers, I won't light anything on fire.

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