Na Na Na Na Na Na BAT CAVE!!

Hello again, and thanks to the few of you that have left comments. Yesterday we did quite a bit. First, we hopped a boat down the Chao Phraya to Yaowarat, the Chinatown of Bangkok. You might have guessed, but chinatown here is a lot like the one in the city. Full of people, cars, shops selling all kinds of useless knickknacks, and generally lots of uninhibited capitalism. Everything and anything was for sale, and we came away as a group with strange fruit, tasty thai treats, squid on a stick (which was BOSS), and even some fine gold jewelry. The streets were som packed with people and cars that you could hardly walk at times, and we went down a few streets that we so thin they had coverings hanging between the buildings. Pretty far out to say the least. Lunch was some tasty dim sum, with har gow, siu mai, and a ton of other things, and then the day started to get exciting. We hopped in two separate cabs to go to the world's largest teak mansion, and really felt the language barrier. For the third time in 2 days, the cabbie had no idea where we wanted to go, even after we showed him on the map and he agreed, so we went to the royal palace, which he figured we should definitely check out. Problem was that we had gone there the day before, amd it was nowhere near the teak mansion. We and the driver had a chuckle about it, but he was clearly not happy. He kept driving, muttering to himself and laughing every now and then, and 20 minutes and twice the fare later, we showed up right before that last tour of the day started. THEN we had to borrow clothes from the folks at the front desk, as we wouldn't want to offend the king, whose grandfather lived in the mansion more than 60 years ago, put bags, cameras and the works in conveniently located 20 baht (about 75 cents) lockers, and move on to the guard, who told me i needed to check my phone, which doesnt work (no SIM card) into the locker we already paid for. but we had to pay again to open up the locker. They have to make money some way, but id much rathe just pay 40 baht the first time. i guess they are following the Gavin Newsom plan of finding anything possible to charge you for to raise funds ($50 parking tickets??). But enough complaining, the mansion was pretty cool, and we definitely learned a thing or two. For example, they had ice brought in from Singapore when the King lived there, and the king had different colored china for each day of the week. Today is pink, and Monday was Yellow, which is the color of the king, since he was born on monday.

We left the tour just in time to check out the famous monsoon rains, and they are for real. We stood around and got wet while figuring out what to do, and finally made our way back to the hotel and then to get a thai massage. The place looked questionable from the outside, but it was great once they started bending me in ways i didnt think i should bend. It flet great, and we went out for some finger lickin good dinner.

That was monday, and this morning (tuesday) we left Bangkok bright and early to hit some 6oo year old ruins on the way to our current locale, THE JUNGLE. Thats right, the Jungle. At the spot of the ruins, Ayutthaya, which was the Thai capitol before Bangkok (about 1300-1750), we rode elephants and climbed up a chedi, (thai pagoda). Got some great pics, which we promise are on the way, and hopped back in the van for the jungle. We are now just outside Khao Yai National Park, and went for a lil' outing to a big marble cave where buddhist monks meditate, and then saw millions of bats all flying our of a different cave. When I say millions, I mean millions, and it was really cool. We didnt go into the bat cave, but watched them all fly out in a long, continuous stream (again, pics to come). The land out here is beautiful, and we havent been accosted for a cab or tuk-tuk ride yet. we're happy to know that Bangkok isnt the same as all of Thailand, and we are finally able to relax a bit. Tomorrow we'll be hiking through the jungle all day, and then leaving for Cambodia and Angkor Wat the next day. Its officially bed time now, so you'll just have to wait for our next post. By the way, how do you keep a moron in suspense???

Dave (Jess is boycotting my bad jokes)