SIAM PARK: Went to a water park one of the first few days here. It was just what everybody needed because it was a total shock with the hot weather. Although it is still up on the low 90s everyday, I'm getting used to it, and am hardly sweating anymore outside. Some of the water slides, in fact all of them, would not even pass inspection in the US. And the stuff we did there would get us kicked out immediately. I guess that's why it was so much fun. They had an amusement park too, but the whole thing was just a big rip off of Disneyland, but no where close to what Disney has to offer.
WAT PO AND WAT ARUN: We went to these two temples during the morning one day and they were such an amazing sight. In order to get there we had to take the klong. The klong is the city's canal system, and you take a long-tailed boat on the water, which is actaully the sewer system. Then after a short and hectic bus ride, we came to Wat Po. Wat Po is the site of the famous Reclining Buddha. This gold replica is probably a few thousand feet long. I couldnt get a great look at it though because it was under restoration. It was a Buddhist holiday the day we went, so everyone was praying in the temples and doing their little chants and all. Wat Arun was just across the river, and looked like a huge pyramid except is was is layers.
KHAO SARN ROAD: Later that day I went to Khao Sarn Road, the very famous and touristy part of Bangkok. This is the road that was in the movie THE BEACH. I'm also going to the actual beach in THE BEACH at the end of the trip.
KO SAMET: Went to this island resort for 3 days just before classes. It was my first independent travel experince. I went with 5 other people and took a 3 hour bus ride to Banphe, and then the ferry to the island was about 30 minutes. Had absolutely no idea where we were staying, but just wanted to get to the whitesand beach. When we got there we found a bungalow ( for about 3 bucks per nite) and went swimming and waited for the others to make it to the island. There was about 20 of us that stayed there for the weekend. Had massages on the beach for about 2 bucks everyday, and swam in the 88 F clear blue ocean everyday. The nights were awesome though. They had a fireshow each nite and the bars there had great deals. I have one word for you: bucket. the infamous Saam Song Bucket is what we all lived off of. The 35 ouncer consisted of whiskey, rum, and a dash of coke. Also, Red Bull and Vodka buckets. I guess they were meant to share with 3 other people (since they did give us 4 straws ), but not us. The 100 baht buckets (about $2.50) were the greatest. We lived off of them day and nite. I also went on the banana boat too. We met alot of people and from soo many different countries (Sweden, England, and Australia, to name a few). This trip was definitely what I needed to get started before classes began in a few days. Will never forget it!
CLASSES: Class started on June 3rd, and I have 4 of my 5 at the other campus. Its only about 35 minutes away, but it's well worth it. The campus is absolutely beautiful. It's like a 10 star hotel --no lie. Check out some pics of the campus. Classes seem pretty easy as of now. My marketing professor even told me that I didnt have to come to class until right before the midterm because the information was just too easy for me. It's hard for Thai students because they obvioulsy dont understand English as well, but pretty easy for me. They can speak English, but there's so many words they dont know the meaning of and alot of the kids' pronunciations arent so great.
