Exploration

It's been unusually hot here. Apparently, being close to 100 degrees everyday is not quite how hot it tends to get. It seems as though the normal is much more around 90, but it's been close to 100 almost everyday I've noticed so far. (Which probably started sometime over the weekend?) Anyways, it has in the most part deterred me from doing much during the day. Usually I get a bit restless during the day, and will go to the 7/11 which proves to me that it is far too hot to wander about until later in the day.

I'm losing track of my days a bit, so forgive me if I don't give dates. I have explored quite a few ruins since I last posted. Ayuthaya is full of them, some as part of a park, and some simply left as is, standing next to or among new buildings and temples. By now I have explored most of the larger ones within easy walking distance. They are all quite nice. There is a park nearby as well, which I think I will spend more time in perhaps once I have a phone. I would very much like to just go there and read or draw sometime.

Oh! Stray animals...stray cats and dogs seem to be everywhere in Ayuthaya, well all over. There are more stray dogs here, though I saw more cats as well in Bangkok. You can't walk down the street without seeing at least one more dogs, some may be pets but most appear to be stray. They leave you alone for the most part, though I have had a few bark viciously. :( Also when I was resting at some ruins, a dog with a collar came and licked my toes. It amused me.

The most exciting thing I have done recently, is take a boat trip. Yesterday, a couple other foreign teachers and I paid for a boat tour. We chose to stop at two temples and to see elephants bathing. The boat trip was a lot of fun, it went in a circle around Ayuthaya, which is in a way, an island surrounded by rivers. It was a nice boat ride, we got to see many houses and restaurants by the river. The first temple we stopped at was a currently active one, with quite a large Buddha inside. It was a larger complex, including housing for the monks, and an outdoor shrine to Ganesha, the elephant headed Hindi god.

Our second stop was another temple, but this time ruins. It was mostly roped off, saying there was flood damage, even though there was no water that high. Since we came in through the river, and part of the tape was raised up, we chose to ignore it and ducked under. It was worth it. The ruins were probably the best I have seen so far, beautiful. There were still in-tact towers with stone Buddhas carved inside them that you could walk through. The temple was on higher ground, so we tried to avoid going around where the main entrance could see us. We had a good 10-15 minutes before an official caught wind of us and we stole away out the back entrance to our boat. It was quite thrilling, even though we weren't in real danger of getting caught.

The last stop was to see the elephants playing in the water. It was actually quite fun, but unfortunately my camera batteries died right as we got there, and it turned out the spare ones I had weren't actually charged. (Or if they had been, they lost their charge by then...) :( It was still quite fun though! The elephants swam in the river with riders, or keepers on top of them. They sprayed water at us through their trunks as we came near, and I got a bit wet from it. They came right up next to the boat and we got to touch them...it felt so weird, very leathery and tough. The elephants also used their trunks to spray water into their mouths. We got out on land to take pictures of them, and with them. (Of course stupid camera...). They were trained well as money makers...their trunk would reach out towards you and if you gave them baht (money), they would take it and hand it up to their riders.

That was the end of the boat trip, save for the return boat ride. I ended up getting a bit wet after playing in water and accidentally getting the person behind me wet...his revenge was to splash quite vigorously. The water was warm, and made me really want to go swimming! It didn't help that along the way there were native kids playing in the water.

Well, that is really all the fun exploration that has happened recently. Next week I start teaching! Hopefully I will have made a day trip to Bangkok before then. For those of you who don't have facebook, here is a link to my photo album of Thailand pictures so far:

 

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.659424111962.2096932.33103631&type=1&aft=660006464922&l=446fefb496

I hope it works for you!