After two long days, I’ve finally got the chance to sit and
hash out what all the highlights of the start of my trip. As most know, I absolutely hate airport
security. Messing up my neatly Jenga
style packed carry on, taking your shoes off to walk across the same strip
thousands of other bare feet have walked, and not to mention the rude, pushy
security guards. So, needless to say, I
was not looking forward to this being the first experience of the
trip…especially since I had 6 electronic devices (laptop, tablet, camera, cell
phone, and 2 iPods) to send through and repack.
The first leg of the plane ride took off around noon thirty on the 6th US time. It was a 12hr 50m flight. Once you include boarding, waiting to take off, and landing, it came out to about 13 ½ hr sitting on that plane. I can barley sit still for 5 min without moving and resituating, let alone 13 hr in a confined little area with little room to move. Luckily, international airlines provide the luxury of video screens for each person with a gallery of movies, including new releases. So, to recap my 13 hr trip, I watched a total of 5 movies (Now You See Me, Broken City, We’re the Millers, 42, and Cinderella) and a couple episodes of American Dad. We were also served 2 meals and a snack, typical frozen dinner type meals with a little step up. Not too bad for being airline food. We then landed in Tokyo, Japan for a layover. We had to again go through security before finding our gate. This flight was 6 hrs and was consumed mostly of sleep. Thankfully I was conditioned to sleep in a car as a baby. So even in the most uncomfortable situations, I can find a way to ball up and sleep. Once we arrived in Bangkok, Thailand, we went through customs and then found our luggage. It was now around midnight on the 8th which was noon on the 7th back home. We met up with the Thai professors and drove to Ayothaya where we stayed the night. After a shower and preparing for the morning, I finally went to sleep around 2:30am.
Waking up at 7am was a rough thought the night before, but it ended up not being so bad since slept most of the second flight and the whole ride to the hotel. I kept waking up in the middle of the night. There is a 12 hour time difference with Ohio, so it was the middle of the day when I was trying to sleep. It was dark when we arrived the night before, so the morning view was quite a shock! My roommate, Morgan, and I were stunned by the view from our window.
For breakfast, we walked down to the fresh market. Basically, it was a bunch of little venders
on the street serving fresh fruit and freshly cooked food. Like most of our meals, we got a bunch of
things and shared family style among the group.
It was quite odd eating a pork kabob and sticky rice for breakfast…I’m
going to miss scrambled eggs and pancakes while I’m here! We also ate fried bread, similar to our
donuts, and plantains.
On our way to our first destination, we encountered live elephants providing rides. As we approached the gated area to take pictures, we were asked if we wanted our own pictures with an elephant. At the call of a simple command, the elephant instantly knelt down, crossed his front legs, lifted his truck and smiled. Of course we could not resist. So we paid 40 Baht (less than $2) to get our pictures taken with the cute fellow! Our trip was made within the first hour!
Our first exploration of the day was the ancient government
ruins of Ayothaya. This was the location
of the very first capitol of Thailand.
This location still hosts one of the most famous temples to worship in,
as it is favored by the King. It was
very interesting to walk around to see all the ruins left after the war. We saw many brick walls and statues broken
and burned. During the war, the heads of
Buddha statues were broke off and fire was set to the capitol buildings and
temples. We got to climb up to the top
of the old temple and oversee the whole area.
Throughout the ruins, there are many shrines people have displayed to
honor Buddha. This was very interesting
to see, as this is not a custom of our culture and religion back home. We also visit another location of ancient
ruins right down the road. This location
was unique because a tree had grown around one of the temples. Both locations were very interesting to
visit. It was a bit of a culture shock
since our country has not had major wars and invasions of the capitol.
(check
out the headless Buddhas!)
Our next stop was the floating market. We watched an interpretive dance which acted
out the invasion. As a cheerleader, this
was very eye appealing to me as I love choreographed dance. This show was able
to provide the emotions that I was not able to see from the ruins alone. We also ate lunch here and walked through the
venders of clothes and trinkets. It is
amazing how many similarities and differences you can see between our two
cultures just by the clothes and food.
One of the odd things we first noticed throughout the day
where the stray dogs. As the Thai
professors explained it “they are like squirrels in the US.” Everywhere you look there is a dog. Just roaming around, but mostly just laying
down in the side of the road, throughout the ruins, and throughout the
market. It was very strange because all
we wanted to do was go pet the dog, like most would in America, but we
couldn’t.
We then traveled to Kam Paeng Phet where we will be staying
for the week. We ate Thai pizza for
dinner, which is very much similar to pizza in the states, just different
topping combinations. One Thai custom
that is different is that they dip their pizza in ketchup. I was not about to do that! I did master my numbers 1-10 in Thai during
dinner, pretty proud of myself for that.
Now to see if I remember them in the morning!! After dinner, we went to the grocery store to
get breakfast and snacks for the week.
This was a little difficult as everything was in Thai. However, we were able to recognize most
through the pictures and design. One odd
thing we noticed was the cereal selection.
All but the Frosted Flakes were chocolate! Choc pops, Choc flakes, Choc
rice…all chocolate! As a chocolate
addict…I LOVED it!
Tomorrow we get to meet the President of the
university! Pretty pumped about that, as
I haven’t even met the president of BGSU, Dr. Mazey yet. That’s pretty much it for the day. I will be updating every day, hopefully!
Did I mention our hotel is in the river??! As in built in the water right off the edge…hello waterfront view!
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