Bang Saen, Wat Po, and China Town

It has been a very busy week! On Thursday I went with my new class on a field trip to Bang Saen, which is a beach about 1 1/2 hours from here, very close to Pattaya. We took two mini buses and the whole class and Sharon, Note, Bo, and I piled in. When we got there, we went to the aquarium first, which was a lot of fun. The kids loved it! They were so excited that they couldn't even calm down enough to look at everything. They just kept racing through. We had to pull them back several times in order for them to see everything. I saw the most humongous, scariest looking lobster ever, seahorses, cool fish, sharks... the works. Then we headed to the beach so that the kids could play in the sand for a little while. Sharon had a science experiment kit that they played with where you can look at all the tiny particles in the sand. They loved it. On the way back the driver took us to a curvy road which was covered in monkeys! It was the best part of the day (if you ask me)! I probably saw about 100 monkeys just hanging out on this road. They were adorable! My new class in front of the aquarium at Bang Saen! They're cute kids!

Last week, Lannie, Tricia, and I realized we hadn't done a lot of "touristy" things since we had been here. So yesterday we took a river boat taxi ride to the Grand Palace. We ended up not gonig to the Grand Palace because we actually couldn't figure out how to get in. hahaha It was kindof frustrating because we were right next to it and could see it, but the wall was blocking it and we just couldn't find the door... hahahaha We ended up going to Wat Po, which has the gold relaxing Buddha. The temple was beautiful. The thing about a lot of temples is that they are so bright and colorful, and everything is incredibly intricate. It was lots of fun. Apparently Wat Po is where Thai massage began, which I found very interesting. haha It's pretty much the only thing I learned about it. haha

Tricia, Lannie, and I on our way to Wat Po!

Wat Po (for some reason, I couldn't turn the pictures vertical...)

More of Wat Po (turn your heads...hahaha)

Roommate pic in front of the Relaxing Buddha

After touring Wat Po, the three of us headed to China Town. I had been to China Town before, but I went the week before the New Year and everything was absolutely dead. Yesterday it was incredibly crowded. It was hard to get around because their were so many people and vendors and cars. China Town is basically markets. We did some shopping and bought some jewelry. Then we found a Chinese restaurant to go to for dinner, which was fabulous. It had been a while since I had had Chinese food. All in all, a good week! Now I'm off to learn some Thai!