Adventures in Ayutthaya

Nick and I have had a blast here in Ayutthaya! This town has broadened our experience a lot, making it, at least for me, a favorite. We've seen some beautiful cultural and historical sights, had some amazing animal encounters, enjoyed great conversation with Thais and tourists alike, and we sampled the street vendor food, the last of which I'm paying for today. It was worth the stomach ache. We'll save the food descriptions for another post, but we certainly have some stories to share!

The elephants are taken down to the river twice a day to be bathed. Standing between two was quite a thrill.

"Yyyyyyikes! Those tusks are a little to close to my face!" This awe inspiring creature had an intimidating set of tusks. I'm sure they could cause quite a concussion.

These are our new friends Tanja and Thomas from Germany and Switzerland. The owner left us alone in his bar for about a half hour. We have no idea why he left, but he closed the door and pulled down the metal roll-down door so no one else would come in.

When he returned he sat down to talk with us and give us an impromptu Thai language lesson where we learned the proper pronunciation of some key phrases that we've been saying incorrectly for about, I don't know, three weeks. :) I must say, I received some compliments on my ability to say Sa-wat-de-ka (hello) and Kap-koon-ka (thank you).

"Ty, are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Just smile and look at the camera!" Yeah...we're petting a tiger. I'm just sayin'.

For Facebook friends, I'll try to upload some videos. Any tips on a faster way to upload video to blogger? We've been unsuccessful.

Right now we're still in Ayutthaya but we're taking a night bus up to Chiang Mai tonight. Unfortunately we had to make the decision to postpone seeing the monkeys in Lopburi and the monk-operated tiger sanctuary in Kanchanaburi. There's no easy way to get from either place to Chiang Mai by bus or train. We'll save it for when we have some visitors with whom to share the experience. Any takers?