Today we were woken up in a very rude way, the man selling coffee, tea, and hot chocolate yelling in our ears. It wouldn't have been too bad except for the fact that it was 6 in the morning and we went to bed around two....The man continued to sell his drinks every ten minutes, wandering up and down the isles yelling "Coffee! Tea! Ovaltine!" Eventually I gave up on trying to get back to bed, and just got up, though I almost fell out of the bed since I forgot I was on the top bunk.
We stopped in Bangkok and headed off the train station to drop off our bags and pick up the other two students that live close to Bangkok. We were going to spend the day exploring Bangkok. Our first stop was at Wat Pra Kaew (this is my second time seeing it, and it is still quite spectacular).
Our transportation around Bangkok. This is the traditional Tuk-Tuk that you can ride around town. Believe it or not, we fit...four people in this thing. It wasn't the most comfortable, and most of us were feeling a tad squished, but it was pretty fun, zooming from the train station around town. It was pretty hot, but luckily there was a breeze due to the driving. I will admit, that these drivers, are....sometimes scary....
The Outfit. Much like the first time I went to this temple, these three ladies had to wear the skirts and in Kims case (the blonde in the very back) the shirt as well. They weren't exactly happy with them, not a big fan as it was hot, and those skirts really don't help since they are long. Fernanda (the one in front) got into a little bit of trouble with her skirt, but I'll get into that story a bit later.
This is the entranceway into the temple. I had never thought to take a picture of it on my first trip, so I thought I should do it on my second trip. There were lots of people here again today, but it was still quite fun. The only downside was it was unbearable hot, and because it is a religious temple, we had to wear pants. Not exactly fun, but still it was fun. :)
One of the shrine type things inside the temple walls. I'm trying not to duplicate any pictures that I may have shown in the past trip. As you can tell, its gold. Lots and lots of gold.
This is a model of what the old temple looked like. The original temple was burnt down, or destroyed (I can't remember now) and the temple that you see today was a reconstruction of the old one, as well as some new parts added. If the old temple was still here, this is what it would look like, but with more colors.
Goofing around. This is Emi, Kim, and Fernanda (left to right) showing how they could be like the monsters that protect the temple (the ones that you can somewhat see located on the big gold statue behind them). It is not correct for them to be showing their legs, but luckily no guards were around to get mad at them. They were given a warning by our chaperone to be a bit more discreet, because this was a place of religious worship.
The Guard: This guard caused a tiny bit of trouble for us. But I wanted my picture taken with him, so I did. It was allowed for us to take a picture with him, but we aren't allowed to talk to him or anything. Fernanda (the Brazillian) decided to lift the side of her skirt so that he leg was showing (not done), and unluckily for her, one of the other guards saw and was not impressed.
Here is what happened to poor Fernanda. They took her, P'Boy and P'Gop into this little room and Fernanda had to show him all of the pictures on her camera. Any picture where she was showing her legs (at the temple) was deleted and overall she got into a bit of trouble. She wasn't impressed and had some inpolite words to say about him in portuguese. We couldn't really sympathize with her, because she had been told previously to watch what she was doing, and not to show her legs. I had a picture of her showing her leg, but in case the guard came up and wanted to see my camera, I quickly deleted it since I had pictures I really didn't want deleted.
After the temple we decided to do a bit of shopping. We went to this mall, and I bought a few things-not much because it was pretty expensive. In a later picture I will show you why I say it was an expensive mall. They had a bunch of different "Christmas" decorations, and it was pretty cool.
This is why I say the mall was expensive. Not only was it HUGE but in the front entranceway it had this. A giant christmas tree made out of Swarovski Crystal. Yes, you read that right. This giant thing is covered in Swarovski crystals. I was impressed, it was really quite beautiful, but it brought me to a conclusion....rich people shop here. :)
Here is an upclose look at it, sorry its hard to see but its hard to take a good picture. I'm not sure if the entire thing was Swarovski crystals, but the things dangling at the end of the strand definately were. It was quite beautiful, as I have previously mentioned.
Since it was Christmas eve, none of us wanted to feel like we weren't at home, and we wanted to keep on with the "Christmas Spirit". We arranged a Secret Santa and all exchanged some of the gifts. I bought Christmas Santa hats for everyone, and added a few pieces of candy into them as a "stocking" and then other people bought some decorations to decorate the train. We weren't exactly all happy that we would be spending Christmas on a train, but we made the most of it, and it turned out to be quite fun. This is P'Boy, our chaperone. He decided to puff out his stomach, create a beard of tape and become our Santa Clause. It was hilarious, and made us feel right at home. We slept on the train, and you can somewhat see our beds in the background of this picture.
Happy Birthday! Well, technically yesterday was Fernanda's birthday, but we decided to celebrate it today with all of the other exchange students. Since we didn't have a cake, Anna and Courtney bought a bun that had a sausage in it, put a candle on it, and we all sange Happy Birthday. It was a new tradition, but she enjoyed it thoroughly.
The North-East Crew. This is all of the exchange students that decided to go on the trip. In the back row, going from left to right we have: Emily (America), Emily (Canada), Remo (South Africa)(New guy!), Kim (German), Emi (Japan). The front row, left to right is: Courtney (America), Anna (America), and Fernanda (Brazil). This is us showing our Christmas...Eve..Spirit.
While shopping for the day (sorry these are out of order) we ran into the real Santa Claus, his elves and his reindeer. The dogs were all dressed up in Santa suits, and I'm not totally sure that his "elves" were wearing the appropriate clothes. They handed out cookies and little sweets, which was very kind. I gave mine to a homeless man on the street. He said thanks :)
Decorating the train. Part of the Christmas Spirit is having some decorations up. Someone brought the garland, and we decorated our little area for Christmas. The workers all laughed, but the people that were sharing our compartment seemed to enjoy it, and we all had a grand old time.
So that was December 24th, 2010. Our Christmas Eve affair. We had fun, and I'm glad that I was surrounded by those close to me, to help me not think about not being home for Christmas.
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