Tour of Southern Thaialnd

Two weeks ago, we finished up our main classes for the semester, said goodbye to our Thai families and hopped on a bus to begin our week long tour of southern Thailand. Although the trip was only 6 days long, we saw so many interesting things that they have already began to blur together in my head. Mostly, we visited different museums, historical sites and temple ruins. It was extremely hot during the day, above 100 degrees, but in the evenings we would all go swimming at our hotel swimming pools. We stayed at some really nice hotels and they all had great Thai breakfast buffets which I definitely got my money out of.

Below is a map of Thailand showing our general path of travel:

The first place we went was Lampang. We did not stay there very long, but we visited several museums and temples. I think that my favorite part of Lampang was actually just swimming in the pool because it was exceptionally hot. I also forgot my camera on the bus so I don't really have any pictures.

The next place we went was Sukhothai. I think that Sukhothai was actually my favorite place that we visited. There are thousands of old ruins which date back to the 1400s and we spent an entire day riding bikes around and looking at them.

This temple ruin shows the influence of the Khmer Empire
which was based in what is present day Cambodia. The
Khmer Empire exerted influence in present day
Thailand through the early 1400's, suggesting that
these ruins are over 600 years old.

Some of the Buddha images have been later reconstructed by
historians.

When we got tired of History lessons, the temple ruins
were a great place for pictures.

Here was our bike gang for a fun day of temple exploring.

I never thought I would be caught dead in a fanny
pack, but it actually turned out to be quite useful
for biking.

The next place we visited was Lopburi, the city of monkeys. It was quite an interesting place and the monkeys would jump all over you if you let them.

This little guy really liked my hat, but he later
proceeded to poop on me which wasn't the
best for our bus ride.

We also went to visit a museum of King Rama V's summer
palace. He was one of the main kings responsible for
Thailand's push toward Westernization.

The museum was really interesting, but we weren't allowed to
take pictures. This is the only one I got, but I though it
was definitely a keeper.

The next place we went to is a city called Ayudhya. It was once the capital of one of the most important empires in Thai history, known as the Ayudhya Empire from 1351 to 1767. I learned all about it in History class so it was really fun to get to see all of the ruins.

This is me and my buddy Ryan who I will be travelling with
next month.

It felt kind of like I was standing in the middle of a National
Geographic magazine. 

This is Peter, my other buddy from Westmont.

This is a famous site in Thailand where a Buddha head
somehow got suspended in the roots of a giant tree.

The last place we went was the capital city of Thailand, Bangkok. Bangkok is often referred to lovingly as the Venice of the east. For us, it definitely lived up to that name. We stayed in an amazing hotel on the water, took a sunset cruise through the canals of the city, and saw some spectacular temples. The next day we went to the royal palace which was incredibly ornate and beautiful.

Here is our dinner cruise ship.

We all ate dinner first and then we even had some dancing
and karaoke.

Westmont pals.

We also visited a royal garden of the King. Everything was
very westernized and there was even a European style
cathedral. 

I don't know if you can see it, but it had a
bunch of buddha images in it and pictures of the
king in the stained glass windows. It felt almost as if I was
somewhere in Europe before I actually walked into the
cathedral

The garden was beautiful and the architecture was very
modern and westernized. This was one of the king's
tricks to help keep Siam free from European
colonization.

The flowers were beautiful too.

This is the view from my hotel window. Bangkok is a
sprawling metropolis and has all kinds of interconnected
waterways. One day we rode the water taxi around the city
because it is sometimes faster than driving.

The Royal River Hotel.

One of the beautiful old temples in Bangkok lit up at night.

This was one of the pagodas at the royal palace. It is
hard to get a feel for the full beauty of the place, but
everything was gold plated and elaborately decorated.

Another part of the Palace was fairly westernized. To me
it felt almost like it should be in Disney Land.

Overall, our 6 days of travelling were an amazing time. We were able to see so many different things and really get a feel for the diversity of Thailand from the stunningly modern palace in Bangkok to the ancient ruins of Sukhothai. More than that, it was a great time to travel with friends and some of our best times were spent singing songs on the back of the bus or swimming in the pools at the hotel.

Sawadee krap!