Sawa dee krup,

We are now in Ayuthaya, the second-most ancient capitol in Thailand. There are many, many impressive wats in various states of ruin. Unfortunately all of them have been picked clean by looters. There is not a single remaining Buddha head on any of the thousands of statues. Yesterday we rented bikes and cycled around to as many as we could handle. The architecture is amazing, and we may take a guided tour of some of the more intact temples today.

The previous week we have been on Ko Chang, the second-biggest island in Thailand next to Phuket. It was a real tropical island with sweeping sandy beaches, seaside dining, steep, jungle-covered hills, and a booming resort construction industry. It was very beautiful and we lounged around, eating good Thai food and going to bed early, even though the beach we were at, Lonely Beach, is the backpacker party village, with many europeans drinking and dancing to club music all night. Something about the atmosphere actually turned us off, and we preferred to get some reading done and keep to ourselves mostly. As it turned out it was a good thing we did, because if we hadn't we might never have become friends with Tiger, the man who owned the bungalows we stayed at. The day we got there was opening night for his bungalows, and we were the very first to get rooms. Shoshanna actually created his guestbook! Cool! He also owned the convenience store, the bookstore, another motel (Tiger Huts), a restaraunt, and was in the process of expanding. In addition to all that he is a full-time police officer. Needless to say he is quite a character and our best experiences on Ko Chang mostly involved Tiger. Some highlights were playing with Ploy, his five-year-old daughter and her dog Conan, Thai-boxing with Bento, his ten-year old son, and getting a ride nearly to Bangkok with the whole family in their car. he also gave us some essntial language lessons and invited us to come and work for him next year. Maybe...

The next stop on our trip will be Chang Mai, second-biggest city in Thailand ( is there a pattern here?), to experience the culture of Thailand's northern climate. We will go by overnight VIP bus, which features on-bus karaoke and arrive at approximately seven in the morning.

Thailand is absolutely amazing, you should all come, now. The food is good, the people are nice, and everything is cheap cheap. But bring toilet paper, because in Thailand they use bidets, and I'm too embarassed to ask how to use one:(

Se bai dee mai krup? (how are you) Write back

Love,
Shoshanna and Brendan

We arrived in Thailand late friday night (which would be early friday morning at home due to the 12 hour time difference). We're in Pattaya, which is about 45 minutes south of Bangkok on the coast. We got a taxi from the airport which drove at about 125 kph the entire way, while being passed by drivers going much much faster.

My Uncle lives in a gated community in Pattaya, all of the houses look pretty similar. It's quite an estate, complete with a garden containing banana, papya, and olive trees. Besides the dogs and birds outside it's very quiet and peaceful.

Outside of my Uncle's neighborhood, however, downtown Pattaya is the opposite. It is incredibly commercialized, and caters almost exclusively to the elder white men who visit for the prostitutes and the homosexual arab couples who come here to be together. Walking along the street we definitly looked out of place among the hordes of older men walking hand in hand with young beautiful Thai girls. The restaurants were filled with the men either sitting alone waiting or looking for a prostitute or already accompanied by one. It was pretty shocking to see an entire city filled with such a blatent sex industry.

The streets were also filled with stalls packed with knick knacks and guarded by a man showing off a tazer to warn potential shoplifters. Also there were outdoor mall areas full of girls selling t-shirts and bathing suits who would glue themselves to you the second you walked in and even walking by would try to persuade you to enter. We tried to escape the insanity by sitting on the beach but were accosted every two minutes or so by a someone selling either jet ski rides, ice cream, food, toys, knick knacks, sunglasses, jewelry, or tattoos.

One day was definitly enough of Pattaya, and next we're heading further down the coast to a town called Trat and from there to an island called Ko Chang, both locations known for their laid back and relaxing atmosphere.