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Thursday, 7/29

Wake-up call 6:30 am, leave 8:00 am.

Well, once again, a picture of our room AFTER we've already "lived" in it. We really did have nice rooms, but unfortunately you can't really tell from my pictures.
 

View from our hotel window

Nan River with floating houses. . .

Our first stop today was Wat Phra Si Ratana Maha That (Pitsanuloke).
 

Because Amy and I were wearing halter/tank tops, we had to borrow "shawls" to cover our shoulders. Amy was also wearing a short skirt, so she had to borrow a long wrap skirt to put on over it before entering the temple. Actually, I thought the skirt was really nice and she looked pretty cute.

 

The Buddha in Wat Phra Si Ratana Maha That was being repaired. It was painted in black lacquer and will be then covered with gold leaf.

This is what the Buddha normally looks like.

Another tour guide was standing near these statuettes so, I asked him if he spoke English because I wanted to find out what these statuettes were. He said he didn't and proceeded to tell his group of German tourists about the display. Unfortunately, I didn't understand a word he was saying.

 

The walls inside of Wat Phra Si Ratana Maha That were also being restored. The paintings were very intricate and beautiful. The details were being done using straight edges.

After we left the wat, Wat had bought a drink of raw sugar in a bamboo "cup" for us to try. We all tried it, but I think I was the only one who liked it. It had a familiar taste to it, but I couldn't figure it out until someone else said that it tasted like corn. THAT was it!! Since no one else cared for it, Wat gave it to me. I drank a little bit more, but I didn't want to drink too much because I didn't know if that much sugar would make me feel ill. Wat told Amy and me to keep the bamboo container as a souvenir.

There were a lot of bees trying to get into the containers (hmmm....raw sugar...bees...makes sense) - one even took a swim in our cup.

We walked to a Monk Chat Centre where people are able to talk with monks about Buddhism, Thai culture, etc. The monks appreciate being able to practice speaking English. Unfortunately, the center was closed for a conference, but Wat said that we might be able to speak with monks later at a different location. A group of school children walked by as we were standing in front of the center. My bad luck -- I wasn't standing with the majority of the group, so the children were not looking in my direction. It was still pretty cute.

SUKOTHAI
 

After we got back on the bus, Wat said that it seemed like we were getting bored with wats and asked if we would like to change the itinerary for the next day. He proposed that we visit a jungle market with all sorts of unusual products and an elephant general hospital. Everyone enthusiastically and unanimously agreed to the change.

Pat had asked Wat if we could either stop or slow down when there were things of interest on the ride, so Surin pulled over when we saw workers transplanting rice. We got off the bus and were able to walk up between the terraces to get a closer look at the work and workers. The stop was very beneficial as Amy felt better after getting the fresh air. She left the A/C directly on herself after we got back in the bus even though she was cold and that helped for the rest of the ride.

We arrived at Lampang River Lodge. The grounds were really beautiful, but there were a lot of mosquitoes. They even provided a small container of bug repellant in the room and Wat told us to be sure to close the door quickly when entering or exiting our room.

We went down to the pool for awhile and saw Jan, Pat and Ryan. Scott joined us soon after. The pool had jets, but no hot water. We stayed for 15-20 minutes and then left to walk around and take pictures before it got dark.

Lampang River Lodge pool
    Scott, Ryan, Pat and Amy
    Just Amy

The hotel grounds were really beautiful with different animals roaming around. We watched chickens and ducks having a turf war for a little while and then returned to our room.

When we got back to our room (#48), I was going to take a quick shower to rinse off. Our luck - I found ANOTHER lizard in our shower! I guess we were getting used to them because we decided to just let him run away on his own. We also decided NOT to tell everyone until the next day so that no one would be worried about having lizards in *their* room.

Amy snacked a little bit (she was starved!) and I repacked. We went to meet everyone for dinner at 7 pm and found only John was there.
From my notes:
    "He really is the "ugly American". When we were checking in, he asked Wat what time we would be having dinner. Wat said that we would meet back at 7 pm. John said that he was hungry and that he has to eat before 8 pm or he throws up and made a loud gagging noise (how disgusting!). John told Wat that we should meet at 6 pm instead. Wat told him that the buffet wouldn't be open at that time and that we would have to meet at 7 or 7:30 pm. John told Wat that he should be reasonable and do it *his* way. What a jerk! Earlier, when we were in Sukothai, he had given Scott a hard time telling him that he was really rude and insensitive. He told Scott to think of  something that he didn't appreciate being teased about and that he should stop teasing Amy about missing going out with her girlfriends or going to the mall, etc. Scott wasn't really teasing her - he likes Amy - calls her "Miss Amy" all the time and asks how she's doing, but it did bother Amy a little. She was kinda glad that John said something and I know that John meant well because he commented to me that his own 16-year daughter wouldn't like to be teased like that, but he was NOT nice how he said it."

Dinner was okay - pretty marginal again. There was one spicy Thai dish (string beans and some kind of crunchy beef) and the chicken drumettes were good. The wonton soup was okay and nothing else looked appealing.

Dinner entertainment

After dinner, Amy and I went for a massage. I had a 90-minute Thai massage because my legs (right above my knees) had really stiffened during the day (I think from climbing steps) and she had a 40-minute foot massage. The massage was great - it really helped ease the aches and pains. While we were there, Tim and Amy came in for their massage. I kept hearing Tim giggling and wondered just what kind of massage *he* was getting!
 

Tim and Amy getting a massage.
      

Amy had already gone back to the room after her massage. I sat and drank some kind of very sweet warm drink after the massage and the woman who had given me my massage asked me if I spoke Thai. I told her that I spoke a little and she asked me where I was from and told me that I spoke very well. It was really nice being told that I spoke well, but I'm sure that everyone was simply being nice and would have said that no matter how poorly I spoke.

I went back to the room, wrote a couple of postcards (which I never mailed) and went to sleep.

LAMPANG RIVER LODGE (Lampang)
        330 Moo 11, Tambol Chompoo   
           Amphur Muang
           Lampang, 52000
           (011) 66-054-336-640, Fax: (011) 66-054-226-922
 

  . . . . 7/30/04