Abroad Trip Day 22

Today we went on a touristy day with Tony, our tour guide. We left early in the morning, and started off the day at a meditation center. We pull up to the curb, and step out into this wonderland just outside of Bangkok. The meditation center is also a nunnery. No monks, only nuns. They're so cute with their shaved heads and white robes. Also, they are much nicer than the monk at the meditation center we went to before. Their garden is walled in, but you can hear the sounds of traffic and construction amid the sounds of fountains and birds. There was no large Buddha statue. Instead, a pagoda with a relic inside was in the center of the room, with circles of flowers surrounding it. Much less imposing when we're all in a circle, instead of facing the monk at the head of the room with a huge Buddha behind him. We did a quick prayer, then went outside for 10 minutes of meditation before the nun arrived. The nunnery was founded in 1988, and provides parenting classes to pregnant women and families (including single-parent families), in addition to the meditation retreats it offers. I wish we had done our meditation retreat there. Ah well. The nun we spoke to mostly translated Thai through Tony and her novice, but she could speak English a little, and was fluent in Hmong. She actually was Hmong, and was glad to talk to our Hmong-American students on the trip. We then took a tour of the center grounds. It is so peaceful and open, yet removed from the busy city. There were ponds and statues and winding forest paths, and new construction of a waterfall into the irrigation ditch, so it would be more part of nature.

After, she gave us books and sent us on our way to Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya was the old capital of Thailand until the early 1700s, when Burma invaded for the second time and destroyed most of the city. The ruins of the royal wats are still there, and that's what we went to see. The temple grounds are so extensive, and we could wander for an hour and not see the same place twice. The pagodas are mostly opened because they would place a persons valuables in them with their ashes when they died, so grave robbers have opened them and taken the gold, etc. Also, all of the Buddha statues (hundreds of them), are missing their heads. All of the gold has been removed, and the heads cut off to sell. Bad karma for the cutter, but lots of money, too. There is an iconic image of the head of a Buddha that has been absorbed by the roots of the bodhi tree, and the body disappeared. It was pretty cool to see. Almost as if the holy tree were retaining at least one head for the temple, when the rest were cut off and sold on the black market.

We then went to the Summer Palace, near Ayutthaya. This is where the royal family goes for the summer (thanks, Captian Obvious), and was the royal palace of the old Thai kingdom. There are many ponds there, and it's near a river, so it's easy to see why they go there in the summer. Natural air conditioning! Anyway, we took farang pictures with bushes shaped like animals, and walked around the grounds. We noticed a large reptile on the edge of a pond. Is that a baby crocodile? Then it turned to look at us. A komodo dragon! Cool! We then saw another and another, all in or around the ponds. We ran into Tony, who told us they had moved in and no one removed them. They used to be bad luck to see, but it changed when they were found on the palace grounds to mean fortune and wealth. I guess a cultural construct is easier to change than it would be to remove a dozen komodo dragons. He also told us they were wild and dangerous and we should keep our distance if we saw more. We then turned around the building we were near only to see three of our classmates about two feet from one of the dragons. One was trying to pet it. It was tasting the air. “Anna! Get back!” They didn't hear us. Finally, Katrina yells “Anna! Those are wild and dangerous!” They scurried back to the path quickly. You should youtube videos of komodo dragons hunting. Scary stuff!

Anyway, when we got back to the hotel, I noticed the tailor shop in the lobby was having their grand opening party. So, I go in and enter my name in the drawing for a free suit. I also tell everyone else in my class about it. Guess who won the free custom-made suit? I did! Guess the komodo dragon paid off, after all. I can pick it up tomorrow night! I also bought another one, because it's 4000baht, so $135 or so for a custom-made business suit. I was going to get one made anyway! One is black, and the other is grey pinstripe. It'll look great!

Day 22 and 23 - Mostar and Split

Sorry I was unable to update last night. I was sharing a room with someone who left before I had a chance to ask if I could use her computer. I'll try to remember the best I can.

We took a city tour at 9am. We walked around the Austro-Hungarian empire area, but a lot of it had been destroyed in the conflict, and some of it rebuilt. It's a little weird. Trees grow in really weird places here. In Trieste, there were trees growing on a bridge. There are trees growing on the tops of walls, on upper stories of buildings, on tops of boulders. It's really strange.

Anyway, we then walked to the old bridge, Stari Most. It was built in the 1500s, survived German bombing in WWII, was destroyed in the 92-94 conflict, was rebuilt in 2006 and is now a UNESCO heritage site. It's smaller than expected. The river is narrow through the city, though it gets wider outside of the city. It rushes super fast and loudly, and the color of the whole river is a bright blue green. It's not very clear, so I wouldn't swim in it, but it sure is pretty to look at!

After, we walked down the souvenir street. I finally had a chance to buy some souvenirs from Bosnia. It is a really pretty town.

We then headed out to Split, the 2nd largest Croatian city. It was just over 3 hours. The scenery is so drastic here. One second will be a snowy forest, and just 20 minutes later it'll be rocky and dry.

Split is the tourist city. There were a lot of cruise ships in the harbor, and everyone spoke English. We are done learning, so we didn't have any classes here. We just had free time! Yay! We went to dinner in another sketchy-entrance, lovely-dinner place. We had to walk through a narrow alleyway where two walls meet to find this little courtyard and a cute restaurant inside. It was delicious and relatively cheap. The receptionist recommended it, otherwise we never would have found it.

After, Meichen went back to the hotel, and LaVana and I walked around shopping. It was our last night in Croatia, so I wanted to spend all of my kuna. I bought some unmentionables, but it was Saturday night, so most shops closed early. So, we got up early to walk around, and found an old palace, where Mass was being held, but no souvenir shops. I still had 80 kuna (15 dollars), so I bought some food for the long bus trip back to Piran.

Then at a road stop, I bought some more souvenirs, this time the alcoholic kind. I bought some fancy bottles of slivovic (plum brandy) to bring back. After, we just spent a lot of time on either freeways, or windy mountain roads or windy coastal roads. Very few of us felt well at the end of the trip. We went from a few hundred feet, to a mile and a half, to sea level all in a day. Also, we went through a 7km long tunnel. It was pretty cool. No one held their breath. Paddy advised us not to do so, as he did not want any dead bodies on the bus.

Anyway, back in Piran for a few more days to give presentations and wrap up the class, and then back to the US! I'm not sure I want to, but I can't afford to stay. Damn. If only I had a few hundred dollars to spend another week somewhere!