Bundhaya Resort Satun

... feel how much pride everyone has in their teams and their school. The whole place was white and red, I can't imagine how long it took to put all of that together. For how unorganized Thai people might seem, they can pull something great together very quickly. I thought we had a lot of school spirit at Garfield with Homecoming, Spirit Week, and Purple and White day, but it's different here. Sure, we'll take a hallway and make it the ...

... drawn to the relics of history.The architecture of Ayutthaya is a fascinating mix of Khmer (ancient Cambodian style) and early Sukhothai style. Some cactus-shaped obelisks, called prangs, denote Khmer influence and look something like the famous towers of Angkor Wat. The more pointed stupas are ascribed to the Sukhothai influence. For new arrivals who had limited their visit to Bangkok, similarities may be ...

... has a different atmosphere. There are seperate buildings for each subject and there's never classrooms on ground level because of flooding. The only room with AC is the teachers lounge too. It's always boiling hot out. This is actually the rainy season, and winter starts in November. It's not going to be cold. At all. Everybody has these cute little face rags to wipe the sweat off. It's like having a cell phone in America, everyone has one. I have a Garfield one (the cat). Classes ...

... totally different as normal and an acceptable way of life. It's hard not to label it as bad and poor, but I have to remind myself that it's just different. I'm not any better than them because I'm from America. Just different.. thats what I have to keep telling myself until I believe it. I get some pretty funny responses when I tell people that I'm from America. One boy yelled after me, "I love you!" and another girl excitedly asked me if I knew Barack ...

... activity in Bangkok. Thanks for reading and I will see most of you again soon. Tomorrow I head back to the US, and will stay a while in my next destination city ... Palo Alto, California.

It will be good to be on American soil again. This marks the end of the international portion of my trip. It has been an amazing and enlightening experience. It is likely that, in my remaining lifetime, I will never have the opportunity to do a trip like this again.

Ayutthaya, Thailand newguy2120

... directing me the wrong way! The hotel was like a prison but it was OK for a night. I had quite a hunt for internet but when I found it it was the fastest in Thailand and very cheap! I asked around for info on how to do the border crossing I was going to do the next day but noone spoke enough English, I just had to go off what I found on the internet.

... felt compelled to climb & take some pictures of monkeys. Some more food. No drinkies, though as it's mostly a dry town. I was sad to leave Thailand, for one thing I don't know how to say thank you in Malay (I've been on Langkawi for a few hours now and have discovered it is 'thank you'). I'm actually looking forward to going back already - bring on New Year! *I know, sorry. Very bad.

... worth it, the boat was an amazing experience, all lined up like sardines on mattresses on the floor, we fell asleep to the gentle rocking of the boat (although did get slightly rockier at times!) was a great way to spend the night and one less night in a hostel! Our next update will be about Kho Tao where we are currently staying for 4 nights (until thursday 26th) when we will head further north to Bangkok. Hope everyone is well lots of love xx

... to see westerners. We walked to the post office to find it closed as they were concreteing the drive. Walked back to the ferry ticket office which was now open and they told us they don't sell tickets! Lucy kept asking her what her job was in a ticket office that doesn't sell tickets but she was too busy reading the paper. By now we were knackered with all the walking and the heat, we passed a barbers and decided to get my now quite long hair cut ...

... 2 people turned up, in need of a transfer to the bus stop, so another 'sawngthaew' was called for and we were on our way. (A sawngthaew is a small pickup truck with two benches in the back.) We got the bus stop, our bags thrown into the cargo hold and as we were boarding the bus, it took off (no waiting around in this town), so we fell into our seats and got ready for the long journey head of us. About 15mins in our trip, on the other side of Satun, the ...