London Calling

Friends and Family: The time has finally come to bid adieu to SE Asia; I leave for London late tonight. The past week and a half with my friends Amy and Francis have been really nice and relaxing (punctuated by the occasional monkey attack-- more on that later). In Bangkok, we took a few days sightseeing and visited the gigantic golden reclining buddha in Wat Pho, toured the famous Jim Thompson house, and went to the thoroughly enjoyable Mambo Cabaret (all ladyboys, though some are so beautiful it's nearly impossible to believe).








We took a few days in Ayutthaya, where we saw the well-known buddha head covered in tree vines at Wat Mahathat. One day we took a train up to Lop Buri, a small town known for being overrun with monkeys. They were hilarious to watch, and there were lots of tiny baby ones running around. I did, however, get attacked on three separate occasions--once by a monkey using me as a stop on his way down from a tree, and two other times by random primates jumping on my shoulders from behind. I didn't get bitten, but it was a little horrifying all the same. The wonky end to the video is the result of the third primate attack-- we left after that. Sorry for the lack of sound, but it's probably a good thing, from my surprised and vocal reaction!










Our last stop was Kanchanaburi, where we went to a temple dedicated to animal rescue. They have a number of tigers that were raised from birth, and for the low low price of $10 you can be shepherded around their pen and take pictures with them (it was actually pretty cool). We also visited the Kwai River Bridge, an historic WWII memorial site (16,000 POWs died building it in the '40's).


It's been nice to have these past few days be mostly relaxing, and really nice to be with friends (especially friends who bring along their
Ronald McDonald costume to Asia in order to take silly pictures). Now it's off to the Continent! Miss you all!