Call us what you will. . .

Alright. So I know in my last message I said we were going to head back to our awful room, but about 5 min. after my post J and I looked at eachother and decided we couldn't face going back there. So we decided to get the hell out of dodge.

And boy did we have an adventure getting back to Bangkok. . .we made the decision to leave about 4, went back to the public showers to rinse off the sand and saltwater, packed up our stuff, grabbed a taxi (aka the bed of a truck) and headed for the ferry terminal. As the sun went down we hopped on a speed boat, watching the beginnings of a storm in the distance. Our driver couldn't get directly beside the dock so instead he pulled up next to a huge wooden boat that J and I had to crawl up onto and through to get to the dock. . .quite the site with all of our luggage. We barely made the last bus back to Bangkok where we found ourselves right in the middle of the monsooooon.

Somehow our taxi driver got us close to the hotel that we randomly picked from one of our travel books, but he had to let us out a few blocks down because the water was so high (at one point it literally felt like the taxi was floating down the street). So there we were, water literally up past our shins, practically swimming to our hotel, me with my huge backpack and J and I carrying her massive roller bag above the water. After making it to the hotel, we asked for a room and were told the place was full. We took one look at eachother, one look back at the storm outside, then gave the most pitiful look back to the woman behind the counter. She said, "Wait here, we'll clean a room for you". We flopped down in their chairs watching the thunder and lightening from the lobby's glass doors. . .and regardless of the flooding, the streets of Bangkok were still crawling with tons of people and cars. This city is insane! But we are now sitting in our cozy room, with a normal bathroom, a comfy bed and even internet! SO. . .call us Bellevue B*tches if you will, but we had to get out of that last place.

Anyway, here are a few pics from Bangkok that I wasn't able to load before...

GETTING AROUND TOWN. . .

SOME ARCHITECTURE FOR DAD. . .

GETTIN' SOME GRUB. . .

ORIENTATION AND OUR NEW TEACHER FRIENDS. . .

WAT PHO AND THE GRAND PALACE. . .