DAY 2

The first day began at 7 AM after four hours of sleep and 9000 miles of travel. Eating breakfast in the hotel most of us decided to follow Mike Leming's advice to eat enough to last until dinner, rather then the traditional way that believes eating less will allow for a clear mind at the temples. We traveled by bus to our first destination: The Grand Palace. The King of Thailand used to reside at the palace, however, now the palace is used for different functions such as the Coronation of the King.

Also housed at the Palace is the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. The Emerald Buddha (actually made out of jade) is considered the most sacred Buddha in all of Thailand and most Buddhists attempt to make one pilgrimmage there in their lifetime.

After the Grand Palace, the bus took us a short distance to the Temple of the Reclining Buddha in which we saw a 150 foot by 50 foot gold plated reclining Buddha. From there, we walked to the Chao Phraya River, being side tracked occasionally by photo ops with a 60 lb snake (ask Tammy) and vendors attempting to sell us postcards and straw hats.

After crossing the river by "water taxi", we walked to another temple and then bought fresh pinnaple from some of the vendors. With sticky fingers we returned to the river and found another water taxi to return us to our hotel (which, by the way, is a beautiful, first class hotel).

This evening we are heading back up the river to a Thai restaurant and then probably back to the hotel to catch up on sleep!

"Sawaddeeka"(Hello) Mom and Dad. If you are reading this I guess you made it to the website. Well done! It is even hotter here then I thought it would be. Luckily the sun hasn't been too strong but the humidity is drenching. My greeting above is one the Thai words that I have learned; along with a few others such as "water" and "no thank you". In two days we head to Chiang Mai where we'll play our games. We've made a deal with Tammy that we get a sub every 2 minutes!

Cara Jones '03
Minnehaha Academy
Minneapolis, MN