The south of Thailand

Dear All,
Well, there's quite a lot to cover.
I'll start at the beginning of the trip when Erika and I took a night bus down to Bangkok, the trip itself wasn't so bad but arriving at five in the morning was rough! Instead of going anywhere or doing anything, tourist attractions are hardly up and running at that time, we sat at a cafe and had a coffee.
Our first day there we stopped at the Vietnamese embassy to send our passports out for our visas then found a guesthouse in Chinatown and took a nap. It is so amazingly hot in Bangkok, and all of the south, we were soon to find out, that just walking down to the attractions or trying to see the sights takes it out of you. We had a nice ride down a river bus and decided to skip most of what we had planned to see and instead walked through a well shaded cultural park that we stumbled on. That night we decided to treat ourselves and went out to a French restaurant where we had some of the most delicious crepes I've ever tasted.
The next day we got out again and had a better day going to Dusit park where every other building had a/c and we got to see everything from the kings photography to a teak mansion and the old royal elephant barns as well as two throne halls and several museums. From there we took a taxi down to an area of town near a restaurant we wanted to try and shopped around for a while before starting out to look for the restaurant. After walking and feeling lost for some time and my foot getting dunked in mud up to my ankle we decided to take a taxi, only that didn't work and we ended up in the wrong place altogether. We tried again and took yet another taxi only to find that we were lost beyond control. So approximately three hours, three taxi rides, and several hundred baht later we decided to give up and had hamburgers at McDonald's. It sounds funny now but it was anything but at the time.
After Bangkok we took a train down to HuaHin where we got a small room in a cheap guest house and enjoyed our time in a beach resort town. It was hard not to be jealous of the middle class Europeans and Americans staying at the huge and impressive Hilton when you knew it cost as much or less than a regular hotel in any city in the States and knowing we couldn't afford it but while our room didn't have an ocean view the shared balcony of our guest house did. We spent most of our time at the beach and managed to get pretty burnt.
After two and a half days on the beach we took the train up to Pretchabury where we were supposed to be able to hire a motorcycle and get to a national park known for it's waterfalls (E loves waterfalls!). That didn't work out but we got to see several caves full of Buddha images and tons of monkeys; when I say tons of monkeys I'm not kidding. There were whole monkey families and monkeys that ran at us with angry faces and baby monkeys, they jumped around and swam and stole bananas right out of peoples hands and were absolutely adorable. Somehow, the whole time we sat around watching them I was reminded of my brother and sister back home.
We also went up the hill in town that is full of stuppas and Wat's and an old royal palace which now is a museum. It was super hot and we had to stop often for drinks and time in the shade, I cannot describe the heat of this place.
From there we went back to Bangkok where we were spending one night in a hotel we had read and heard about a lot, it's called the Atlanta and had it's hey day back in the 1950's, according to the signs nothings been changed since then. It's easy to believe to when you walk through the door and the lobby has '50's furniture with writing desks and a library and tall, dramatic staircases that lead to rooms that are sort of disappointing after the grandness of downstairs but we had a suite for the night (an expensive decision that E had somehow been sweet talked into without even realizing it.) with a/c and a sitting room! We had access to a pool surrounded by jungle with a dining area by the water and hammocks under the eaves, there's a big white wall behind the pool where they used to play movies at night and we were very disappointed that they didn't do that anymore but it was fun and crazy to be there. Just before you go into the hotel you see two large signs, one reads; This is the place you are looking for, if you know it. If you don't, you'll never find it.
and the second reads; Sex tourists not welcome!
The owner of the place is Dr. Henn who works hard to be a mysterious personality and though you can find quotes of his all over the place from cup holders to informational booklets in the lobby he rarely ever introduces himself to guests and is seemingly unavailable to talk to. Ever. I like him already.
After our night in Bangkok in which we honestly didn't leave the hotel, we took a bus up to Ayuttaya where we surveyed all the ruins of the old capital. It's interesting to think of Thailand's past actually, and realize that what we were looking at; ruined Wat's and stupas, old palaces and elephant grounds. Were all alive and well, at the same time as the U.S. were declaring Independence or China was booming.
Because they've never been ruled by westerners there's a certain uninterestedness in everything western and there's a certain arrogance, like their history is better or more interesting when really it's just more simplistic really.
After our whirlwind trip we've now been home for about a week (we got home earlier than expected) and have been mostly laying out at the pool on our new raft (we got it in HuaHin for the ocean). Now we have a good number of our pictures printed and we are starting work on scrapbooks which might take forever and we're not exactly looking forward to.
Next we're off to Malaysia and from there Vietnam!
Thank you all for your letters and your comments, Kristen Rose