Ian Butters, Tajhia Cartwright, Bart De Jong, Annika Duveneck,
Natasha Elder, Brett Granger, Tyler Krueger, Edgar Macias
We all hope things are going smoothly where you are. Our trip has been wonderful so far! Term in Asia 2009 is made up of a great group of individuals, and we are all having lots of fun, learning about fantastic cultures, and eating some delicious food.
It’s hard to believe how much we’ve accomplished in only one week! After a very long day and a half of traveling, the entire group was very excited to see the beautiful JHL resort. We all feel very fortunate to be staying in such a lovely place. Our first day started off by visiting the Chinese Temples and Buddha Mountain. There were so many great things to see, each student took about one hundred pictures. From there, we went to our first fitting at Mr. Albert’s tailor shop, New Mode. There are going to be some sharp dressed students when we return! From here, we ate dinner at a very nice outdoor restaurant where Veched ordered our table a variety of Thai food to try, and we were entertained by some traditional Thai dancing.
(Annika Duveneck being fitted for a suit at New Mode Tailor Shop in Pattaya, Thailand)
For Day 2, we had an island holiday. We drove to the resort area of Pattaya and took a speedboat to an island, where we swam, relaxed, and walked along the beach and some of the little shops.
The next day, we woke up early and drove to Kanchanaburi where we went straight to a floating river market. This was such a neat experience. There were many different vendors to see and each of us got to try our hand at a little bargaining. From there, we made our way to a floating restaurant on the River Kwai for lunch and then took a speed boat ride down the river. Next, we looked around the local shops before heading to the Kanchanaburi World War II Cemetery. Many of the soldiers' gravestones had very touching messages from their families. It was very moving, especially with the fact that many of the soldiers were close to our ages and from many of our home countries. Bart, who is from The Netherlands, even saw several De Jongs within the cemetery.
Day 4 was a continuation of our Bridge on the River Kwai adventure. First, we went to Hellfire Pass (pictured below) where we watched a short video covering the construction of the Thai-Burma Railway, and then went for a walk along the pass. It was also moving to see the video and pictures of the Allied POW’s who were forced by the Japanese to build the railway, and it helped us all appreciate our lives a little bit more. After our hike, we stopped by a neat little waterfall on our way to lunch. From there, we went on our elephant trek! It was quite an adventure, as it started to rain heavily once we were all on our elephants. We all had a blast with this jungle experience. After our elephant adventure, we took a scenic train ride back to Kanchanaburi and were able to see many lovely sites of the Thai countryside.
(Students at the Death Railway Memorial in Kanchanaburi, Thailand)
So as you can see, we’ve been quite busy so far. Next on our list is a trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Elephant Island near Cambodia, and about a one week stay in downtown Bangkok. Stay tuned for more!
No comments:
Post a Comment