Sept. 18, 2010 Our Thai parents picked us up in the morning and brought us back to the house for, yes you guessed it, more food!
After another successful homecooked breakfast (including banana flower, fish, morning glory, etc.) P. Jop-Pa- put me, Josie, Oil and Emily into one of the family cars and drove us to the Ratchaburi morning market. This market is more geared toward tourists, so it doesn't have as great of stuff to look at, but it's still fun to walk around the canals and see what treasures you can dig up; plus we got to see a giant boa and an elephant. Thinking we were going to go straight home we were taken to another floating market that the local government is trying to promote as a destination to see. Okay now home? Mai Chai (nope!)Pa, being the stereotypical proud father, brought us across the countryside to his friend's house. He has a real passion for traditional Thai architecture and was 
really excited to show us this home that was being built by hand. In the driveway we spotted a turtle so, instead of driving around it, Pa stopped to pick it up and put on the floor in front of me. Apparently it's good luck to bring turtles back to the water, so we watched as Oil brought the little guy to the canal and release him to the wild. Well, it turned out that this turtle might not be found in the canals as we watched it sink out of sight. Oops! Hopefully he was a fast learner and was able to swim up to the surface later... 
The house really was beautiful. It was crafted out of a reddish wood and was massive and open and overlooked the canal. Pa's friend was so excited to have us there and we were told we, being white and all, brought good luck to her and her house. Well, I guess that was my good deed for the day :) After being invited to stay there anytime we wanted (so nice) we finally headed back home. Yes, we did eat again and no, it wasn't time to head back to Bang Phli, because it was time for the Siam Culture Park! On the way we had to make a pit stop to see the vineyard Pa's friend owns. It was pretty impressive to see the workers balancing on wooden planks stretched over the irrigation ditches picking endless amounts of grapes--plus it's always priceless to see P. Jop's smile when he gets to show off Ratchaburi. The Culture Park turned out to be a great time. We originally thought it was going to just be a wax museum (ooh ahh) but we were pleasantly surprised to see it had a lot more to offer. 
The wax figures were shockingly real and we had fun posing with the likes of Mao, Ho Chi Minh AND Mother Theresa, because why wouldn't she be included in a museum dedicated to famous Thais and other famous Asians? A path meandered through the grounds of the park which included some beautiful foliage, a waterfall and various reproductions of architecture over the centuries (replicas of family housing styles from regions across the country as well as those of regional monk's quarters.) A definite highlight was a walk through a fake cave with various displays depicting the final 
stages of the human life of the first Buddha. Thankfully we had Dr. Absorn there to explain to us what each scene meant or we would have been very confused seeing a crazy old man with slave children who later got a lot of money and then proceeded to eat so much food his stomach burst open spewing his guts everywhere. In reality the ol
d man asked human Buddha for his 2 children to help him. Buddha said yes as an act of merit. Then the old man turned them into slaves until human Buddha's dad bought them back from him and being greedy, the old man made himself a feast and eating so much burst open. Thinking about it I guess it was kind of how it looked to the untrained eye.
really excited to show us this home that was being built by hand. In the driveway we spotted a turtle so, instead of driving around it, Pa stopped to pick it up and put on the floor in front of me. Apparently it's good luck to bring turtles back to the water, so we watched as Oil brought the little guy to the canal and release him to the wild. Well, it turned out that this turtle might not be found in the canals as we watched it sink out of sight. Oops! Hopefully he was a fast learner and was able to swim up to the surface later... 
The house really was beautiful. It was crafted out of a reddish wood and was massive and open and overlooked the canal. Pa's friend was so excited to have us there and we were told we, being white and all, brought good luck to her and her house. Well, I guess that was my good deed for the day :) After being invited to stay there anytime we wanted (so nice) we finally headed back home. Yes, we did eat again and no, it wasn't time to head back to Bang Phli, because it was time for the Siam Culture Park! On the way we had to make a pit stop to see the vineyard Pa's friend owns. It was pretty impressive to see the workers balancing on wooden planks stretched over the irrigation ditches picking endless amounts of grapes--plus it's always priceless to see P. Jop's smile when he gets to show off Ratchaburi. The Culture Park turned out to be a great time. We originally thought it was going to just be a wax museum (ooh ahh) but we were pleasantly surprised to see it had a lot more to offer. 
The wax figures were shockingly real and we had fun posing with the likes of Mao, Ho Chi Minh AND Mother Theresa, because why wouldn't she be included in a museum dedicated to famous Thais and other famous Asians? A path meandered through the grounds of the park which included some beautiful foliage, a waterfall and various reproductions of architecture over the centuries (replicas of family housing styles from regions across the country as well as those of regional monk's quarters.) A definite highlight was a walk through a fake cave with various displays depicting the final 
stages of the human life of the first Buddha. Thankfully we had Dr. Absorn there to explain to us what each scene meant or we would have been very confused seeing a crazy old man with slave children who later got a lot of money and then proceeded to eat so much food his stomach burst open spewing his guts everywhere. In reality the ol
d man asked human Buddha for his 2 children to help him. Buddha said yes as an act of merit. Then the old man turned them into slaves until human Buddha's dad bought them back from him and being greedy, the old man made himself a feast and eating so much burst open. Thinking about it I guess it was kind of how it looked to the untrained eye.We had one last family dinner, which P. Jao had worked all day to make, in the gazebo which was AMAZING! Next came a family photo shoot 
complete with individual, partner and group shots. All of us just laughed and rolled our eyes as new cameras kept appearing and our cheeks were starting to shake from smiling so much. The time for goodbyes had come and we couldn't express enough how happy and lucky we were to have had met all of them. They couldn't stop saying how much they loved having us and that ANY time we were in Thailand we were required to visit them as we were family now. Love. 1,230,980,328 hugs, wais and 'sawatdee's later we made our way back to BKK and our last couple weeks of teaching. What a year.
complete with individual, partner and group shots. All of us just laughed and rolled our eyes as new cameras kept appearing and our cheeks were starting to shake from smiling so much. The time for goodbyes had come and we couldn't express enough how happy and lucky we were to have had met all of them. They couldn't stop saying how much they loved having us and that ANY time we were in Thailand we were required to visit them as we were family now. Love. 1,230,980,328 hugs, wais and 'sawatdee's later we made our way back to BKK and our last couple weeks of teaching. What a year.
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