Heading to Thailand...
Once we were boarded we had a bit of a turbulent flight with what felt like a few roller coaster drops, nothing frightening just a bit rocky here and there. Once we landed we headed over to customs again where Amanda and Aubrey proceeded to choose the slowest line in the whole place. Char was in the line next to us and made it through the line, got all three of our bags, and then still had to wait for us to make it through the line. I guess it is good to learn patience every now and then though..... After we finally made it out we proceeded to grab a taxi to get to our hotel. Any time you take a taxi you get to pay any road tolls along with your fare. They drive on the left side of the road in Bangkok and much to our relief they actually seem to follow what we would consider normal driving rules. We got to our hotel and just about jumped with joy at how nice it was. Everything is decorated really pretty and we had no worries at all that everything was clean. After relaxing and settling in for a few minutes it was time to see the town! We went to the street and got our first ride in a tuk tuk which is basically a motorcycle with a carriage. They are super cute and fun to ride in. We asked to go to the palace first but our driver said it was "closed" so upon suggestion we went to see the Shrine of the Golden Buddah Image which is the sitting solid gold Buddah which weighs 5 tons. It was interesting to see because it also had a museum which showed how the images are made. They start by making the image out of clay and put on a layer of wax and then another layer of clay. Once everything is hardened they melt the wax out and end up with a mold in which they pour the gold into. Once it has cooled they break all the layers except the gold and have their image. They do the image in sections and then are able to put them all together to get a flawless statue. Once we left the temple our tuk tuk driver had waited for us and said we would go to the palace  now that it was open. He mumbled some thing else to which we said "um ok" and before we knew it we ended up in a jewelry factory. Everything was beautiful and it was amazing to see the variety of styles to choose from although we are sad to say Diamonds are out of our budgets at the moment.... How ever, Aubrey got some cool chopsticks at the little store before we left so an unexpected stop wasn't a total bust. Our driver however was quite disappointed that we had NOT made a few thousand dollars in purchases as he would've gotten a cut.  We then again headed to the palace but our driver tried to stop again to have us shop for clothes we looked around and said We don't want to shop! We then finally made it to the temple at about 3:30 which guess what? It's the exact time it closes. We said good bye to the driver and found a tourist information booth. We got a little information and headed off in search of the Thai massage school. We made it to the temple where the school was and then saw the Reclining Buddah which is about 50ft tall and about 200ft long (best guess..) after that we continued to wander around the huge place and finally ended up at the massage school. Amanda chose the herb massage where they use warm bags of herbs during the massage to relax your muscles.  Char and Aubrey settled for the regular massage and let me tell you.... There is nothing regular about it! For only $12 you get a hour-long full body massage.  They have you put on some loose clothing then lie down on a low, firm mat table next to many other people.  The masseuse climbs up onto the table next to you and uses all their limbs to massage you, having you turn into different positions.  The massage is so deep it is almost painful at times, but was a amazingly effective at loosening up the knots! After the massage we took a metered taxi back to the hotel.  We realized by this point that although tuk-tuks are cute, they expose you to all kinds of pollution, are not air-conditioned and charge you almost 3 times as much as a metered taxi...metered being the key word.  We did a little street shopping then decided to eat at our hotel restaurant, Cotton, for some delicious-yet-Americanized Thai food including pad thai, buttered cabbage, singapore noodles and sticky rice with mango.

April 13

Its the Thai New Year today!  We got to actually sleep in a bit...no more motorbikes or noisy birds under our window.  The hotel had a Thai/Chinese buffet and a separate American buffet for our breakfast.  Amanda and Aubrey settled for some good old American food and Char tried some interesting items from the other side.  She's still not sure what she ate.  We had really wanted to see the floating markets but upon inquiring at the front desk found that most are only open on the weekends and the closest one was an hour away.  Instead, we decided now was a good time to see the palace and headed off in that direction.  As we drove we noticed that almost all of the shops were closed for the holiday which was a bummer as we had wanted to do a little more shopping. When we got to the palace someone at the gate told us that it was closed as they were praying inside for the new year and offered to take us on a river tour while we waited for it to open.  Looking back, they were probably lying to us as it seems to be a common for the taxi drivers to drive tourists to a side door of a palace where tour guides are ready with all kinds of offers. We have heard many times that the "palace does not open until 3" when in truth, that is when it closes which gives them the opportunity to sell you a tour of somewhere else.  At this point we were a little naive and decided to take the boat tour as they promised we would see temples, a floating market and other things.  Another American woman joined us (one of the very few Americans we have seen over here!) and we were driven to the dock.  Upon arrival they told us it would be 700 baht per person (about $23). We were able to get them down to 600 per person and then climbed onto the long-tail boat for our tour.  About this time we realized the tour guide was not actually joining us...all we had was a driver who didn't speak any English.  Scam #1.  We sailed down the river passing mostly what seemed to be the slums of Bangkok, people living in shacks situated on stilts above the water that look as if they could topple at any minute.  Every once in a while a nicer home or hotel would be squished in between the dilapidated buildings.  Finally we started seeing some temples, but to our dismay we could only see the backside of them or the tops poking out of trees and there was no one to even tell us what we were looking at.  Scam #2.  As we went, kids would step out onto the docks and spray us with hoses or water guns which is a thai tradition for the new year.  More on that later.  We wondered when we would get to see the floating market and soon a lone boat drifted up with a woman selling junk food and trinkets.  Yay for a floating market....and scam #3. We soon pulled up onto a different dock with shops on it.  Thinking he was letting us off to shop for a few minutes before continuing with the tour, we climbed out.  Before we could turn around, he was gone and we were left to pay an "unloading fee" to even get off the dock, then wandered into the shop. What an amazing tour, we got totally jipped! We actually snagged some cool stuff at the market and wandered through a tent market of delicious food,most of which we couldn't identify.  We hoofed it back to the palace which was most definitely open and had to rent some clothes to wear over ours before we were allowed in.  Because of this, you will not see us in any of the palace photos.  It was a hot, muggy day and we had dressed for the Thai water fights.  The multiple-use garments already drenched with other people's sweat made it even warmer and it was hard to enjoy the beautiful palace.  The grounds are very large, 218,000 square meters and there is a high white wall around the whole complex.  It houses not only the royal residence that King Rama 1 built in 1782 but also throne halls, government offices and the renowned Temple of the Emerald Buddha.  The emerald Buddha is actually carved from a single piece of jade but when discovered in 1434 it was covered in plaster and the abbot who found the plaster peeling off thought it was emerald and so the name stuck.  It has been captured, hidden and changed hands so many times but now is quite safe sitting about 20 feet off the ground on a massive gold throne, even though the idol itself is probably about 2 feet high, if that.  People all around us were bowing and praying to it and it was difficult to stand there, watching them, knowing that they have given their whole lives to a god that doesn't even exist.  The palace grounds have had buildings added to it by each king, each trying to outdo the last and leave their mark.  You have never seen such glitz before, everything, and I mean EVERYTHING is covered with gold, tiny mirrors, and hand painted tiles.  It is absolutely gorgeous.  The king does not reside there any longer, the grounds are only used for special occasions.  After the palace we desperately needed a shower so went back to the hotel.  Char went out to see if anything was open and found a back alley with a few things.  I (char) ended up meeting a shopkeeper who had been to the states many years ago to visit his sister who was getting her phD in Ohio so his English was pretty good.  He was very proud of her and showed me many photos of her and wanted to talk at length about life in Thailand versus the U.S. After showers we went back to the palace area to see if we could get another massage but they were closing so we ended up buying random food at the pavilion close by....all of it so delicious! Chicken satay on a stick, curry with noodles, green rice noodles (looked exactly like green beans) in a cold coconut soup, sticky rice with mango and fresh coconut ice-cream with peanuts on it in a coconut shell. We found some open shops (woohoo!) where we were finally able to pick up some items for friends back home and stopped at a 7-11 (yes they have those!) for some basics. While there, we caught a monk looking at some "choice" magazines. Back at the hotel we met up with Christy and headed off to have some of the best Thai food ever!