Tuesday

Going to check out Ramkamhaeng University today.
Yesterday met up with Dave Taylor and his teaching crew out at a Lebanese Restuarant down on Soi 5 off of Sukumvit (downtown). Earlier in the day I finally got over to the Grand Palace with Yo (times before either not the proper attire or monks had taken it over), and walked around for 2-3 hours. Past kings (Ramas) use to live there but not presently as Rama lV lives in a stand alone palace some 30 minutes away. Must have been quite the scene when he was there though, temples everywhere and cream of the crop variety - even a minature replica of Angkor Wat. One of the temples house's the famed 'Emerald Buddha', which is a sitting green Buddha about 4 feet high. Dating back I believe to 14 36 from the old capital of Ayuttya it was subsequentely takin to Lao when the Laotians captured it, and then later returned when Rama 1 'The Great' brought it back. The most interesting part is that somewhere along the the line they were cleaning it or repairing it and they discovered that the thin exterior housed a completely solid jade carved block. Apparently though they first thought it was emerald and the name stuck.

Heading up to Chang Mai probably tomorrow. Last night I ran into Cameron and Sarah, an Aussie couple that I first met in a minivan in southern Thailand and then a handful of days later on Ko Phi Phi. Looks like I'll run into them at least once more up in Chang Mai along with Nate and Jay. Maybe Chris and Natalie from Penang Malaysia too, as I remember them saying they were headed that way too.

Alright, now to try to find this school.