A Day With the Buddhas

Welcome aboard the Thailand Express,
This is day 2 of our amazing journey, and we've already gotten to do so much. Our day started out at 7:30 where we had breakfast. Karin thought it would be funny to have us try some unique Thai food, so one of the things she got for us was Corn & Red Beans Yogurt...pretty disgusting. Most of us wanted to throw up after trying it. One of the people here told us that they really like to put corn in just about everything, so it's not unusual to see it in some like yogurt.
Then we headed off for a day of seeing the Buddhist temples. We got on a bus and rode that part of the way. Then we hopped onto a subway, and rode that part way. And the last thing that we rode on the way to the temple was a long narrow boat, so the trip down there was just full of fun transportation. Then we went to The Grand Palace. This is home to one of the most famous and impressive of all buildings in Thailand known as Wat Phra Kaew or the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. This temple has some pretty amazing art work. It was all so vibrant and full of color. We spent an hour there looking at all of the stuff, and I feel like there was so much that I still didn't see. There were so many neat statues and buildings, that words can't even describe. We all took tons of pictures, so I'm sure you'll see and hear a lot more about it once we get home.
From there we headed to Wat Saket or The Temple of the Golden Mount. To get there we got to ride a fun little cart called a tuk-tuk. It's pretty much like a 3 wheeled motorcycle that has a seat on the back that can hold about 3 passengers. They were really fun, and the drivers made them pretty exciting :)
Once at the temple, we climbed about 320 steps to get clear to the top where you could get a panoramic view of the city of Bangkok. There were tons of people that were at both temples praying and worshiping their gods, and it was truly sad to see how lost some of these people were, going back time and time again to these temples, just to be let down by their false gods. The only thing that was even sadder than that was that most of the adults had their children with them there practicing in this false religion.
From there we went to a very large mall in the middle of Bangkok and ate some Thai food (or at least most of us did).
After that we headed back to the YWAM building, which required another long bus ride back. We got there and had a little bit to rest before we got back on the road and headed for the airport. We hoped on a plane and flew down to Phuket, where we'll be for the next 9 or so days. We got to eat some authentic Thai food again tonight for supper. Some of it was pretty spicy, but it was really good as well.
We wrapped up our day with a debriefing and discuss how the temples and such had affected us. Many of us felt heartbroken and sad while at the temples because of the lost souls that were looking for a void in their life to be filled, but they were looking in all of the wrong places to have it filled.
So as i said before, it was a pretty amazing day. We got to ride about every form of Thai transportation in just one day (and I think that most of us are getting tired of all of the transportation, so it's nice to finally be somewhere for awhile) and got to see some really awesome stuff!
I can't wait to tell you all more about it when we return!
พระเจ้าให้ศีลคุณ (GOD Bless You)
I love you all!
Dustin (DJ)