Day 85: November 28. Field trip.

We got up this morning not knowing exactly what the day would hold; Katie had been informed by one of her friends last night that she may have a half-day today, but we weren't sure. So she emailed us from work as soon as she knew (she did!) and Karla and I bummed around for a while (relaxing-again!!!), waiting for Katie to go on our adventure.

We passed the morning checking email, talking to our families (it was still Thanksgiving for them!), watching the news, finishing 'Wizard of Oz', and of course listening to Christmas music. Katie came home promptly at 1 and we all got ready to head out the door.

We took a pleasant walk to the bus station, finding a bus to Ayuttaya, about an hour away. We bought snacks for the bus, and hopped on just as it was about to leave.

The ride was obviously much longer than an hour (almost 2 in fact!), but we had some delicious snacks, good conversation, and the rice fields that we passed to look at and keep us entertained (Karla fell alsleep for part of it-big surprise).

Once we got to Ayuttaya, we took a tuk-tuk to one of the ruins in the city. The first thing we saw was a giant lounging Buddha right in the middle of ruins. It was crazy to see this huge statue ostensibly in the middle of nowhere wrapped in sparkling golden robes.

We walked through these temple ruins from the middle ages, and essentially worked our way back to where the bus dropped us off on foot, seeing tons of ruins of temples, statues and mausoleums, as well as tuk-tuks passing and elephants in their elegant formal wear hanging out with their drivers. It was a very fun day trip!

It got a little stressful at the end of the day when we found our bus, and tried to communicate to him that we wanted to go back to Suphanburi tonight, and he seemed to be telling us only tomorrow. But luckily we were persistent, and it was finally communicated to us that there was a bus back in 15 minutes. That was close!

So we ran to get food from a vendor (incidentally the best pad thai yet!), and Karla ran back while Katie and Alicia were waiting for the food to hold the bus. We made it! And Katie and Karla slept most of the way home.

We got back to the apartment to freshen up before heading to a night market that turned out to be more of an evening market. Tired, we opted to head back home (after a snack stop at the 7-11) to watch 'Sense and Sensibility' into the early morning hours. Jane Austin has done it again!

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