Differences

• Thailand has Buddha statues. The U.S has more statues of it’s presidents.
• Thailand has more islands. The U.S has more beaches.
• Thailand is in Asia.The U.S is in North America.
• In Thailand, people speak Thai. In the U.S, people speak English.
• They are different time zones (Thailand is fourteen hours ahead(I’m writing this the day after you see it)
• Thailand has wild tigers and wild elaphants.

Simallarities

• Both are countries.
• Neither are islands.
• Both have capital cities. Bangkok is the capital of Thailand. Washington DC is the capital of the U.S.A.
• People like fruit and ice cream in both places.

Today we went to a Thai elephant preserve. The elephants were Asian elephants. Asian elephants are smaller than African elephants. There color is more brown and African elephants are more grey.  The trunks and ears are also different.

We spent the whole day with the elephants. First, our group fed them bananas and sugar cane(yum!).  Their trunks were strong. The keeper told us one alone could break a grown man’s arm! Next, we learned to ride them! These are some of the commands: nan-long means lay down(they stand up automatically), pai means go, wai means turn, and I forgot how to say “stop”.  Next, we rode around for an hour.  We rode bareback. I rode on the head and dada rode on the back. My brother and mama rode on a different elephant. We switched halfway through so that I could ride with my mom. I held on to the ears so that I didn’t fall.

At the end of the afternoon, we bathed the elephants. We dumped water and scrubbed them with brushes. There was elephant poop everywhere! Next stop: shower.

My quotes from the day:

1. Keeper: “When elephants spray water, they  get it from their stomachs.”
Fin: “Well, that sounds unsanitary.”

2. Mama’s elephant rears up, wobbles, and trumpets. Everybody is silent. I ring out: “Well that was unexpected.”

3. At first Fisher was too scared to get on the elaphent. Then. . . “Mama, this is to easy.”

THIS DAY WAS AWESOME!!!!!! We went to a bug sanctuary, a tiger sanctuary, and the night market! There was tons of bugs pinned to bulletin boards.

We could hold caterpillars and release b!utterflies.

I got to hold a mildly poisonous scorpion.

Me and Fisher also got to hold lizards and millipedes.

At the tiger sanctuary we got to cuddle and play with baby tigers.

I am soooooooooooo tired now so I should stop looking at a screen.

Sorry I haven’t written for a while, but things have been really (and when I say really, I mean really) busy around here. We have been to tons and tons of places in the last few days.   The first place we went to today was ruins were there was a lot of towers. There was also a lot of broken Buddha statues.

We saw a huge snail at the temple!!!

(and bats(shudder))

Then, we rode elephants!

It was very bumpy. About halfway through it started to rain.  We got soaked! Next, we went to lunch. Nothing very exciting happened there. Then, we went to the strangled Buddha. It was wierd and cool.

Then, we went on a boat. We didn’t see anything very interesting.

Then, we ate dinner, went to the train station, chased geckos (one fell off the cieling), and got on a night train. That’s where we are now. Now that (Yawn) I’m done I’ll go to sle-ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz.

Today is our first day in Thailand.

We went to a lot of fun places. To get around town we rode in a tuk tuk. It has one wheel in the front and two in the back. It has no doors. This is what it looks like on the inside.

The first place we went to was a temple where there was a 30M tall Buddha* statue!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We had to take of our shoes because it was sacred ground. Fisher and I each released four birds from cages so that they could fly to the top of the Buddha. We rubbed it’s feet for good luck.

Next, we went to another temple. It had an eight hundred year old** Buddha statue in it!

Then, we went to the tailor, where my dad got a suit. My brother and I each had our first coke. 😉

Next, we went to floating market, where we bought fruit and souveniers.

And finally, we went to a last temple (for today) and saw the reclining Buddha that was 46M long.

*Buddha, a man whose teachings founded Budduism.

**can you believe that!? Eight hundred years!!!!