So after getting the particulars of orientation, and apartment paper signing done, Dang and the Hedtke's took Sarah and I on an adventure to Ayuttaya (pronounced uhh-yoot-tea-yuh) Saturday the 30th. The first place we visited was the Queen's project. It's a huge property with many buildings like a US fairgrounds, and in each building there is a different type of art or craft being made. They range from glass making, to silk painting. It's called the Queen's project because the Queen wants to preserve traditional Thai art, as well as provide disabled or extremely poor people with a way of living. They come to the center, learn the art, whether it be welding, pottery, weaving, etc, and then they take it back to their villages, make it and sell it. The things they make are absolutely beautiful too. Here is a picture of my purchases; some silk and glass.
I think the elephant is my favorite since he's kind of pudgy. The glass was only like $2 and the silk was maybe $6. Most things here in Thailand are pretty inexpensive which is a good thing living on a volunteer missionary budget. On the property are also some houses built to demonstrate different housing styles throughout the country. Dang showed us an example of the eating area of one of them here
Our next stop was the one Sarah had been waiting for since she found out we were going to Thailand, and that was the elephant rides! I guess I didn't realize how tall they are until I had to climb up a staircase to get on one. He was huge and I could feel his shoulder blades under my feet as he shifted back and forth. 20 minutes was long enough for me. I really enjoyed feeding them corn at the end. There were about 5 of them lined up, eager to get an ear from me.
But we still had more things to see. We saw the reclining Buddha outside dressed in orange for lent, 
and were pressed by a group of kids that wanted us to buy flowers to worship the Buddha. We told them we were Christian, so instead they were content to make faces at our cameras, and then look at themselves over an over again. 
Pastor Bob pointed out that in order to reach people with the Gospel of Jesus in Thailand you have to build relationships with them, and that's exactly what we were doing while we sipped on coconut milk straight from a coconut.
Sadly we had to say goodbye as we went to our last place, the summer palace of the King and Queen, Bang Pa-In. I was stopped by a schoolgirl who was practicing her English and had a list of basic questions to ask me. As I continued on down the sidewalk to catch up with my group, I passed by a group of monks dressed in orange who avoided touching me, lest they have to go through a ritual cleansing process for coming into contact with a woman. We walked past several different animal-shaped shrubs,
to a chinese house made for the King, Phra Thinang Wehart Chamrun. We couldn't take pictures inside, but it was incredibly ornate. 
The last house we visited was quite an ordeal, and it involved a small touch of embarassment on my part as well as a great deal or entertainment on Dang, the Hedtke's, and a group of workmen's part. In the King's house we were required to wear a sarong (or at least Dang said so) and I had a hard time figuring out how to tie it with my two bags I was carrying. By the time I got it on, they were rolling with laughter as Sarah and I were walking up the steps, while they waited outside. Our only condolence was the fact that it was air-con inside, so we stayed in there a few minutes longer to let them sweat it out. We then made our way back to town as we munched on some fried bananas, then parted ways.
Sarah and I made our first attempt at a taxi ride that night to the Hedtke's house where we had a pizza party and enjoyed a nice relaxing evening getting to know each other better. Pastor Bob will kill me, but it was so cute to see them in their sarongs together!
Oh well, that's enough for now. Time to call this post an end.
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