thailand!

in our continuing adventures in thailand, lulu and i had dinner our first night in bangkok with her cambodian friend aki. we had a few drinks and then went back to the hostel. lulu's friend mary finally showed up late that night. the next morning, my doxycycline was making me feel awful, so lulu and mary went off on a fabulous adventure to the royal palace and the reclining buddha while i stayed and took a nap. we got a new room mate that day, a girl named leah. the four of us all went to dinner that night, and met up with aki and his tour group for some drinks.
the next day, the four of us took a ferry up toward the royal palace. lulu and mary took a boat across the river to wat arun, while leah and i tried to go to the royal palace to see the emerald buddha. however, it was the anniversary of the king's coronation day, so the palace was closed. but, we had arrived just in time to see the king arrive. there was only a small crowd, but their excitement was amazing. you could tell that they were so happy to see him. i managed to get a fairly bad photo of his limo over the crowd, but at least i got to see him. afterwards, leah and i met lulu and mary over at wat arun, we walked around then took the little boat back over the river and had lunch near the palace. after lunch, we went to the museum, but it was also closed. so we took a taxi over to wat benchamabopitr, the marble temple. the whole thing is built of large blocks of marble, and it's gorgeous.
after that, we walked over to the nearest ferry terminal, which took us past great crowds of people getting ready for the coronation day festivities. unknowingly, lulu and mary had worn pink shirts that day, which is what everyone else was wearing to celebrate, so they got lots of attention as we walked around. people were smiling at them and the soldiers and police kept trying to tell them how nice it was that they were celebrating with everyone. it was great.
after we got back, we cleaned up and then caught a show a theater. it was a huge production showing the history of siam. it was amazing and had dancing, beautiful costumes, real elephants, and amazing sets.
the next day, we got up early to take a train to ayutthaya, the ancient capital. we found a guest house, and then took a three hour tour but tuktuk around to the ancient palace, wat yai chaya mongkol, wat maha that, and wat chaiwatthanaram. the ruins were all amazing.
we walked around the market, then had dinner before leah left to go back to bangkok. then the three of us went back to our room and took showers and looked over our pictures before going to bed.
today, i'm at the guest house while lulu and mary are on a bike ride. i:m too wobbly to begin with, and in this traffic, i'm afraid of being run over. they'll be back later, and we'll go have lunch and go see some more stuff before we take the overnight bus to chiang mai tonight at 8 pm.

as a side note, though there are protests going on in bangkok, they were in isolated areas, and easy to avoid. there is a huge police presence in the city, and at no point (even when we unknowingly ended up near a protest rally) did i ever feel unsafe. everything was very nice, and i can't wait to get back at the end of our trip.