hello

since we last wrote, we have joined our group consisting of: a mother & son from toronto, 3 english girls, 1 english guy, a couple from belgium, a couple from switzerland, and a lady from new york.

we started off the tour on saturday morning with a canal boat around bangkok, to the floating vegetable and flower markets, trying some new exotic fruits. from there we visited the sleeping/reclining buddha at wat po, which was massive and covered in gold leaf. in the afternoon we hopped on a bus to sukothai which took 6 hours, it seemed to go fairly quickly. the hotel here is much nicer than the joining hotel in bangkok. after checking in, we all headed across the road to a local restaurant for a nice dinner. on our way back, the hotel was setting off fire lanterns into the sky, for a celebration. this tradition is meant to bring happiness and good luck. we were kindly invited to join in with the celebration.

today, we set off on a cycling trip around the historical park of sukothai, with many stops at the crumbling temples. as an optional activity for the afternoon, half of the group headed to a national park which had many scenic waterfalls and pools to swin in. we were not informed about the 2hour trek up the hillside to the highest waterfall. if you stopped at all you would get bitten alive by black ants. we did see a few colourful/poisonious looking spiders along the way, but the didnt give us much bother. once we eventually reached the top, we had a lovely refreshing dip in the pool (see photo). off out for dinner tonight with the group in the next nearest town. we think there is a thai massage on our way tomorrow, well deserved after todays trek.

speak soon,

ally and lauren x