The last few days have been very reassuring.

On Saturday Ant, Colin (otherwise known as GreyCat on Bootsnall), and I wandered around. We first stopped off at the Temple of the Golden Buddha, which houses a 5.5 ton solid gold buddha.

This buddha is the one that got me interested in visiting Thailand in the first place. When I lived with Steph in Tech Hall at Stevens, I was reading some book that mentioned the story of the Golden Buddha. This eventually culminated in my first trip here to Thailand in 2000 with Steph.

Back in the day (errr... the date is fuzzy) a 5.5 ton solid gold buddha was cast (take that King Tut!!). However, being $15 million worth of gold (at today's prices), it had to be protected from pillaging invaders. So, it was hidden underneath a plaster/cement casing, in the shape of another buddha. During excavation for a building project in the 1930s, the statue was shifted, and a piece of the casing broke off, revealing the golden buddha inside!

Imagine making that find! The down side of this amazing discovery was that people went around smashing stone/plaster buddhas all over the country.

It's quite a site and the incredible thing about the statue is that there is almost no security around it. I mean really, just ganking a toe would be enough to keep me traveling for a LONG while.

Anywho, after that we wandered around, found the main train station and picked up some time tables. Which brings me to a VERY cruel joke here in Thailand. There are more 7-11s that ANYWHERE I have ever seen (even more than Hong Kong) but they don't have slurpees!!! What is up with that???

To smooth over my distress, we took a dip in the VP Tower's pool. Rockin.

However, the night was not over. Ant, Colin, and I headed off to some area that Mel had taken Ant a few nights before and proceeded to get completely shitty for $8. That's $8 for 6 beers (total) that are the size of wine bottles, and almost as strong. Not to bad if you ask me!!!!!

Finally, we bid farewell to Colin as he was off to Ko Samui for a few days. Have fun man!!! We enjoyed your company.

Mel is due back in a few hours and we have chores to do for the next few days. We have to procure visas for Cambodia and I am going to get my slides/negs processed at a professional lab here in Bangkok for a fraction of what I'd pay at home. Also, being most of my clothes are India garb, covering much of my body, I am looking forward to buying some cute new stuff.