Ok this is going to be a long one. Here it goes...
THURSDAY:
I left with P'Kla, P'Keng, P'Kai, and some random guy at 10 in the a.m. to go to JJ Market. On the way we stopped and picked up Beam, and then realized there wasn't nearly enough room in the truck for 6 people, so instead of us all going to the market, they dropped Beam and I off at her mother's house. While we waited for her Mom to come home, we ate some lunch and watched DodgeBall. When her Mom finally got there, it started storming like crazy outside, and her mom didn't want to drive in the crazy weather, so we had to wait for the weather to ease up a bit before heading out to Beam's Gramma's house at Nonthaburi. While we waited we watched a bit of the movie The Waterhorse. On the drive out to Nonthaburi (about a 1 hour drive) I fell asleep. For some reason I was super tired the whole weekend. And it all started during that car ride. Anyways, once we arrived in Nonthaburi, we went out shopping for some snacks to take with us for the weekend, and then spent what seemed like hours waiting around at the school where Beam's cousin works for her to finish up whatever it was she was doing for the day. I just spent the whole time listening to my iPod, and helping Beam with some of her English homework. One of the questions in her homework was "What is something about another culture you like?", and since she likes the sound of Christmas, she was asking me all about different traditions that go along with Christmas. I told her about a few, and said that it will be sad for me to miss Christmas this year. Then she told me, "but I think your host family might be Christian." And now let's just say both Beam and I are absolutely confused as to what my host families religion is. On the host family application form they said they were Buddhist, but then again they also said they only had 4 children, not 5. That night Beam, her cousin, and I all slept on the floor in the living room of her cousin's house. I went to sleep pretty early because we had to wake up at 5 the next morning, however Beam stayed up until 2 30 finishing up her homework.
FRIDAY:
Woke up early in order to board the bus at 6 a.m., and then ended up sitting around on the bus for over an hour. When we finally got moving, we discovered that there were some problems with the bus, and we ended up breaking down and having to wait even longer for a replacement bus. When we finally were able to head out to Chanthaburi for good, it was around 10. We arrived around 2 in the afternoon, ate lunch at Oasis Sea World, and then stayed around to watch a dolphin show type thing, where they just made the dolphins do tricks and what not, kind of like at Sea World, except that this place was alot more run-down, and I actually felt really bad for the dolphins. The show was pretty entertaining though, and afterwards we had a little bit of time to do some shopping at the gift shop there. Chanthaburi province is famous for it's gem-stone market. There were all kinds of gem-stones there, such as rubies and sapphires, but I had no idea how to tell whether the quality was really as good as the store merchants were saying it was, or if I was just getting ripped off, so I didn't end up buying any stones. However, I instead 
let myself be ripped off on a necklace covered with "crystals" that looks like the Thai flag. I really liked it, so I bought it, but in hindsight I'm thinking I really shouldn't have paid what I paid for it. Oh well. We then headed to a waterfall which was part of some national park. Since we were running a bit behind schedule, due to the whole bus breaking down scenario, we only had 45 minutes at the national park. If we would have had more time, we could have gone swimming at the bottom of the waterfall, but we didn't, so instead we just ran around and took pictures of various things, fed a huge swarm of fish some vegetables, and had all of about 2 minutes to look at the actual waterfall before we had to head back to the bus. I really wish we would have had more time there, because there were all kinds of neat nature trails surrounding the area which I would have loved to explore. We headed to the hotel for supper, after which we walked around on the beach for a bit, and then joined in with the rest of the group for some campfire (minus the actual fire) activity type games. We planned on waking up early in the morning to do some aerobics with the rest of the group on the beach while the sun was rising, and possibly go swimming in the ocean before heading out for rafting.
let myself be ripped off on a necklace covered with "crystals" that looks like the Thai flag. I really liked it, so I bought it, but in hindsight I'm thinking I really shouldn't have paid what I paid for it. Oh well. We then headed to a waterfall which was part of some national park. Since we were running a bit behind schedule, due to the whole bus breaking down scenario, we only had 45 minutes at the national park. If we would have had more time, we could have gone swimming at the bottom of the waterfall, but we didn't, so instead we just ran around and took pictures of various things, fed a huge swarm of fish some vegetables, and had all of about 2 minutes to look at the actual waterfall before we had to head back to the bus. I really wish we would have had more time there, because there were all kinds of neat nature trails surrounding the area which I would have loved to explore. We headed to the hotel for supper, after which we walked around on the beach for a bit, and then joined in with the rest of the group for some campfire (minus the actual fire) activity type games. We planned on waking up early in the morning to do some aerobics with the rest of the group on the beach while the sun was rising, and possibly go swimming in the ocean before heading out for rafting.SATURDAY:
Let's just say the plans to wake up early didn't go as planned. We were all too tired. So instead we woke up semi-late (i.e. 7 in the a.m.), went for a little walk on the beach, ate breakfast, and then got all ready to go rafting. We went 8 
people per raft, plus 2 rafting guides, one who sat in the front and one who sat in the back. Unfortunately, as the rafting involved water, I wasn't able to take my camera.. I wish I would have been able to though, as the scenery was quite beautiful, minus some of the garbage that was sprawled along the sides of the river in some places. The whole course itself was pretty easy, with rapids only in a few places. I did find it confusing though that whenever the guides would give instructions, they would be in Thai, and I woudln't have a clue what they were saying. However, I quickly learned the Thai words for "Right" "Left" and "Duck!" We all wore life jackets and helmets, so that if there were ever any branches over our heads, our helmets would protect us. We had to stop, get out, and walk, while the guides carried our rafts at three different damns. At one point we stopped by this rickety old bridge which we had the option of jumping off of into the river. I decided to do it, and I must admit, the scariest part of the whole thing was just walking out into the middle of the bridge itself, since the thing was so old and looked like it would break at any moment. One of the other rafts unfortunately got a leak in it just before that bridge, and they had to wait around for some people to bring a new replacement raft for them. For some reason my raft had to wait around for them, which meant that we were late finishing the course. Just as we finished, it started to rain. It was alright, since we were already all wet from jumping off the bridge, until we had to climb into the back of a pickup truck to be transported back to our starting location. The wind mixed in with the cold rain, was not so good. However, we were able to take quick showers and get dressed into our nice dry clothes before heading back to the hotel. We then went swimming in the ocean for a little while (so much for just showering and getting all nice and clean), ate dinner, and then went to bed.
people per raft, plus 2 rafting guides, one who sat in the front and one who sat in the back. Unfortunately, as the rafting involved water, I wasn't able to take my camera.. I wish I would have been able to though, as the scenery was quite beautiful, minus some of the garbage that was sprawled along the sides of the river in some places. The whole course itself was pretty easy, with rapids only in a few places. I did find it confusing though that whenever the guides would give instructions, they would be in Thai, and I woudln't have a clue what they were saying. However, I quickly learned the Thai words for "Right" "Left" and "Duck!" We all wore life jackets and helmets, so that if there were ever any branches over our heads, our helmets would protect us. We had to stop, get out, and walk, while the guides carried our rafts at three different damns. At one point we stopped by this rickety old bridge which we had the option of jumping off of into the river. I decided to do it, and I must admit, the scariest part of the whole thing was just walking out into the middle of the bridge itself, since the thing was so old and looked like it would break at any moment. One of the other rafts unfortunately got a leak in it just before that bridge, and they had to wait around for some people to bring a new replacement raft for them. For some reason my raft had to wait around for them, which meant that we were late finishing the course. Just as we finished, it started to rain. It was alright, since we were already all wet from jumping off the bridge, until we had to climb into the back of a pickup truck to be transported back to our starting location. The wind mixed in with the cold rain, was not so good. However, we were able to take quick showers and get dressed into our nice dry clothes before heading back to the hotel. We then went swimming in the ocean for a little while (so much for just showering and getting all nice and clean), ate dinner, and then went to bed. SUNDAY:
Before we checked out of the hotel, we headed just down the road a little ways to a nature trail type thing (called Kung Kraben Bay) through a mangrove forest. Honestly most of it wasn't too pretty, just a bunch of plants growing up
from some muddy-ness, but I did see my first Thai snake, and when we finally reached the point where the mangroves met the water, it was beautiful. On our journey back to Bangkok, we stopped at a Temple (I'm not sure what the name of it was) which was situated atop a big hill. This meant that we either had to wait around for a trolley type thing to take us up, or walk up the hundreds of stairs to the top. Since we didn't have much time, and figured that the stairs would be quicker, we walked. It was quite the experience, let's just put it at that. Although we did manage to beat the trolley to the top :) We looked around the temple a bit, saw a bunch of famous monks made out of wax, and then stopped in a little Buddhist shop, where I bought some bracelets which, "are not normal bracelets," according to Beam. She didn't really know how to explain it to me in English, but the whole idea behind them is that the monks have some sort of ceremony where they make these bracelets special (kind of like good luck charms I guess). Anyways, I thought they 
would be nice gifts for people back home. We made two more stops on the way back to Bangkok, one at a restaurant near the beach for lunch, and once again at a type of harbour to go shopping at some gift shops. These last two stops were in a different province however, called Rayong I believe, and let me just say, the beaches there were gorgeous! Just when I was starting to feel a little disguisted with all the garbage and what not around Thailand, I saw these beaches, and was completely amazed. I also saw a beautiful looked island off in the distance, which apparently is a famous island in Thailand called Samet Island. In Thailand they believe that this is the island of love, and have some sort of special saying in Thai about it. By the time we got back to Bangkok, I was feeling pretty happy to be getting off of that bus, do to the constant Thai style karaoke which took place whenever the engine was running. Thank goodess I had my iPod is all I can say.
from some muddy-ness, but I did see my first Thai snake, and when we finally reached the point where the mangroves met the water, it was beautiful. On our journey back to Bangkok, we stopped at a Temple (I'm not sure what the name of it was) which was situated atop a big hill. This meant that we either had to wait around for a trolley type thing to take us up, or walk up the hundreds of stairs to the top. Since we didn't have much time, and figured that the stairs would be quicker, we walked. It was quite the experience, let's just put it at that. Although we did manage to beat the trolley to the top :) We looked around the temple a bit, saw a bunch of famous monks made out of wax, and then stopped in a little Buddhist shop, where I bought some bracelets which, "are not normal bracelets," according to Beam. She didn't really know how to explain it to me in English, but the whole idea behind them is that the monks have some sort of ceremony where they make these bracelets special (kind of like good luck charms I guess). Anyways, I thought they 
would be nice gifts for people back home. We made two more stops on the way back to Bangkok, one at a restaurant near the beach for lunch, and once again at a type of harbour to go shopping at some gift shops. These last two stops were in a different province however, called Rayong I believe, and let me just say, the beaches there were gorgeous! Just when I was starting to feel a little disguisted with all the garbage and what not around Thailand, I saw these beaches, and was completely amazed. I also saw a beautiful looked island off in the distance, which apparently is a famous island in Thailand called Samet Island. In Thailand they believe that this is the island of love, and have some sort of special saying in Thai about it. By the time we got back to Bangkok, I was feeling pretty happy to be getting off of that bus, do to the constant Thai style karaoke which took place whenever the engine was running. Thank goodess I had my iPod is all I can say. 
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