verbingnouns

Travel Log Part 7

Tuesday, March 6

Last night I actually slept through the night! 10:30 -6:45 -Yea!

Today has been pretty interesting. First, we went to two old temples - not too bad, as temples go, but I am already templed out.

From Thailand Marc...

After that, we went to lunch at an American(ish) restaurant, which was really good. In Thailand, you don't usually order an individual plate of dinner like we do in America. One person orders food for the whole table and you eat family style. Well, at the American restaurant, they encouraged us to order out own plate, but then proceeded to order enough food for 10 other people. If I had realized they were ordering for the whole table, too, I wouldn't have ordered on my own. Lack of communication is becoming commonplace.
We also went to Indra ceramic factory today. They had great stuff that I wish I could have bought, but I didn't think it would make it home in one piece. We did paint our own ceramics. I painted a plate which looks like it was made by a 3rd grader. It was fun, though.

From Thailand Marc...

After the ceramics, we went to tour the public hospital. It was huge (800 beds) and absolutely disgusting. If I got sick, I would rather tough it out at a disgusting house. I don't particularly like going to hospitals in America, but seeing a sign for the SARS ward takes hospital visits to a new level.
When we walked out of the hospital, we walked to a building across the street, where I assumed our hosts were going to pick us up. While we were standing there, I look inside the building and realize there is a dead body laying on the table. Apparently, the deceased was a relative of one of our hosts, so they invited us in. We tried to decline since we were all shorts and tank tops, but they insisted, so we basically crashed a funeral. That was super weird - words cannot fully describe the experience. The funeral was for a 98 year old lady (who died yesterday and was laying on a table at the front of the room with her arm hanging off the table). The funeral process takes several days, then they "refrigerate" the body for up to a year before cremating it. Apparently, the longer you keep the body (in your house, by the way) the more you loved the person. The lady from the hospital had just been telling us that Thai people don't like organ donation because they want to keep their bodies whole for their next life, so I find it odd that they would cremate the bodies.
Lampang has been very hospitable. Even though the family we are with is a little odd, they have been kind to open their home to us. This GSE program is incredible because we get to see so many different things. It's a great way to see a country for what it is.

Posted by christin at April 18, 2007 05:12 PM | TrackBack