All Shall Be Revealed!

  Settled into my home away from home in Ayutthaya, Thailand, today (Sunday) was a day for a bit of adventure.  Sunday is the only day my host  family, Mai, Max, and Poo have off from work.  I suggested that we do something that they think is fun.  Having fun (sanok) is big in Thailand.
  They took me up on my suggestion and ordered up a tuk-tuk for transportation since they all ride motor bikes.  Not clear where we were going I hopped in a settled back comfortable in my mantra "all shall be revealed".  With our language limitations it is ofter easier to simply wait and see what will happen, comfortable in relationships, that it will all make sense in the end.
   After a long tuk-tuk ride which took us out of town on a six land highway we pulled off into a wooded area and the monkeys scampering everywhere revealed the plan.  Last night I shared with Poo, the 25 year old daughter in the house, the list the Noble Academy students put together of photo ops.  On that list was a monkey eating a banana.  There are no monkeys in Ayutthaya but here, a bit out of town, was a Thai version of Monkey Island...except they are free ranging, no fences, barriers, etc., to keep monkeys in or people out.  We couldn't find a banana to feed them so settled for ear and popcorn.  The monkeys are in their natural habitat and are very well fed so are content to stay put.

  From Monkey Island we went to a grotto that was a combination of amusement park, state fair, taste of Thailand, and a Buddhist park.  We fed the catfish from a pier by the river, bought food from the boats pulled up to the covered dock which was set with tables and chairs, looked at the statuary, stopped at the shrines and visited the aviary.  As is often the case when I'm with "my" family or at the school or school activities I was the only foreigner present.  My family was livid when the motor cycle taxis we used for the last leg of our journey charged almost double because of me.  They think it's terrible disrespectful that I be treated like that.
  These pictures are ones requested by Nobel Academy students; Al in traditional Thai clothes, feeding monkeys, floating market and Buddhist statuary.