Charmaine had the day off as it was a National religious holiday....the day is one where people who only go to church one or twice a year have the opportunity to go and pray. (much like the protestant Christmas and Easter I guess....) so she took me on a site seeing tour down to the Songkhla beaches. We walked over..about a ten minute walk. There are many Temples along the route we took.











We also ran into a couple of Charmaine's students .




They asked (in Thai...they have very limited English...) if I was her boyfriend. Charmaine blushed (she does that alot...) so I leaned over and kissed her (a 'halik' in Tagalog) much to the delight of the young school girls giggles! As we left them I taught them (actually they just parrot the words much like you or I would do...) Goodbye! Have a nice Day!"








Many scenic things to view along the way!  








Upon arriving at the beach there were many people... merchants hawking their wares










and boys playing 'football' (it's not called soccer anywhere but the US...)





We sat and watched a kite flying for a while... that was very serene and peaceful! (especially nice since I'm with my Charmaine!)








Songkhla...if you google search it and go to images...most likely the mermaid comes up. It is the 'landmark' and jugging by the number of tourist taking it's picture..it's very popular! The story is she was spoted by a young fisherman who fell in love with her beauty...she was frightend and disapeared into the sea...the fisherman waited for her to return...but alas...she never did! I decided to give trhe lass a 'Halik' for good fortune!


We took a tuk-tuk back...and he took advantage of the small filipina and her farang (foreigner) by over charging us for the ride (Charmaine has taken it many times..it is 24Baht..)he charged us 30 Baht! Welcome to Thailand....you do have to watch yourself with the merchants.



We came back at night for a picnic with Mae and Jove (Charmaine's roommates) and Gi-gi Lov and Ian. We had some good food, played guitar and sang and had some fun at the moons expense.. .

(btw..the setting moon was as bright of red as I had ever saw...I hope my pic does it justice)


And speaking of food...here are a couple of the meals Chamaine has made for me!

And here are some pictures of Charmaines place and my guest quarters...
and one of Charmaines Braids...It takes her 35 minutes to braid her hair.... more post soon!