Today we drove two hours north of Bangkok to visit an AIDS hospice in the Lopburi province. It was as sobering as I expected, but not as...voyeuristic as I feared. They clearly had the little campus set up for visitors: there were big displays with information about about AIDS in Thailand and a couple of one room museums displaying bodies and body parts were aimed at reminding visitors to be careful with their bodies and that the victims of AIDS are people like anyone else. Ihave to admit, I found the displays more gruesome than edifying, but I do apprecaite what they were going for.

Then we had a big change of pace and stopped by the monkey temple, where a group(tribe? whatever) of monkeys have taken up residence in the ruins of a Khmer Temple..seeing the ruins got me really excited for Angkor Wat, and the monkey swere pretty cool, although I was careful to keep my distance (no monkey diesases for me, thanks).

Tomorrow, a 12 hours bus ride to Siem Reap and Cambodia!