And then there were three

Today was a sad day. Said goodbye to Shim, Ruth and Claire..was awful. We were so lucky to have met 3 people on the same wavelength as us. I felt they kind of took us ubder their wing as we had no idea what to do we first got here and straight away they were the first ones to chat to us and invite us out to eat with them. All 3 of them...(my god i'm writing this like they're dead) brought a different sense of humour and quality to the group that will be missed (seriously, they're not dead). I hope they're safe and we stay in touch with them. wicked people. After that we went to the grand palace. It was incredibly beautiful and very impressive with so much precious stones and metals crafted with great skill and care but I was suprised at how angry it made me. I guess this is a bit of quaker influence now coming through. It cost 200 baht to get in (with a 5o% student discount) and there were donation boxes everywhere constantly asking for money. I understand the traditions and the need for constant maintenance to keep the palace how it is but i was still angered. As we were walking through, extra parts of the temple were being adjusted and altered for no apparent reason which must have cost a fortune. I can also understand donations...fair enough..but you should not be charged to enter a place of worship. I felt they were exploiting religion. yes, it is a tourist attraction but the majority of people in there were buddhists coming to meditate and worship. I was just so annoyed that this place ahd so much money when just outside there were people begging and starving to death. Bangkok is full of poverty and surely money would be so much better spent by the temple on things like water purification, sanitry and general health and medication. Surely these issues should be addressed befoer building yet another temple in the Grand Palace to signify that the King can put his own clothes on or some other trivial reason. Phew! Needed to get that out! I just think quakers have got it so right by keeping things simple. A place of worship should be anywhere you wish it to be not necessarilya building or specific location.
On the night train now. Its not as gross as the last but i think we were all better prepared this time. Spent most of the night playing cards with Claire, Holly and Kelly in the disco cart. They lights went out so we played in the dark which was pretty funny.