Wat?

I just had the most AMAZING day. Goi told me yesterday that we were going to "Iceland" and I kept asking her if we were going ice-skating, getting ice-cream, should I bring a jacket? She just smiled and nodded at me, obviously I didn't make sense and we had an English/Thai misunderstanding, haha. I copied what she was wearing just to be safe and threw on shorts and a tshirt grabbed my purse and we walked to the mission college much to my surprise. We had breakfast with the pastors family (thai breakfast rice, pomelo, and pineapple juice) then they all started packing up to go to the ISLAND…we were taking a trip to an ISLAND not ICELAND, haha. Goi didn't know that the "s" was silent.
The Island as it turns out is not someplace off the coast of Thailand, its actually an island in the city on the river. FUN FACT: Thailand is in fact sinking several inches a year, the entire city was built on a swamp. We arrived at a Wat (Buddhist temple) somewhere in Bangkok, and had to take a ferry across the river to get to the Island. Once we had crossed we rented bikes for several hours and started on a concrete sidewalk. The sidewalk was several yards above the water level and we were completely surrounded by buildings on all sides at first, they even had tarps draped across the pathway which made it feel almost like going through caves but seeing inside peoples homes/stores at the same time. It was actually a really good thing the tarps were up because it was raining for the first bit of the ride. After a while it opened up a bit and you could see the houses more clearly, everything was raised on stilts and completely open. Every now and again there would be a Buddhist temple sandwiched in between the houses, also raised up on stilts but extremely ornately carved. Apparently the Island is the countries major source of terra-cotta pot-making because the earth underneath the houses is red clay. We saw some random giant pots on the sidewalk occasionally but otherwise I didn't get to see any potters. The entire time there were other bikers and people walking on the path but there were also scooters, so dodging traffic was difficult sometimes. The thing that shocked me the most was everything GROWING everywhere. It seems like if you sneeze here some how your snot would grow a banana tree. No joke EVERYTHING grows in the craziest places. There were trees growing up out of the water in between houses, lotus flowers, random vines and fruits I have never seen before. You name it, it grows there. And I don't think there is such thing as a "weed" either, everything is edible.
While flora and fauna is abundant, livestock is as well, I almost ran over a flock of chickens and ducks, and it was near impossible to avoid hitting a dog. FUN FACT2: Dogs are the lowest form of society here in Thailand. Buddhists believe that if your bad deeds outweigh your good deeds when you die you reincarnate in the next life into a dog. Thus, almost every dog is seen as more of a rat. They're scrawny, bones and skin mostly, flea bitten and often injured creatures here. If someone owns a dog, they're most likely non-Buddhist practicing people. Amazingly there are still tons of them, the only reason they survive is because no one is going to spay or neuter the unwanted animals so they just multiply anyway.
We just got back and I'm prepared to sleep away some more jet-lag, miraculously I've made it till 4:13PM today without crashing. Very impressive...We finished off our day with some amazing pad Thai from street vendors below the apartment and I'm stuffed...
I promise pictures WILL come of the grand day, I was completely unprepared though and didn't bring my camera, I borrowed the pastors and will get photos up very soon :)