A BOATLOAD OF BUDDHAS

Wat Pho is another major tourist attraction in Bangkok.  (A wat is a temple.)  Its grounds are not quite as daunting as the Grand Palace, but it's still 20 acres of grounds to tour.  It is home to more than 1,000 Buddha images, including one of the largest single Buddha images in Thailand, the Reclining Buddha.

This is the best I could do for a picture of this 160 foot long fella.  You can't stand back far enough to get a front-on shot, and besides that, he's lying behind a row of columns.  So this is only part of him.

Here's the view from the opposite end:

You'd be waiting a long time to get a shot without someone's head in it!

Some pretty big feet, eh?

And here are just a few of the thousand Buddhas.

Some were standing inside temples.

Some were sitting outside.....there were several places where they lined the walls of the covered walkways around courtyards.

A close-up of one of the above.

Some were sitting inside temples, with offerings of flowers below.

And there were lots of chedi, or stupas.

And many more ornate buildings.

A look at the opulent detail.

I roamed around this place for about an hour and a half, until, again, it just got too hot for comfort.  Afterward, I caught a boat back toward my apartment and made a stop in Chinatown.  My first stop there was an air conditioned restaurant, where I enjoyed some dim sum. 

Some street shots of Chinatown will explain why I didn’t stay very long. 

The sidewalks in front of the shops are lined with vendors of food and chotskies.  

The amount of sidewalk available for walkers is about one and a half persons wide, which makes it difficult to get through.  If someone stops, you’re just stuck.  So people who just want to get somewhere walk in the street, dodging traffic and double-parked delivery vans.  

Since it was also still very hot, I caught another boat, then the sky train, then the subway, and then walked the mile back to my apartment.  Are you getting a feeling for how long it takes just to get somewhere in this city?  And taking a taxi isn’t any better, because you can be standing for 5 to 10 minutes just waiting to get through a light.  Patience, patience is a great virtue here.

THE GRAND PALACE

I knew it was going to be very hot last week, but I was running out of time to see some of the sights that require being outside, so I decided to start early, thinking I’d avoid the hottest part of the day.  I caught the 9 a.m. shuttlebus, which took me to the sky train, which took me to the pier, where I caught a boat to the Grand Palace.  This is the top sight to see in Bangkok.  It was 10:30 by the time I purchased my ticket and one of those audio devices for a self-tour.  

The Thai monarchy has been in existence since 1238.  It transformed from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional form in 1932, after a coup revolution.  The current king His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej is the world's longest reigning monarch and head of state.  

He celebrated his 85th birthday the second week I was here, and the massive crowds in the streets that day (a national holiday) were a testimony to the reverence accorded him by his Thai subjects.  From what I've been told, this king has done much for the people of Thailand to help them improve their economic status.  If you say or write anything derogatory about this monarch, you could be imprisoned.  So Thais take their royalty very seriously.  

The monarchy's official residence in Bangkok is the Grand Palace, and the palace grounds are the top tourist site in the city.  The grounds are a huge complex of buildings, some dating back to the early 1800's, covering 53 acres, and even with a map and my audio device guiding me, I had a hard time figuring out what was what.  Here's a view of the grounds from across the river, just to give you an idea of how vast it is.

One of the big draws is the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, which is a complex of buildings itself.

Many of the buildings weren’t open to the public, and you weren’t allowed to take pictures in the ones that were.  So here is someone else's picture of the Emerald Buddha.

I was surprised at how small it was.  I had to look around a bit before I noticed it high atop this elaborate gold throne.  There’s a boatload of gold here.  And the Buddha isn't really made of emerald....it's jade.  The King changes the Buddha's clothes 3 times a year to signify the changing of the seasons.  This Buddha has quite a history, too long to share in this blog, but it's traveled to a number of countries in Southeast Asia, and a number of cities in Thailand.

The photos above aren't mine, but now I’m just going to share some of the ones I took that will give you an idea of the opulence of royalty in Thailand.  

This structure is called a chedi, or a stupa.  You see these bell shaped towers in most of the major temples.  You can go inside some of them, and others were used as tombs for royal family members.  This is the only one I saw that was covered in gold leaf.  

Gold in Thailand means something sacred or imperial, so you see a lot of it.  You also see a lot of temples.  In Buddism, the building of a temple is one way to make merit.  "Merit" is a good deed, act or thought, and Thais believe they are accumulated and carried over into future incarnations.   So kings often built temples to make merit for themselves and their families.

This is a partial view of the temple that houses The Emerald Buddha.  (There's no way to get a whole building in a shot here, because the buildings are very close together.)  You have to remove your shoes to enter any temple in Thailand.  And there's no "shoe guard", so you have to just hope no one likes your shoes better than their own!  

This isn't a great picture of this structure, but look at the close up I took of the detail.  Awesome!

Along a wall of one of the courtyards was a covered walk, and the whole wall was a mural of scenes like this.  It was absolutely stunning.

There were lots of guards...some human....

And some of another variety.

Another impressive building...there was a weapons museum housed in this one, along with other stuff not accessible to the public.

Just a pretty little thing...these were all over the place.

Some other building photos............

I took over 80 photos, but I think this gives you a good idea of the reverence for royalty here and the opulence of the royal grounds.  

After a couple of hours of touring, mostly outside in the hot, hot sun, I was afraid I was going to have a heat stroke.  I felt pretty sick.  I ducked into an air conditioned restaurant across the street from the royal complex and was seated at the same table with an Indian woman who happened to be from northern California and lives very near to my older sister. She was on her way to visit relatives in India and had a 12 hour layover in Bangkok.  Rather than be bored at the airport, she decided to take the opportunity to see a few sites.  We had a really nice visit.

After lunch, I was still feeling a little sick, so I decided to call it a day.  You have to allow for quite a bit of time to get somewhere and back.  I just missed a boat and had to wait about 20 minutes for another one.  Then I couldn’t get a taxi back to my apartment, so I walked the mile back and that pretty much did me in. I’m praying that the temperatures in ChiangMai will be kinder to me.

IN THE SEA OF SIAM

If I’ve learned anything from this Thailand adventure, it’s that I’ll never move to Florida.  This Northern girl is not cut out for a tropical climate.

One on very hot and humid day last week, I chose to go to Siam Ocean World, which boasts that it’s the largest underground aquarium in Southeast Asia.  I have no facts to dispute this.  It was a great way to spend a couple of hours staying cool.  The exhibits were beautiful.  I tried to take pictures, but most didn’t come out.  I’d catch a fish breathing out, so all I’d have in the photo was bubbles.  Or there would be a reflection of the flash, which spoiled the picture.  Here are a few photos that came out mostly okay, but I gave up pretty soon.  I saw everything from various species of tarantulas to some pretty big sharks.  I didn’t take note of the names of any of these sea faring creatures.

The colors were just vibrant.

Pretty pastel and almost transparent.

Sometimes it was hard to find the fish.  It's right under the bright purple flowery thing.

This guy was huge....had to be in the king crab family.

Maybe a giant sea snail.

This one looks like he has wings.

There were lots of sea horses....not that unusual, but this gives you some idea of how crowded it was around every display.  Lots of tourists and many were just rude--pushing their way in front to take pictures instead of patiently waiting their turn.  

Sorry, no sharks.

THE STREET WHERE I LIVE

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas day.  I had a pretty nontraditional day, which I'll write about later.  I have a lot of catching up to do, now that I figured out what the problem was with transferring pictures from my camera to my computer.  Would you believe it was as simple as cheap batteries?  It occurred to me when the new batteries I put in my camera a couple of days ago ran out of juice the next day.  So I put in more new batteries and "ta da", no problems downloading.

So now I'm backtracking to catch up with with my Bangkok adventure.  Before I do that, I thought you might like to see where I'm living in Bangkok.  It's in a residential neighborhood about a mile from the nearest subway station....not the greatest location for getting around quickly, but I like it.  There are a lot of "street dogs" in Bangkok.  These are the ones that lie around the soi (street) off the main road to my neighborhood.

This is what I feel like doing most of these hot and humid days here!

My apartment building--another pink palace (like in Sorrento)

These guys sit around outside my building from early morning until late evening, waiting for someone who needs transportation.  Some drive taxis; others offer exciting motorbike rides.  And no, I haven't, and won't, ride on the motorbikes.  The way they create new lanes between lines of traffic is just too scary.

And this is the lovely Aey (pronounced like the letter a) who helps me with everything.  Her real name is much longer and unpronounceable.  I'm told that most Thais chose their own short nicknames, because their real names are very long. 

I didn't take pictures of my one-bedroom apartment, but it's nice--all wood floors comfortable furniture, but absolutely nothing on the walls and just overhead lights--no lamps.  My favorite thing about this place is the on-site restaurant that provides room service.  The food is good and so cheap that I don't even think about cooking here.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

I haven't been posting because I'm having some technical difficulties transferring pictures from my camera to my computer.  After a few photos transfer, I get an error message informing me that I've disconnected my memory device, which, of course, I haven't.  I don't know what to do.  I've googled the problem, but I'm such a technodummy that I can't understand the solutions that are recommended.  I have never been introduced to my Device Manager, so I don't know where to find it.  I need some technical help for this one.

So in the meantime, until I get this fixed and can share some of my Bangkok adventures with you............

Thanks to all of you who expressed concern about me being alone on Christmas day.  Just want you all to know that I booked myself on a food tour to Ayutthaya, which is the former capital of the Kingdom of Siam.  I think it will be an interesting day....and I'm guessing that there's going to be a temple involved.  Anyway, I won't be alone.  I'm banking on there being some English-speaking people on this tour.  

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year! 

THE NEWPORT TRAGEDY

Friends and Family,

My heart is broken over what happened to the innocent little children and the teachers and administrators who tried to protect them at the Sandy Brook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.  I cry every time I see their faces on CNN news, and I am even more disgusted with the resistance against reforming gun control legislation in the U.S.

I’m writing this blog entry to urge you to write to your state’s U.S. senators and representatives and tell them that enough innocent people, especially children, have lost their lives because it's just too easy to purchase guns without a background check.  I’m not naïve enough to believe that reforming our gun control laws will put a halt to these mass killings.  But we have to start somewhere.  We have to try.  I can’t look at the smiling faces of these darling children whose lives had barely started and not feel compelled to do something!

Here is the letter I’ll be sending to Michigan U.S. senators and congresspersons.  Feel free to plagiarize.

Dear (Senator/Representative)

The tragedy that occurred last Friday in Newtown, Connecticut is just one more wake-up call to federal lawmakers in this country that it’s time to stop playing political football with gun control legislation and do something to improve controls over the purchase of guns in this country.  At a minimum, there needs to be a background check done on everyone who wants to purchase a gun.  Personally, I’m in favor of a ban on assault weapons.  I can see no reason why anyone in this country needs such a weapon; and over time, a ban should result in a reduction of these kinds of weapons which have typically been used in the mass killings that have occurred in our country.

How many more innocent children will have to die before our federal lawmakers take responsible action to try to keep weapons out of the hands of criminals and mentally deranged people?  This is an issue that needs bipartisan cooperation; and considering the divided majority of the House and Senate, no positive change can occur without a collaborative effort.  The time has come for a improving gun control legislation, and it is my fervent hope that productive discussions will not deteriorate into another standoff between Republicans and Democrats.  I think most Americans are pretty tired of politics getting in the way of moving forward to find solid solutions to important issues like this. 

I am asking you, as my legislative representative to promote gun control as a legislative priority and to support legislation that results in (1) a requirement for background checks on all gun purchases and (2) a ban on assault weapons. 

Respectfully,