South East Asia, Thailand

Jan 15-16 We arrrive in Thailand and our OAT representative finds us and gets us to the Bizotel Bangkok. As in other OAT trips, our arrival gets us to our hotel room well past midnight and to bed about 2AM. (On the 17th.)

Masked up for our long flight, we note most travelers no longer bother to wear them. 12:31am

Friday Jan 17. Day 2 as listed in our OAT guide book.

Our first hotel of the trip.

At breakfast the hotel manager, Mr Oh, stopped by and suggested an outing for the day on the Chao Phraya River. He gave us directions on how to take the elevated train and to sign up for the Hop On Hop Off river cruise with suggested stops. He even wrote a note in Thai and English with the hotel address to make sure our return went smoothly. We would see more of him, he was a great ambassador to his hotel and Thailand.

We see our first of many long-tail (hang yao) boats. Emerson remembers seeing his first one on a James Bond flix.

They have some pretty big engines.

A picture of the king when he was young. 1:08pm

A lot of modern buildings. 1:09pm

More of the Chao Phraya river. 1:09pm

Our first stop is Wat Arun or the Temple of Dawn. A Wat is a temple. This wat is an architectural representation of Mount Meru, the center of the world in Buddhist cosmology.

Inside Wat Arun 2:09pm

The structures are amazing. This is the main one and is called a prang.

A view higher up the main prang.

A map of the temple complex.

Where's Waldo (ie-Emerson)?

Linda inspects a statue.

Another view of the same area.

Ordination Hall.

The gold sometimes catches the light just right.

A temple with pictures of the king and queen. 2:37pm

A detail of the buildings construction.

Lots of these little gargoyles around, each one different.

A monk off to the left called Emerson over and gave him a white string bracelet which he wore for many days.

It was the first of several barcelets we would receive during the trip. This was the simplest one.

More of the temple.

Lots of ladies were very well dressed. At first Emerson thought they might be models you could hire to take your picture with but they were actually just very nicely dressed visitors.

The temple complex directory.

A guardian at the temple.

The Reclining Buddha. It is 46 meters long and lying in the Sihasaiyas posture, meaning lying like a lion. It is the third largest reclining Buddha in Thailand.

The temple was built in the 16th century. 3:50

A view looking down the length of the statue. 3:42pm

Toes stick out. 3:53pm

The backside of the Budda and his feet. The soles of his feet are 3 meters high and 4.5 meters long and inlaid with mother-of-pearl. 3:53

A closer view of some of the inlays.

The temple area layout. 4:06pm

The Buddha Chinnasri. We were getting pretty tired at this point and took a Taxi back to the hotel.

Day 3 Saturday Jan 18.
We meet our trip leader Nop and the rest of the group. Seven of our group had gone on the pre-trip extension to Northern Thailand. One lady, Anita, unfortunately had been hurt on the pre-trip and had to go home, leaving our group numbered at 14.

We get our welcome briefing from Nop.

A few Thai words while on our way to Bang Kachao, an urban forest referred to as Bangkok's "green lung". It's an area of about 1,200 acres.

Once there, we are served some lovely butterfly pea flower tea.

Teas for sale.

Then we get a cooking demonstration on how to make traditional curry paste. 11:30

This basket contains the ingredients used in the chili paste. Our group took turns grinding these with a mortar and pestle. 11:41

We all listen to our hosts while Doug is first to grind. 11:42

Emerson takes his turn grinding up the ingredients. 11:45

Then Linda. 11:46.

A Southern Living magazine that was on a table plus more details .

Chili sauce which we use as dip for these delicious banana blossoms, swamp fern and other items.

A banana blossum. 12:04

A poster describing some of the plants. 12:09.

A swamp coconut.

Bang Kachao has gone through reforestation to restore fresh water and mangrove ecosystems. This green area was set aside to sustainably maintain the "lungs of the city". It is fighting an increase in salt water from the rising sea.

A nice foot massage.

An educational message about stingless bees.

Stingless bees habitat. 1:44.

A poster about the urban forest. 1:53.

After Bang Kacho we go to the Jim Thompson house not far from our hotel. He was an American businessman who helped revitalize the Thai silk industry in the 1950's and 60's.

Jim Thompson mysteriously disappeared on a trip to Northern Thailand. He had built a wonderful house which we explored and also bought a few of the silk products they make.

He built a beautiful home - now a museum. Known for its architecture and historical significance it was partially made from existing Thai homes.

The living area.

A statue in the Thompson house garden. 4:32.

Walking back from the train we go through a street food area, a common sight in Bangkok.

We notice this sign alerting guests that durian fruit are not welcome inside the hotel (they stink supposedly!). However, they sell this fruit at many places.

King Power duty free mall near our hotel.

We ate here with Ladonna and Nancy on our first night with the group. 5:43

Day 4, Sunday Jan 19

A cruise on the Pa Sak river. We get a chance to feed bread to catfish in the river on the way to visiting temples.

A catfish goes for a loaf of bread. 9:45

More catfish going for the bread. 9:47

Catholic church seen from our boat.

An ancient temple seen from the river. 9:55

Traveling down the river. 10:09

More temples.

Behave everyone. We visit the ancient city of Ayutthaya, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 11:02

Stupas in the ancient temple of Wat Phra Si Sanphet.

Wat Phra Throne Hall. 11:27.

More of Wat Phra.

And still more stupas at Wat Phra Si Sanphet.

We stroll through a nearby market.

Here's one purchase we made.

Making candy called roti samai.

Nop bought us some of the treat.

It was tasty. Jan 19 11:56

We visit another nearby ancient temple area-Wat Mahathat -where we see the Buddha's Head in Tree Roots. The head was once part of a sandstone Buddha image which fell off the main body onto the ground and was gradually trapped into the roots of a growing Bodhi tree! There was a guard making sure you weren't standing over the Buddha's head when taking a picture. I think we were far enough away for this shot. The temple dates back to 1374.

Nancy takes a short break.

Wat Mahathat.

Some history of Wat Mahathat 2:13.

Linda spots a snake. It crawled into the bricks.

Wat Mahathat.

The bus back to Bangkok. 2:13

Shrines outside our luncheon restaurant. We learn that there are two shrines outside most homes and business' - some bigger and more elaborate and others smaller and simpler. Offerings such as food are left daily at these shrines.

Back in Bangkok at Santiphap Park right across from our hotel.

We saw several monitor lizards as we walked through the park.

A nursery area in the park. A lady gave Linda a small packet of seeds. 4:47

Wires and more wires. I guess when a customer changes providers they just put up new wires and don't take down the old ones. Pretty much seen where ever we went.

Orchids growing in planters on trees.

Back at our hotel we visit the pool inside the hotel. 5:11

We take a dinner cruise on the Chao Phraya, a perfect evening fro the cruise.

A delicous meal. 7:14

The menu. 7:15

Fresh fruit for desert. 7:38

Grand Palace at night.

Rama VIII Bridge.

Wat Arun at night, just beautiful.

In our "taxi" tuk-tuk back to the hotel.

Fellow travelors. 8:26

Our convoy.

Day 5, Monday Jan 20

Moving right along (slowly) toward the Grand Palace, our first stop of the day.

As we head to the Palace, Nop explains that Ramakien is the Thai national epic and the Thai version of the ancient Indian Ramayana epic of Prince Rama's quest to rescue his wife Sita. 8:41

Our route at the palace.

We enter the palace grounds. 9:30

At the Grand Palace. The projections from the temple roofs represent snake heads and tails.

Nop explains the history.

More of the grounds of the Grand Palace. The tall spires shaped like corn are referred to as prangs.

Grand Palace grounds.

Palace grounds. 9:48

A Guardian.

Another Guardian. 9:54

A golden stupa made of small mosaic tiles.

Close view of the tiles that are about an inch square and all hand laid.

Architectural details. 10:01

Painted mural walls.

The walls are constantly in the process of restoration due to weathering. Jan 20 10:27

The temple of the Emerald Budda, Wat Phra Kaew. 10:31

Our group in front of Wat Phra Kaew. 10:31

We all leave our shoes outside of the temple. 10:45

More architectural details. 10:55

A crowd waiting to get in and see the Emerald Budda. You weren't allowed to take photos once inside the building. It is carved out of green jade and adorned with gold. It was found in 1434 hidden in a temple stupa.

The Emerald Budda from just outside the doors. The most important Budda in Bangkok.

LaDonna and Emerson taking pictures at a different temple. 11:04

Much of the intricate and beautiful tile work is from broken chinaware. Nothing went to waste in the olden days. 11:10

Hard to stop snapping photos at the pretty palace grounds!

Lunch. 12:39

After lunch we go to a theater. 1:05

We enjoyed a traditional performance.

One thing we noticed was how far back their fingers can bend. Also, there was a little boy running around in the aisles with a headdress similar to what the male actor is wearing, very cute. 1:27