April 2016
Aloha all,
The last time I was in SE Asia was 1986 in Bangkok and then 1990 in Singapore When we lived in Singapore, Vietnam and Cambodia were off limits for travelers. Fast forward to 2016 and Vietnam and Cambodia are hot travel locations on many itineraries; both countries have been on my bucket list of places to see.
Joining me on this trip to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam was my best travel pal and very close friend, Pat Holmes. Pat has written his own blog as well, Buddhas and Beer, and is on Blogspot - http://zulusasia.blogspot.com/.
My photos and highlights of part one of the trip are below.
Bangkok, Thailand
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River traffic on the Chao Phayo River.
View from our hotel |
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Various Modes of transportation in Bangkok: Tuk tuks, pink taxis and the sky rail (can only see the support columns).
Skyrail is new since my last visit in 1986!!! |
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| River boats - transfers to and from the hotels |
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| The start of the international cribbage tournament - SE Asia rounds |
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| Shop houses that have the largest flower market- 80% of the flowers are sold every day! |
Flowers available on a daily basis.... $1 = 35 Thai Baht March 2016
After flower market, on the Wat Po, the pagoda/temple with the Reclining Buddha. The last time I saw Wat Po was in 1985. The entire complex has been beautifully cleaned and restored. One side of the complex is a monastery for the Buddhist monks; the other side it the Pagoda/temple.
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| Entrance from the street |
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| Monks going to their side- the monastery |
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The temple complex grounds... Many stupas, the light fixtures are tall ceramic poles with lights
The architecture and the porcelain inlays in the buildings is phenomenal. The porcelain is broken bits of pottery that were ballast in the trading ships. |
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| Entrance to one of the many temples |
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| Roof details |
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| more roof details |
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| One of the entrances to the complex. Check out the Chinese guard statue |
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| More of the grounds |
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| Entrance to one of the many pagodas |
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| Paint and ceramic details on the side of the Wat/ temple |
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| more details of the Wat corner - paint, gold leaf, ceramics |
What amazed me years ago and still amazes me now- revisiting after 30+years - is the various roof line styles of the Wats (Pagodas)... Thai architecture and Khmer Architecture. This Wat - Wat Po - has both!
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| Roof tops of the Wat |
After all the glorious details and colors on the outside of the Wat, the inside of the various wats have hundreds of statues of Buddha with different facial expressions or hand expressions as well as lovely wall murals depicting the life of Buddha.
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| In this group, the black statue is begin repaired and ready for reguilding |
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| This mural is actually examples of massage therapies. |
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| Zoom in on a massage therapy drawing. |
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| Wall paintings |
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| Wall paintings |
The highlight of Wat Po is the giant Reclining Buddha. The feet of the reclining statue were under repair. It is difficult with the photos to capture the length of this statue.
All the above was on the very first day!!!
On the second day of my return to Bangkok, our group visited the Emerald Buddha and the Grand Palace. The Emerald Buddha grounds were gloriously restored as well. The little bits of colored glass, the gold leaf, the porcelain pieces all assembled into stunning temples/pagodas/wats.
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| This is a view of 1/2 of the entire complex. |
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| Entrance to the Emerald Buddha grounds |
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| The Guard Statues |
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| The Guard Statues |
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| Notice the two architectural styles side by side |
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| LOTS of tourists at this time of year, from all over the world. |
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| Stair railing details |
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| My travel pal Pat Holmes at the temple complex |
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| This Wat/Pagoda/Temple houses the Emerald Buddha |
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| This is a scale model of Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia |
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| Another view of the Angkor Wat model |
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Details of the columns on the various pagodas
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| Panorama shot of the temple complex |
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| Another panorama shot of the complex. |
Photos inside the buildings are prohibited. Even if you try, guards come up to you and ask you to delete photos; they watch the delete take place. But our tour guide was able to show us a spot outside where we could see inside to the Emerald Buddha. This statue is actually small and made of green jade.
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| The Emerald Buddha- photographed from the outside. |
After the Emerald Buddha temple complex, we walked over to the Grand Palace complex. No longer in use as a residence, this was once the King's palace. Rama IV and Rama V- kings of Thailand made famous in the "King and I" opened Thailand up to trade and travel The Grand Palace area had several buildings with very French architectural styles. No pictures allowed inside any of the buildings. But the exteriors provided many photographic opportunities.
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| Close up ceramics on the exterior wall |
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| zoom in |
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| The Grand Palace |
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| Panorama of Grand Palace and the Throne Room Building |
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| The Throne Room Building Roof |
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| The Garuda - Mythical Bird/Man that only the King of Thailand is allowed to use. |
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| The Street lamps on the complex |
After the visual and sensory overload, it is fun to just take photos of the street life around Bangkok. There are night markets, street food vendors, there is a "wheel" but really a giant ferris wheel. One of the main streets of Bangkok is modeled after the Champs Elysee in Paris!
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| My new hat. |
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| Pork for sale |
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| Wiring |
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| Pat analyzing the bbq'd fish for dinner |
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| On the Champs Elysee of Bangkok, many photos in the median |
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| More interesting Wiring |
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| 8 seconds left to try and cross the intersection. Nothing happened until the Pink and white cars moved. |
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| Daily traffic. The overpasses were cool and an interesting diversion. |
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| A Belgian Beer at the night market. Comes in "vat sizes" only!!! |
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| About to take the Wheel in Bangkok to see the sights at night. |
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| View from the Ferris Wheel. |
A bit of history that I had forgotten: Thailand was never colonized! The Brits had India and Burma (Myanamar now) and Malaysia and Singapore. The Dutch had Indonesia. The French had Indochina- Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
Great to revisit Bangkok; a two and 1/2 day visit to see sights and get over jet lag. Next blog will show photos of Siem Reap, Cambodia. Stay tuned.
Mahalo for reading!
