I'm delighted that the blog has been picked up by Tony from Brisbane Australia. Tony, thanks for the suggestions of things to do around Chaing Mai. We'll look at our road book to see what has been planned for us and hopefully we can combine some of your ideas, with the route. Enjoy your time in Thailand in March. What a great country it is.
We are chilling out (not quite the correct way of describing 42 degrees heat!) in Bangkok this afternoon after a four hour tour by boat and coach of the city. Will post all about it later on today.
Apologies for not posting yesterday evening, but the 24 hours I paid for Internet access ran out at 7pm and we were out having dinner. So here goes with the details of our day in Bangkok, written from our hotel in Koh Kong, Cambodia.
Prior to the event starting we had paid for a guided tour by boat and coach of the city. The problem was the tour started at 7am! After the long day of driving yesterday, the last thing we needed was another early start. Still, we made it in time to catch the boat that was taking a group of us from the hotel, along the river, and then through some of the canals.
I had no idea Bangkok had an extensive canal system. Houses crowd the banks of the canals, perched on their stilts. Many are very dilapidated and some are falling into the water.
As we turned off the river into the canals we saw our first water monitor lizard. A short while later we saw another climbing out of the water and up under a house. I guessed it was at least five feet long!
We then headed back to the river, Chao Phraya (River of Kings), where we visited the Temple of Dawn (Wat Arun).
This was built late in the 19th century. The walk to the top level was pretty hairy, with stone steps that were nearly vertical. 
A shot looking down at Wendy and some of the group too scared to climb up!
The boat then took us to the Royal Barge Museum. The museum stores about half a dozen of these magnificent highly decorated barges of up to 150ft long. They are crewed by 66 oarsmen and 34 crew and are only used on very special occasions. I was too mean to pay the photo fee, so the only picture I took was from outside the museum.
We crossed the river to the Grand Palace. The Palace is no longer used as a royal residence, only for ceremonial events. The complex was built in the late 18th century. There are many fabulous highly decorated buildings, including a temple that houses a jade Buddha, discovered in Laos and then brought to Bangkok. Below are a few pictures from the Royal Palace.
A close up of one of the twelve guardians (ogres) protecting the palace.
We then took a short coach tour round the city and returned to the hotel at noon. An afternoon spent by the pool and then a short train journey on the Skytrain monorail to the Jim Thompson Museum. Thompson was an American architect who lived in Thailand. He became famous for his textile designs and worked on the Yul Brynner film, the King and I. Thompson disappeared in 1967 while visiting the Cameron Highland, Malaysia. No trace of him has ever been found.In the evening we met up with an old school friend of mine, Anussorn Thavisin (Thavi) and his son Sith. Thavi was in my class at Dulwich College in 1955. I last saw him in 1964, 45 years ago! We agreed we wouldn't leave it another 45 years till we meet again.
From left to right, Thavi, Sith, Wendy and myself.
Thavi has answered my question about the nuts being dried by the side of the roads. To quote him 'the nuts were areca nuts. They are chewed, fresh or dried, with betel leaves and a deadly combination of lime paste and tobacco. This has the effect, over time, of turning the lips scarlet and the teeth black.'
Tomorrow we head for our fourth country, Cambodia. Many of us are hoping that this will be where the 'real' adventure drive begins. We will soon find out.
Glad you are getting a rest. Did you catch up with Thavi at all?
ReplyDeleteThe dam I mentioned was west of Kanchanaburi so I guess you did not see it. The Bridge looked the same as when we saw it 25 years ago! Snowwing all day here in Vienna so we are really chilling out.
Phitsnalouk shouod be interesting - lots of wells in that area when we visited .
STay safe and well
Peter
Hello from a cold and wet Southern California,
ReplyDeleteAfter a brief break in the rain over the weekend it began again in the early hours of this morning, and is forecast to continue until late tomorrow. The culvert is running quite heavily behind the house; at least a couple feet or so of water. I'll try and take a picture when the rain dies down a bit.
The trip looks amazing so far and the blog is reading well (ignore the comment from my neighbor across the street!).
Loads of love to driver and navigator. Have fun.
Ed.
Thanks for writing this blog. Its great to be able to follow where you are and see the photos. I'm Dr Greg Williams' sister and I know several others of the family are also following progress regularly.
ReplyDeleteThe mythical creatures guarding the gates at the Temple of the Emerald Buddha are ogres, not dragons. They are also found at the Temple of Dawn across the river.
ReplyDeleteThavi
Tim:
ReplyDelete“a temple that houses a jade Buddha, discovered in Laos and then brought to Bangkok.”
You can start a diplomatic war with that statement!
The Thais are vehement that the image originated in Thailand. The Laotians are very bitter that the image had been forcible moved from Laos to Bangkok.
Wikipedia says:
Historical sources indicate that the statue surfaced in northern Thailand in the Lannathai kingdom in 1434. One account of its discovery tells that lightning struck a pagoda in a temple in Chiang Rai, after which something became visible beneath the stucco. The Buddha was dug out and the people believed the figurine to be made of emerald, hence its name. King Sam Fang Kaen of Lannathai wanted it in his capital, Chiang Mai, but the elephant carrying it insisted, on three separate occasions, on going instead to Lampang. This was taken as a divine sign and the Emerald Buddha stayed in Lampang until 1468, when it was finally moved to Chiang Mai, where it was kept at Wat Chedi Luang.
The Emerald Buddha remained in Chiang Mai until 1552, when it was taken to Luang Prabang, then the capital of the Lao kingdom of Lan Xang. Some years earlier, the crown prince of Lan Xang, Setthathirath, had been invited to occupy the vacant throne of Lannathai. However, Prince Setthathirath also became king of Lan Xang when his father, Photisarath, died. He returned home, taking the revered Buddha figure with him. In 1564, King Setthathirath moved it to his new capital at Vientiane.[1]
In 1779, the Thai General Chao Phraya Chakri put down an insurrection, captured Vientiane and returned the Emerald Buddha to Siam, taking it with him to Thonburi. After he became King Rama I of Thailand, he moved the Emerald Buddha with great ceremony to its current home in Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha) on March 22, 1784. It is now kept in the main building of the temple, the Ubosoth.
Thavi