February 19, 2008

Good day all. Have just finished cleaning this apartment, doing laundry and getting packed for our trip to Cambodia and Vietnam. We fly out tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM so will leave from here at 5:30. Finally got my temple days under my belt. I know a lot of people talk about getting “templed” out but we really haven’t seen many and I was sort of missing that.

February 14 – Started the day by going to the boy’s school to take part in Nick’s birthday. We made “cup cakes” the night before and I got to bring them in. First met with Jennifer and managed to get a few pics of her and her students and then we went to Nick’s class and spent some time singing, eating and watching how their day unfolds. Seeing as how it was Valnetines day they (3 kids) were already in the midst of eating some chocolate cake brought in by one of the other teachers. Of course their teacher also had a big chocolate heart for them. To say Nick was a little wound up when he got home would be putting it mildly. Because Jennifer had school we decided to put off the actual birthday party until Saturday. That way we could also celebrate Oliver’s birthday at the same time.

Got away from the school by 10:00 AM and headed out for “templing”. There is one temple that can be seen from the River that has always intrigued me. You have to take a cross river ferry to get there though. It’s called Wat Arun and is known as the Temple of Dawn. It’s really quite fascinating, the steeple looks like a corn cob adorned with colorful floral murals made of glazed porcelain. It was constructed in the first half of the 19^th century under Rama II and this site is where the king established his palace before relocating to Bangkok. You can climb stairways to the upper levels which we did of course to get quite a view of Bangkok. All these temples have their “guardians of the gates” which really seem quite comical looking at times. I need to investigate the history of them a bit more. After time spent there we headed back across river. Stopped for lunch at a little spot along the street and had a mixed fruit shake – no salt or sugar – and fried rice with chicken and egg. It was really nummy. Tom had a noodle dish with veggies and shrimp in tamarind sauce and enjoyed it too. This place was more like some of our old haunts in Chiang Mia.

Next we headed to the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew (Temple
of the Emerald Buddha). The temple was closed for a private ceremony to do with the deceased Princess so seeing as we spent quite a bit of time here in 2000 we decided we would move on to Wat Pho (Temple of the Reclining Buddha) We had also been here in 2000 and not much has changed except the crowds are larger. This temple is supposedly the oldest (from the 16^th century) and largest Wat in Bangkok. In the early 1800’s it was an open university and today it is the national headquarters for the teaching and the preservation of traditional Thai medicine including Thai massage. It also has the largest collection of Buddha images (394 gilded images) and the longest reclining Buddha (46m long and 15m high) in Thailand. This Buddha is finished in gold leaf and mother-of-pearl inlay adorns the eyes and the feet. It’s a pretty amazing sight. There are tons of little gardens and figures within the grounds providing shade, greenery and quirky decorations inherited from China. Some of the figures are giant size, carved out of granite, resembling Marco Polo and other political figures. They were transported aboard Chinese junks as ballast. You can spend hours at some of these temples. By 3:30 we were getting hot and tired so headed to Tha Tien pier to make our way home.

February 15 – Another day for exploring……There are some specific places I wanted to go but we also came across a couple of unexpected things that really made the day. Our goal was to get to Wat Saket (The Golden Mount). So we walked, sky trained, and river taxied to Tha Chang pier. As we walked along the street we came across an intersection with a huge Elephant statue. It was beautiful but I have no idea what it was about. Across the road we were heading to Lak Meuang - the City Pillar Shrine. A wooden pillar was erected by Rama I in 1782 to represent the founding of a new capitol. The pillar is endowed with a spirit that is considered to be the city’s guardian. We watched people purchasing scarves to wrap around pillars that were then taken off by another gentleman and apparently resold. Quite a business……

Next store to this place was the Ministry of Defence. The building itself is
beautiful and surrounded by cannons. Of course at one time it was a Palace for some royal family member. There are actually five what were minor palaces in this compound. Tom went to walk up close and personal to some cannons and was told quite clearly in Thai to vamoose. From there we walked along “temple goods” street to the Sao Ching-Cha (the giant swing). The giant swing was just that. Apparently at one time festival participants swung in ever heightening arcs in an effort to reach a bag of gold suspended from a 15m pole and many died trying. In 1932 the Brahmans power was terminated and the festival was discontinued.

Temple goods street was interesting. Here you can purchase - I suppose for donation to a temple – bells, Buddha images and monk images, monk robes, alms bowls whatever you might need.Across the road from the swing was Wat Suthat. It was a very peaceful little spot. This temple is special for its association with Brahman priests. These priests perform The Ploughing Ceremony in May and religious rites at 2 Hindu shrines nearby. From there we walked along the Buddhist bell street and the wooden door street – and they sold exactly that. Our final stop was Wat Sakhet aka The Golden Mount. We climbed 251 winding steps through and around the artificial hill to reach the top. The hill was created when a temple under construction by Rama III collapsed. Rama IV built another temple atop of the mud and brick hill. Then Rama V added to the structure and then in WWII concrete walls were added to prevent the hill from eroding. There are burial walls along the way but all the writing is in Thai so you can't even understand dates. This being 2008 is 2551 in Thailand. Again the views from the top are outstanding. I imagine some of these temples are absolutely stunning to see in the evening. From here we made our way back to Chinatown. We thought it was crazy during the Chinese New Year but that was nothing compared to this day. The crowds were something else. You get on these little lane ways and are competing with people, motorbikes, carts and tuk-tuk’s to get down the alley. Absolutely anything and everything is for sale. We stopped along here for a snack at Hong Kong Noodles then made our way to the subway station and home.

February 16 – Got up early this morning to decorate a birthday cake for the boys that we’d made the previous evening in Jennifer’s toaster oven. Jennifer, Gone and boys came up around 10:30 and we did the birthday thing for both boys. Jennifer left for school and we had the boys as they went crazy with their remote control cars and their new Spiderman video game. The batteries were dead within a half hour and the boys were video game crazy in about the same amount of time. Bet Jenn was glad she had to go to school. For dinner we all went to the Great American Rib restaurant. Jennifer and I shared a BBQ chicken salad in a huge taco shell and a pulled pork sandwich. Tom and Gone had a platter with ribs, chicken, pulled pork and tenderloin and corn, onion rings, bowls of baked beans, potato salad and coleslaw. The boys had fish and chips and ice cream. And of course we had pitchers of beer. It was more expensive than usual Thai restaurants but at $75 that’s probably still cheaper than in Canada. There was a bit of a playground for the boys to entertain themselves and a separate smoking area. Thailand has just banned smoking in all entertainment venues……… Will be interesting to see if they follow through with the fines etc. which are quite hefty.

February 17 – A mixed day. The plan was to go to Lumpini Park and Suan Lum night Bazaar. We had already been to the park but on a “dead” day and there was supposed to be some kite flying going on. Well, the heavens opened up and there went that plan. Then we decided we’d all go to the shoe to see “Enchanted”. Jenn and family took a taxi and Tom and I walked and sky trained to Siam Paragon where we meet at the theatre floor. We had made a tentative reservation on the phone based on the online info. Well, seems that was incorrect info and the movie was full – even for the next two showings. We were just going to wander around for awhile (boring) so I said maybe we should just go to Lumpini cause the rain had stopped. Off we went and what a wonderful time we had. The park was packed. There were groups of a hundred people scattered throughout the park doing aerobics, big speakers blasting out tunes to exercise to and a leader on a stage showing all the moves. Tons of joggers doing their thing. Then as we approached this green area, so many people were sitting in chairs and on mats on the ground with picnic baskets at hand and glasses of wine and beer being enjoyed. There were some musicians in a bandshell seemingly getting ready to play. Jenn and family headed off and Tom and I hung around. Well I’m so glad we did as it was the Bangkok Symphony orchestra. Apparently they practice on Sunday evenings in the park. There were 3 young singers making an appearance too. It was awesome. They played classical, show tunes, Thai music and modern music. Because we were originally just going to the movies I had told Tom not to bother with the camera so I was a little pissed at myself about that. After about an hour Jenn called to see where we were as they had found the beer garden at Suan Lum. We hated to leave but off we went. This beer garden was immense. Tom says the size of 4 hockey arenas but I’d say 2, maybe 3. So we stayed there for abit, drank some beer, ate some snacks listened to some more music and watched some dancers – rock stuff. The kids loved that part. By the time we thought of walking around the bazaar it was 8:30 so off we headed home. Again the kids in a taxi and us walking and skytraining and taking the 6 Baht red bus. It actually was an amazing day.

February 18 – Our friends Harvey and Lee were back in Bangkok from their 30 day Indochine trip. Spending a couple of days here before heading back to Canada on the 20^th. We met them at Siam Paragon – one of the major shopping centres – to have lunch and hear about their trip. It sounds like they really enjoyed it and traveled with a great group of people. They would have even been prepared to go on had there been another country. I find it so hard to really describe what SE Asia is like and to explain my feelings about it so I’m really happy when I’ve recommended something so strongly and people come away understanding why we enjoy this part of the world so much. We had a lovely lunch and then home again. Gone cooked us a lovely supper of vegetables with chicken and cashews and a tom yum soup.

So now here we are heading off on another adventure which I’m really looking forward to. Organizing it all has been a little crazy but that’s OK. I should be able to write from Siem Reap in Cambodia but once we’re on board the ship I ‘m thinking we’ll be incommunicado. Hope everyone is well. Take care all.