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Bangkok, Thailand يوليو 06, 2007
This was the first Buddha we visited during our trip. It is one of the temple buildings at Wat Pho and, as is the custom, we had to remove our shoes to enter this sacred space. It was far from the last Buddha we saw.
Bangkok, Thailand يوليو 06, 2007
This statue was in the courtyard of Wat Pho. Maybe it's just me, but I thought this guy looked an awful lot like Confusius.
Bangkok, Thailand يوليو 06, 2007
Thai temples are full of buildings, decorations, sculptures, and statues. This gives you an idea of how busy the setting can get. It is an odd mix, since somewhere in here is the peaceful zen of striving for enlightenment.
Bangkok, Thailand يوليو 06, 2007
The rooftops of the temples are all ornate and sparkling. It must be a bit like what the Roman and Greek temples looked like back when they were all vibrantly painted instead of the stark white marble of today.
Bangkok, Thailand يوليو 06, 2007
This is one of the chedis outside the home of the reclining Buddha. Just to get an idea of the perspective, if you look closely you can see me posing at the bottom.
Bangkok, Thailand يوليو 06, 2007
We never saw anyone actually wearing hats like this, however quite a few statues guarding Wat Pho were so perhaps they used to.
Bangkok, Thailand يوليو 06, 2007
As far as I can tell, the bigger the Buddha, the better. I'm not sure why this is. This guy is certainly one of the larger ones.
Bangkok, Thailand يوليو 06, 2007
This is the only way to capture the entire reclining Buddha of Wat Pho in one shot. This Buddha is in one of the 5 traditional poses. This particular pose is Buddha right before his death, as he reaches enlightenment.
Bangkok, Thailand يوليو 06, 2007
Most temples also have murals on the walls depicting scenes from Buddha's life or any number of Thai events. This was one of the scenes on the wall at Wat Pho
Bangkok, Thailand يوليو 06, 2007
This is one of the pictures on the sole of the reclining Buddha's, feet. They were covered in mother of pearl with intricate pictures.
Bangkok, Thailand يوليو 06, 2007
Along the edge of Wat Pho are many begging bowls. Begging bowls are traditionally used by the monks to collect food, as they are expected to live solely off of the charity of the community. We saw them actually carrying out this tradition at Ayutthaya, although most of the other monks we saw were normal people, stopping at the 7-11 and such. It is said that if you put a coin in each of these particular bowls, it brings good luck. So naturally, we tried it out.
Bangkok, Thailand يوليو 06, 2007
The next stop was the temple at the royal palace. This is one of the three main attractions in Bangkok, which can all be seen in an afternoon. And judging by the smog, an afternoon may be all you need before heading out to other areas of the country.
Bangkok, Thailand يوليو 06, 2007
Surrounding one of the chedis at the palace temple were these creatures. This blue one was of particular interest due to his open mouth.
Bangkok, Thailand يوليو 06, 2007
Around the palace were a number of half chicken half woman statues. We were entertained and had to capture it on film.
Bangkok, Thailand يوليو 06, 2007
The murals on the palace temple walls were spectacular. The gold leaf on many of the images caught the sunlight and glittered.
Bangkok, Thailand يوليو 06, 2007
This is Hanuman, a monkey god that is the reincarnation of the Hindu god Siva. This picture is one of the scenes from the Thai version of the Indian Epic, Ramayana.
Bangkok, Thailand يوليو 06, 2007
Many Thai temples had these Buddha images surrounding a central courtyard. These are from Wat Mahathat in Bangkok, a center of Buddhist learning
Bangkok, Thailand يوليو 06, 2007
This is just one of the many statues found inside the palace temple. If you go to Thailand, be sure to visit this temple. Even if all the people outside tell you it's closed, try to go in anyway. As obvious tourists, we have targets on our backs and they'll tell you what you want to see doesn't open for hours so instead they will take you to a great gem shop. It's awful to say, but I learned quickly not to trust anyone.
Bangkok, Thailand يوليو 06, 2007
There are suprisingly few images of women at Thai temples and there are even parts of some of the temples that women are not allowed to enter. There are, however, female monks, or nuns, who also shave their heads and wear robes. However, their robes are lavender, not the traditional orange. I found it a little annoying that they were the ones that did the vacuuming and other housekeeping tasks in the temples.
Bangkok, Thailand يوليو 06, 2007
Yet another interesting statue at a temple. It's unclear who this is supposed to be. I wish I had more information for some of these images, yet I only really had access to the information that was translated into English. I did learn some Thai, but not nearly enough and I never quite deciphered the alphabet.
Bangkok, Thailand يوليو 06, 2007
This is a soldier statue in Dusit Park that Chris and I found entertaining, so we had to take a picture. I'm not sure if he is supposed to be to scale or not, but he's a strange looking statue.
Bangkok, Thailand يوليو 06, 2007
The temple of the dawn is across the river from Wat Pho. It is one of the oldest temples in Bangkok and it looks a little like the same temple style as Angkor Wat. Chris climbed up the main prang and took this picture of the river.
Bangkok, Thailand يوليو 07, 2007
Unfortunately we could not take pictures inside the National Museum, but this is a picture of some of the statues outside. This is a very spread out museum with many treasures but little air conditioning. We spent the afternoon admiring funeral chariots and viewing models of elephant dueling.
Bangkok, Thailand يوليو 07, 2007
As in the US, 7/7/07 was a popular day for weddings. Our hotel was no exception, hosting a wedding celebration for the hotel owner's son. The preparations were massive and the end result was, well, a bit over the top. Besides the giant flower arrangements complete with bird cages and fake doves, there was a life sized painting of the couple on the beach, which Chris kindly agreed to pose in front of the afternoon before the wedding.
Bangkok, Thailand يوليو 08, 2007
This is the guest house for the Vinmanek Palace. The palace is the largest teak mansion in the world, built by the brother of King Rama IV.
Bangkok, Thailand يوليو 08, 2007
We didn't go into the throne hall, but this is the building it is in. Some Thai buildings look surprisingly, and probably intentionally, European.
Doi Inthanon, Thailand يوليو 09, 2007
This was taken from the truck on our way up to our jungle trek. Please excuse the fact that it is blurry. While we met many hill tribe villagers along the trek, we have few pictures. We tried to be as unobtrusive as possible while visiting. Also, many villagers believe that photos steal the soul, so the camera was not always welcome.
Doi Inthanon, Thailand يوليو 09, 2007
This is the first Karen village we stopped at. While they still live in thatched rooved houses, they sometimes had surprising conveniences, such as this large satellite dish. It probably had this because it was close to the road. As we got further into the jungle, this was not common.
Doi Inthanon, Thailand يوليو 09, 2007
This was our first stop along our hike and it couldn't have come soon enough. The heat and humidity of Thailand make hiking very difficult. Plus, the terrain in this area was very very steep and hilly. On the left are our guides.
Doi Ithanon, Thailand يوليو 09, 2007
We stopped for lunch and shortly after it began to rain. Our guide made us leaf hats to keep us a little drier. Then came the deluge. It was the first monsoon we were caught in and even with these hats, nothing could have kept us dry.
Doi Inthanon, Thailand يوليو 09, 2007
These farmer huts were scattered across the landscape. This one was in the middle of a field of jungle rice. Jungle rice is different from regular rice, as it does not need to be in standing water to grow.
Don Inthanon, Thailand يوليو 09, 2007
One of the benefits of hiking up a steep incline is getting to the top. Here is a peak at the view as well as a picture of us, very tired but happy to finally be at the top of at least this hill.
Doi Inthanon, Thailand يوليو 09, 2007
Chris wanted to get his head wet and ended up in the waterfall. I was amused.
Doi Inthanon, Thailand يوليو 09, 2007
As we traveled, we had to cross along many rice fields. This is a picture Chris took of the guides and me walking between the paddies.
Doi Inthanon, Thailand يوليو 09, 2007
I really like this shot Chris got of the rice field. We had never seen rice paddies close up before this trip. We've now seen a whole lot of them.
Doi Inthanon, Thailand يوليو 09, 2007
This is an obligatory picture of us starting our trip into the jungle. 2 days and about 25 miles later, we would emerge victorious, if exhausted, from the jungle.
Doi Inthanon, Thailand يوليو 09, 2007
This is the village where we stayed for the night. It had about 50 people and 30 buildings. Most of the houses had tin or thatched rooves, were up on stilts, and had the family's livestock living underneath.
Doi Inthanon, Thailand يوليو 09, 2007
Again, this is a blurry image but well worth posting anyway. This is dinner with the villagers. The food was amazing and the company was interesting. Our guide was able to act as interpreter, as the villagers only spoke Karen, their native tongue. While these people live in Thailand, they have their own distinct culture. There are only a few thousand Karen people in the world.
Doi Inthanon, Thailand يوليو 09, 2007
The region we hiked through, Doi Inthanon National Park, is one of the most diverse in terms of bird species and orchid variety in the world due to its climate and changes in elevation. This is one of the many orchid plants we saw along our way. Unfortunately, they were not currently in bloom, but I imagine it's gorgeous when they are.
Doi Inthanon, Thailand يوليو 09, 2007
Many of the domestic farm animals we saw along our way were similar to anywhere else. The only difference was that animals were normal sized. Chickens were tiny and you could see the rib cage of the cows. However, water buffalos were typical farm animals for them and a bit out of the ordinary for us.
Doi Inthanon, Thailand يوليو 09, 2007
The planning and engineering that went into these rice paddies is staggering. Each one is just low enough that enough water flows in and fills the paddy and allows water to flow into the paddy below.
Doi Inthanon, Thailand يوليو 09, 2007
Banana trees are common in this area. We went out to that hut and dug in the garden to find many other roots and edible plants that we didn't recognize. In fact, throughout our stay in Thailand we tried many fruits and vegetables that we never even knew existed.
Doi Inthanon, Thailand يوليو 09, 2007
This tree had been completely taken over by orchids. When they bloom it must be quite a sight.
Doi Inthanon, Thailand يوليو 10, 2007
Not only do the villagers tend to their own farms, but they walk 2 hours each way every day to go work on other farms. This is a Karen woman in traditional dress, working in the rice fields.
Doi Inthanon, Thailand يوليو 10, 2007
We found a papaya tree. Okay, maybe the guide found it and pointed it out to us.
Chiang Mai, Thailand يوليو 10, 2007
This is a statue at the base of Wat Chedi Luang. It is one of the many dolphin images in Thailand that made us think that they must have had fresh water dolphins at some point. And then we found out that Laos still has very rare irrawaddy dolphins, so it looks like we may be right.
Chiang Mai, Thailand يوليو 10, 2007
Another guardian to the Wat Chedi Luang, named after the crumbling brick chedi at the center of the temple. We think this is a dragon, but it is so stylized that this is only a guess.
Chiang Mai, Thailand يوليو 10, 2007
Many of the temples had mirrors to reflect the light and this was one such building. Bright bits of colored glass also decorate the wall.
Chiang Mai, Thailand يوليو 10, 2007
While the chedi dates back to the 14th century and was later damaged by earthquake, these elephants on the side were recently repaired.
Chaing Mai, Thailand يوليو 10, 2007
The entire trip, I wanted to get pictures of monks. These are young monks in training. Many Thai men go into the monestary at some point in their lives as part of the path to enlightenment and for important further education, such as learning English.
