Wat more could you ask for - Narrative

The pictures accompanying this blog entry were taken on several occasions while we hosted sightseeing tours with various folks. Everyone wants to visit the ultimate Bangkok site: the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew (the Temple of the Emerald Buddha) so we went there several times. I never tire of seeing their exquisite beauty. I remember the hesitancy I felt the first time we returned to it. After traveling to Thailand three years ago, we visited Japan and China in subsequent years—would I now find that the Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha were a beautiful memory muted by the other gorgeous sites we had more recently seen in Japan and China? I needn’t have feared. The sites were even more beautiful than I recalled. The Grand Palace site is actually a series of many wats including the most famous one, Wat Phra Kaew. The Grand Palace itself is no longer the residence of the King and you can only view it from the outside. You can’t possibly take in all the many buildings the first time you come here. It takes several visits to begin to absorb it all. Also, it is fiercely hot and humid. Usually, you can take refuge in some air-conditioned spot close by. But this site is huge, and requires a lot of walking. On average, you can expect to last a maximum of an hour to an hour and a half before you totally wilt. The first 29 pictures were taken at the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew. Note the artist/restorer working on the murals. Many restorers are always renovating the murals and parts of the buildings. The last few of the 29 are views of the outside of the Grand Palace. Here’s a hint to those of you thinking of visiting Bangkok. Each time we have been to this site, taxi drivers, tuk-tuk drivers, friendly people, and people in official looking uniforms have tried to dissuade us from entering. They tell various stories: this is the wrong entrance, the real entrance is around the corner; the site is closed until the afternoon; foreigners are not allowed into the site since there is a ceremony taking place there, etc. We can’t figure out what’s going on—we just ignore these people, proceed to the main entrance and buy our admission ticket. You can tell it is the main entrance by looking for the Haagen Dasz store sign across the street.

When you finish viewing the site, you are directed to leave by way of an exit next to the Grand Palace. At this exit, grab a cab and direct the driver around the corner to Wat Pho, the site of the giant reclining Buddha. It is about 3 minutes away, but I defy you to walk it after you have spent over an hour in the tropical sun. The next 9 photos were taken at Wat Pho. One picture shows a line of people next to round bowls. For 20 baht (50 cents donation) you can obtain 120 one baht pieces to toss into each bowl. After completing this task, you can make a wish. Also note the beautiful pictures showing some inlaid mother of pearl. You’ve probably guessed that this inlaid mother of pearl is on the soles of the Buddha’s feet. Wat Pho also houses a very famous Thai massage school on its grounds. After so much sightseeing, you may be ready to indulge in a massage. Tourists pay about 360 baht (about $9) for a 40 minute massage by a student. Pricey by Kho San Road standards where many tourists get a massage (250 baht--$6.50--for an hour).

The final shots are those taken at Wat Benchamabophit, made of white carrara marble. The story is that King Chulalongkorn, the King who is credited with steering the country into the modern age and preserving Thailand’s independence from colonialism, visited Europe and decided to build a Wat with a European look to it. The result is this beautiful marble Wat which also houses over 50 Buddha statutes on its grounds, two of which are rare masterpieces. The Wat is located adjacent to the grounds of the Chitralada Palace, which is the residence of the King when he is in Bangkok. The day that we visited here, all traffic was stopped to wait until a motorcade went by from the palace. We hoped we would get a glimpse of the King but we only saw some generals in Mercedes Benz which quickly sped by.

These are the final pictures until we relocate to Chiang Mai. This trip is currently scheduled for November 21 barring any other unforeseen circumstances, if you catch my drift. Eleanor

Wat more could you ask for - Grand Palace

Wat more could you ask for--Grand Palace

Takiab & Hua Hin Narrative

Our Thai language course was completed. Urana had a two week semester break from her job as a teacher. We decided to try another beach not far from Bangkok. Hua Hin is about a 3 hour bus ride from Bangkok, in the opposite direction (southwest) from Pattaya. It became famous because the King built a palace on the beach so he could get away from Bangkok. He lives there a lot of the time. Hua Hin has a huge night market and many upscale resorts and spas. We found a reasonably priced place on the outskirts of Hua Hin in a beach call Kho Takiab, which turned out to be perfect. We had a beautiful beach with a great view of Kho Takiab mountain, a fishing village below and a fabulous restaurant right at our finger tips. There was horseback riding available on the beach and boat rides to the offshore island, called Lion Island. Finally, there was the Big Buddha which was located on the other side of the mountain. From this side, you can see a view of the Hua Hin beach with its luxury hotels. We preferred our Takiab hideaway. All in all, a perfect beach bums' getaway. Our friend, Pink, drove down from Bangkok with a visitor from LA. She invited us to spend the afternoon at her sister's condo located further north on yet another seluded beach. She also shared her secret of an excellent restaurant in Hua Hin right near the famous night market and brought us to a health food store where Eleanor was able to buy some delicious snacks. Jules

Takiab & Hua Hin

Takiab & Hua Hin

Wat's in a name narrative

Note:
Technically speaking the City Pillar site and the Golden Mount are not Wats like the third site Wat Suthat. They do not have a cadre of monks that live there nor a large central temple. However there are many Buddha statues and the Thai people worship at these sites also. What they do share in common with regular Wats are their beauty and serenity. JAM

Jules and I have already seen some of the major attractions in Bangkok so we decided to take a look at some of the other ones described in the guidebooks. The first is the Bangkok City Pillar Shrine. It is directly across the road from the most spectacular sight in Bangkok, the Royal Palace and Shrine of the Emerald Buddha. Consequently, it tends to be ignored. But it is very revered by Thai people. Its scale is manageable unlike its huge neighbor across the road. It is quite beautiful as the first three pictures show. It is carefully maintained by artisans, as are most of the other sites we visited. The next picture shows Thai people wrapping cloths around a small chedi--we have seen this done at other places--our friends who are Buddhist will need to explain its significance to us. Further down the path there was a stage where dancers performed. These were the youngest and oldest dancers that we have seen and I imagine that this is where the 60 year old dancers wind down their careers. The City Pillars contain the City's horoscope. King Rama IV tied the city horoscope to his birth horoscope so that the country and people would be under royal protection. The interior walls are painted on. It seems amazing but I checked it--it is not wallpaper--how did they manage to make it so perfect and symmetric? The five statutes are the guardian spirits protecting the city and the country. One for peace, one for happiness and prosperity, two who are attendants of the God of the dead, and finally, a guardian spirit responsible for all incidents on earth. This Shrine is very peaceful and lovely. Many Thai people were there paying their respects.
The next place we visited was the Golden Mount which sits on top of a winding stone staircase. At the foot of the Mount a young woman offered caged sparrows to be set free at the top of the Mount. I dutifully carried the cage to the top and set them free along with all my worries. The picture also shows wild orchids plants growing on a host tree. At the top of the Mount the view was fabulous. On the roof we could walk around the giant chedi and view Bangkok from all sides. Near the entrance of the Mount there is a small community called Ban Baat. The crafts people here make traditional bowls for monks. The tradition is for monks to go out early in the morning everyday with their bowls and the local people fill them with food which is what they eat for the day. We have seen this ourselves. Very often more food is donated than the bowl can hold so some extra bowls are carried by other people who work at the temple. They are made of 8 pieces of iron which are joined using a kind of solder and heated in a wood fire. They beat the iron bowels after firing in order to make them smooth--it takes 2 days to make a bowl. They have a lovely ring when struck. We saw several people involved in various parts of the process. We bought a small one.
Our guide book mentioned a famous vegan restaurant not far away so we decided to eat lunch there. It turned out to be a small hole in the wall restaurant--aren't they usually the best? This one was wonderful and it even offered something that I could eat.
Our final destination was Wat Suthat. Thailand's largest and earliest cast bronze Buddha image is inside this Wat. It is huge. All of these Wats-big and small-have one thing in common. There is a sense of peace inside. You leave the traffic and congestion and enter a place of calm and quiet. It was a lovely way to spend a day.

Wat's in a name

Wat's in a name

Oct 3, 2006 - 30 Photos

The New and the Old--Side by Side

Last week, Jules and I went to Siam Paragon and Central World for the first time. We were there to attend a free rock concert at Central World but we could never find it!! We wandered around for an hour at Central World which has huge Sections A-E and seven floors. It is brand new and parts are still under construction. We approached many security people and other official types and no one had heard of it--we even had the newspaper ad--finally, everyone decided it was being held the next day on the seventh floor in the D section.
We had enough and went down to the skyway which takes you to the other huge shopping complex--Siam Center and Siam Paragon. We looked down and saw a Wat (Buddhist temple) in the middle between these gargantuan shopping centers. Evidently they built around the Wat. We left the skyway and walked to the Wat. There were very young teenage monks there preparing for a festival. They were draping huge orange and white cloths around the Wat. The adult monks were in the Wat chanting. It was such a contrast between the ancient, unchanging, calm Buddhist way of life and the frantic, hedonistic, trendy, in the minute, accelerated "modern" way of life. It epitomized the contrast between old and new Bangkok.
We then made our way out of the Wat compound to the street in order to walk over to Siam Paragon. On the way, there were food vendors everywhere--of course--Bangkok feeds its 10 million people by having food vendors everywhere--I am not exaggerating--I mean every inch of empty space on the sidewalk is covered with food carts and stalls of every kind imagineable and some unimagineable. Jules stopped and got what he described as a super cup of Thai iced coffee--in a plastic bag with a straw, of course.
Then we proceeded to Siam Paragon. Siam Paragon is the biggest shopping center in the world for Rodeo Drive type stores. Name every hightone designer and jewelry store you can think of and they are all there: Escada, Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, Salvatore Ferragamo, Armani, Cartier, Bulgari, Mikimoto, on and on and on. It also contains an IMAX theater, a whole bunch of regular movie theaters and an aquarium. We had gone to Siam Paragon before but hadn't got past the first floor food world which has about 100 stalls and restaurants of every kind of food you can think of--mostly Thai, Japanese, and Chinese, but also American and Italian. Every department store in Bangkok, no matter how small, has a food court. Even our modest Pata department store, right across Pinklao Road from our condo, has a food court. At each food court there are at least 75% of the vendors serving a full plate of plain steamed rice for 10 baht (about 25 cents), so I can always eat something. The Siam Paragon food court is beyond "choices"--try "overwhelming display." Did I mention that it seems no one in Bangkok cooks--literally, no one has a kitchen stove--maybe a rice cooker and an electric wok, or other electric appliance. Why cook, when the world is doing it for you, outside your door, everywhere. Squeamish about eating on the street--no problem, go into any store and go to their food court or many restaurants of all sizes. Or visit their supermarket--sitting next to every food court is a super market. Siam Paragon's is a super deluxe gourmet super market. We stopped there to buy Dr. Bragg's unfermented soy sauce. We were also looking for some good oatmeal--my allergy diet is a challenge, as always. Just like Costco, samples are everywhere. All the fancy stores mentioned were on the mezzanine, we have yet to go into the main part of the mall.
The central paradox is that it looks like people in Bangkok don't cook much because many of the kitchens like ours and others in the building and in many peoples homes are minimal and there all these restaurants and food vendors, so why are people shopping in the supermarkets that are attached to every serious 'department' store and mall.
This whole sojourn took about two and a half hours and we had run out of steam. So we headed upstairs and took the bus home. Another Bangkok adventure. Jules has already emailed the pictures that go with this entry.

Happy New Year

So it's Rosh Hashanah and we decide to attend a celebration. We know about the Chabad House and decide to check it out. We were amazed at what we found. The 2 hour service we expected was only about 45 minutes and then the feast. We had dinner in a room with about 1,000 young Israeli kids and a few geezers like ourselves. There was another room below us with another 1,000 people. The couple we sat with were on their honeymoon and were really sweet. They told us that some of the other people were kids that had just finished their military service and the rest were just vacationing. Most of the other people at our table were the Rabbi's family, 6 kids and his wife. The kids were really sweet and mom had her hands full taking care of the youngest girl who was between 1 - 2 years old and wanted to wander and climb all over the place. The atmosphere was really exciting and joyful. It was all such a total surprise, serendipity. There is another organization that has services in a more upscale high rise kind of neighborhood that we might consider for Yom Kippur just to check them out.

We saw "World Trade Center" yesterday and do recommend it. On the same day we read that the American casualties in Afghanistan & Iraq reached the level of 9/11. It's sad because it doesn't seem like we have accomplished much in these 2 countries and most reports I see have things getting worse instead of better, so the loss of life, American and local is all the more tragic.
The only problem I am having is being able to include pictures here, I think I've tried all the things suggested in the help screens.

From Eleanor:

Last year, I attended Rosh Hashana services at the Chabad synagogue in San Diego. Claire, my oldest granddaughter, came with me. The rabbi, his family and people attending the services were very friendly and welcoming. It was an orthodox service--men on one side--women on the other and two hours of Hebrew prayers read from the prayer book. Claire enjoyed it since a book, offering detailed commentary in English, accompanied the prayers . The rabbi also gave a wonderful sermon. This was my context when we approached the Chabad House in Thailand on Friday evening.

I had emailed the Thailand office and the rabbi called to invite us to the service. He said that we had two choices--we could attend services at Khao San Road with "a thousand backpackers" or at the downtown Sukumvit location where it would be less crowded. Jules got the impression that the service would be more sedate there. We decided to go for the 1000 backpacker location. The location was familiar to us since we had eaten at the Chabad House restaurant a couple of times. We had checked out upstairs when we were there and had noted an internet cafe, a few small offices, a general waiting area, and a medium sized room which looked like the place where services were conducted. Upon arrival at the restaurant (closed for the evening), we were directed upstairs to the office where we purchased tickets for the evening meal (200 baht each--$5.00). I thought: okay--how nice that, after the regular two hour service, we would break bread together. We were early and we sat in the waiting area with about a dozen young people all speaking Hebrew. After a while, we were ushered into a very large dining area. I thought: even better, the meal will be before the service so we won't be hungry. We were seated long enough to make friends with a couple from Bathsheba in the Negev desert who were on their honeymoon. Then we were told that we needed to move to the bigger dining room upstairs. We got up and moved to an area with about a hundred long tables. Plates of honey were on the tables and each place setting contained a card in Hebrew and a dish containing a quarter of a pomergranite, some beets, a small squash square, several kidney beans, a slice of apple, and a slice of challah. Several bottles of water, coca cola, and sprite were also on the table. People kept streaming in--they were mostly in their twenties--I commented to Jules that they looked like their counterparts anywhere in the world--all dressed fashionably and talking animatedly. Not anyone's vision of backpackers! The rabbi and his family arrived and he invited anyone who wanted to light a candle to go downstairs and do so. There would also be a hand washing ceremony there. After a short time, during which more and more people arrived, the meal began with the traditional blessings. By now the hall was jammed. We were told that the smaller hall downstairs had been opened to accomodate the overflow. It began to dawn on me that there was no place large enough to seat all these people for a traditional service. Okay--we'll probably have the service right here, I thought. Fortunately, our honeymoon couple served as our intermittent interpreters since no English, only Hebrew, was spoken for the rest of the evening. We were instructed to dip our apple slice in the honey. Joyous singing and clapping accompanied the eating of each ingredient on our plate. I especially liked the eating of the kidney beans--everyone was instructed to raise their forks --a thousand kidney beans were elevated--more singing--we were told that eating the bean signified "chasing our enemies away". After we consumed each ingredient on the plate, bowls of food were put on the table--corn, baba ganoush, a tomato sauce dish, shredded carrots with fresh pineapple, rice with cashews and raisins, mashed potatoes, and meatballs in tomato sauce. Dessert was a bowl of vanilla ice cream (non-dairy we presumed--Jules said it was very good). Where were these hundreds of bowls of food prepared?? In the kitchen which prepared the meals for the restaurant consisting of about ten tables?? The rest of the evening passed quickly in a blur of singing and hand clapping--at one point, the rabbi stood on a chair and invited everyone to climb on their chairs to sing and clap some more. He addressed the crowd in Hebrew, giving a short sermon--then there was more singing--everyone knew these songs--everyone except us (we recognized two) and it was over. We looked at each other--wow!--this was our kind of religious service--a joyous feast with a thousand fellow travelers. Another amazing adventure.

The Coup

So not to worry. Except for a holiday on Wednesday for our school and Urana's, life is generally normal. You do see some troops stationed at bridges and important sites but they don't pull people over or bother anyone. The soldiers wear yellow ribbons around their weapons as a sign of loyalty to the King who is revered.

Democracy in Thailand is only about 70 years old. We take it for granted but it took us a long time to get it working and it ain't perfect yet, think about slavery & women's suffrage and then think about the 2000 election. Everyone we spoke to doesn't believe that the military people really want to run the country. They are generally respected because they tend to be educated. They are going to try to come up with a better constitution which can prevent someone like Taksin from becoming a dictator. Think of all the pseudo-democracies where the president eventually changes the constitution so he/she can remain in power longer than what was originally laid out in the constitution. Taksin is a Berlusconi kind of a guy, filthy rich, controlling his communications empire and able to buy votes by giving handouts to poor villagers and allegedly able to rig the voting process. He was planning on putting his cronies in the key military positions, it has been in the local paper for weeks, and his last election was nullified because of hanky-panky. Enough politics.

From Eleanor:

All is calm here--yesterday, it was business as usual. We woke up Wednesday morning and learned about the coup. Those of you who live in the snow belt will recognize the feeling that I thought I would never again experience--I called our Thai school (where we have been going for three hours a day, five days a week) and I was told: "No school today." Yeh!!! Hooray!!!, no school. Yes, the schools, banks and government offices were closed for the day. We persuaded Urana not to go downtown to see the tanks--citing Kent State and what could happen to innocent bystanders in volatile situations where people hold guns. We basically stayed home until the evening, and then went to Khoa San Rd, a major tourist area. The crowds were light but everything was normal. We saw a truckload of soldiers guarding the big monument but no sense of menace. Yesterday everything was open and we traveled back downtown to school. A few armed soldiers were posted under every overpass--just sitting around. Downtown, they were posing for pictures with the tourists. Of course, Jules took a few pictures (see photos). There were yellow ribbons tied around every weapon. This means that they are troops loyal to the King who came out with a statement that he supports the coup. (This is unusual--in 1992, the date of the last coup, he remained neutral) The people's attitude is: if the King supports it, so do we and we all know, Thaksin had to go. Right now, it is a wait and see. On the surface the crisis has passed (no demonstrations, communication restored) but only time will tell. We have talked to a lot of people and everyone so far is relieved that Thaksin has been removed. The icing on the cake was the following: he sold his billion dollar communications business and paid not one red cent in taxes.

So do not be afraid to come to Thailand--stay tuned for future events. Personally, I am cautiously optimistic. Eleanor

El's comments

We are having a wonderful time--we are living the dream and it's great. Also great to have time--blessed wonderful TIME. We forget how much time we devote to work--getting there and back, getting ready for it, thinking about it. Now, we think about what we want to do today. Thailand is a contrast, between the old and the new. Brand new shopping centers for the ultra rich are popping up everywhere. We live in a Thai neighborhood so it is still pretty cheap but I wonder how long it will be before the old Thailand is a thing of the past. It is not as steeped in history and tradition as other places in Asia, like China, --the Thais are more playful and fun loving but they are very industrious and everyone works at something. In the department stores there are so many clerks that they are falling all over each other--they are very helpful and friendly--even though they can't understand a word you are saying. They will run and get the one person who can speak English. We live in a lovely condo complex. In the morning we get up and swim--in the afternoon we sightsee--at night, we take a yoga class. We can eat at the restaurant downstairs for a few bucks. They will fix me plain boiled chicken and plain rice so I can eat there. We can work out any time we want at the fully equiped health club. It's very nice. The fly in the ointment is the traffic (small price to pay, but a factor in our lives). Basically it's an hour bus ride to get anywhere unless we are going to the local shopping mall, food store, or movie. So all our adventures involve a lot of travel time but, like I said, we do have the time. We have a lot of exploring still left to do in order to see Bangkok. Next on our list is the National Museum. We are just back from Pattaya, a beach resort. I saw at least several dozen old fat white guys with young Thai girls on their arms. The beaches were very crowded with umbrellas, chairs, boats and watercrafts of all kinds--not so relaxing. But the sea was still warm and beautiful so we enjoyed our days on the beach. We are not likely to go back--it is very expensive by Thai standards--too much foreign money around and it's not our cup of tea if you catch my drift. We begin Thai language lessons next week so it's back to school and schedules--that's ok--it will just serve to remind us how precious our free time truly is.

Random Observations 1

In Thailand, people eat with spoons and use their forks to help cut and load the spoon, no knives.
Everything is crowded, the busses, ferries, trains, malls and most of all the streets.
The malls are amazing, Nordstrom/Bloomingdale quality with amazing food courts that serve every kind of food imaginable. There are also great supermarkets in the malls, one place has a giant coffe roasting machine so you pick your beans and they roast it for you on the spot right in front of your eyes.
They also have movie theaters but show very mediocre stuff like 'Snakes on a Plane".
There are food vendors everywhere, selling stuff dirt cheap. Half a delicious pineapple is 25 cents, a plate full of food like you get in a Thai or Chinese restauarnt with rice is about a buck.
Thai people are really nice and helpful and patient.
Thailand is about 95 % Buddhist and most of the temples are gorgeous and they are all over the place.
Bangkok is a huge sprawling city and it takes almost an hour to get anywhere downtown where all the hotels and malls are.