monagustafsonaffinito   CONVERSATIONS

What I have to show and tell here is limited, I know. A day or two in a country, with selected excursions, does not make me an expert. So, what I hope I’m doing here is sharing my limited experience. I do want to point out, though, that in each country our hosts were proud to show the best of their homeland.

During our two days in Thailand, visiting Bangkok, our hosts clearly enjoyed creating fun for us as well as showing us three impressive Wats, sacred sites for Buddhists. If you’d like to google them, we visited Wat Ratchanadda, Wat Suthat, and Wat Po. At the latter site there was a record breaking reclining Buddha – so huge the building that housed it was built around it. So large my camera couldn’t get a photo. To tell the truth, it took a visit to Asia for me to learn that the Buddha is portrayed in many positions. It is not an effort to reproduce his appearance, but a reflection of the feeling, spirituality inspired by the Buddha.

I didn’t get very good Buddha photos here, but I am including one that isn’t too bad.

I’m also including a photo of the Wat of one of the King’s brothers. (OK. I confess, I don’t know who the king was, but I was interested that he loved the Chinese porcelain so much that he even used the broken pieces to help decorate the Wat.

The most “fun” thing the first day was a TukTuk ride – so called because that’s what they sound like.

I did manage to get a decent photo of Bangkok’s appearance around the metal palace. (You might like to google that too.)

The second day we saw a 45 minute cultural show in a large theater. That was before I realized that my camera (probably five years in my possession) took movies. That wouldn’t have helped with filming the show, however, even if I had realized it. It was too dark. The best I got was a photo of the back ends of the crowds seated on benches to watch the show. Definitely not interesting enough to share.

But I do have photos of the elephant show that followed, as well as the ceramic garden we visited afterwards. First, the elephant show — the opening parade.

And take a look at the banner on today’s post. People lying on the ground so the elephants can step over them. It was clear the audience knew the routine, because when the time came they ran out to put themselves in position to be stepped over. Also, there were those who volunteered to be picked up and carried in the elephant’s trunk. I didn’t include a photo of that here.

But I am including one of the many photos I took in the ceramic garden.

I hope that showing these photos conveys the sense of pride and fun our hosts displayed. The trip was feeling like much more than a view of tourist attractions. I was — and am — filled with the warmth of contact with wonderful people. And guides who spoke amazingly good English — mostly American English.