Where have you been?

Like all large cities Bangkok has its share of slums. Here we see some shanties bulid on one of the larger canels in the city. They are very beautiful in a sort of sad way but life there must be very difficult indeed. Our tour guide told us that some of the girls who work in the go-go bars live in these places.

As Bambi shows in this picture it is always best to respect the local traditions. Here we see him giving alms in the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. Thai people are extreamly friendly and are very happy to share their culture with foreigners. Although many do not speak english thye have fun trying to help us understand the culture as best we can.

Thailand is a predominantly Buddhist country whose culture has been influenced by many of the surrounding countries. Muay Thai, for examle, is derived by the many actions and movements of the Hindu god Hanuman who plays a major role in the Ramakien or the Thai National Epic. The Ramakien is based on the Indian (Hindu) Ramayana epic but has been changed to suit Thai (Buddhist) needs. Complicated...

Above are photos of the Marble Temple in Bangkok.

I would like to recommend that everyone training with Singto Muay Thai in Cambridge or friends of the Network go on the Thailand trip. Experience a new culture, eat tastie food, see exciting and sometimes strange things. You would have to try hard to not come home with really great stories to tell you grand children about. I have hilarious stories about all three people in the picture above but what happens in Thailand...

We took a side trip from Bangkok to visit the old Thai capital Ayutthaya which is about 1.5 hours north. The Burmese army sacked Ayutthaya in 1767 so only broken remains of the original city remain. This is a bit misleading as Ayutthaya is still a vibrant city, there are just remains of the old city scattered about as well. Our tour guide wasn't the greatest and didn't take us to all the hot spots but it was an enjoyable break from Bangkok and very interesting to see how grand Siam of old must have been. The Burmese were complete in their razing of the city as there are few if any monk statues with their heads intact and all of the building suffer from severe structural damage.

The photos show one of the many temples of the old capital as well as a close up of the Garuda bird statue. Infomation on the Garuda, which is the national image of Thailand, can be found here.

After spending a week in Bangkok I realized that it is simply too big of a city and I did not enjoy it (much) anymore. There are still amazing clubs and night spots, and the wats and some of the government building are beautiful; it just lost its sheen. Traffic, pollution, people everywhere, its simply overwhelming and too much for me.

Koh Samui, on the other hand, is a beautiful and quite island. The beaches an clean and there are not too many tourist around. Well, not too many if you stay around Lami beach, Chawang is pretty busy.

Above is a photo of a mural in Wat Pho (Temple of the Reclining Buddha), Bangkok. The inside of the temple is covered in murals that tell various religious and historic stories and is simply amazing. The Buddah it self is about 45 feet tall and 140 feet long. The bottom of his feet, about 30 feet tall, are covered in Mother-of-Perl images of the many Thai gods and images. The second photo shows one of these images. The elephant is about 7 or 8 inches high.

Humm, don't know much about this. Some sort of Buddist site near the lake. We stopped and the Thai girls we were with did a little prayer. It was very beautiful though, the statue, and was clearly important to them.