Our usual sight seeing demeanor has been tempered by the weather (it is 100 degrees F in the sun). So, please picture us slowly walking through Thailand and its capitals, trying to see majestic and ornate and amazing buildings in the path that the shade makes. Lazily wondering what kind of fruit we will next eat to be cool (Dad is partial to whole coconuts and the milk, I prefer mangoes) and feeling very ignorant about the history of Thailand.
So, all I can show you is pictures:
Ayutthaya, which served as the capital from the 1300's (with a brief Burmese attack in the late 1500's) to April of 1767. This lavish capital covered in gold was then burned and robbed.
There are tons of Buddha bodies with no heads all over Aytthaya.
I visited Wat Arun or The Light of Dawn, which was the capital before the current capital. The whole thing is covered in Chinese style ceramics.
Here is a detail
King Rama I (1782-1809) moved the capital across the river and built a solid lineage. This is the current King's temple, Wat Phra Kaew (although the current King does not live in the next door grand palace because his predecessor was killed there), which has borrowed from the other capitals. It has three different temples, two of which are only open on special occasions the other holds the emerald (jade) Buddha.
You can see the base of the bell shape behind Dad and the ceramics are mixed with Italian glass. Note Ray Bands.
You can see the base of the bell shape behind Dad and the ceramics are mixed with Italian glass. Note Ray Bands.
Most interesting to me is the way these monuments to greatness where built (first of wood, especially teak, which was always burning down in one attempted take over or another) and then are rebuilt (either on the same place or in the new capital) with a base of brick and are then covered in cement and then decorated ornately. What you are not seeing in these pictures is tons of other tourists and Thai people. You know they are Thai because they are wearing yellow shirts with the King's crest on the breast pocket. It is like a hockey whiteout happening in the whole country, that is the kind of spirit that is here.
Long live Thailand's King,
Elaine
PS According to the news there is major snow across the US, so maybe you are also moving slow.
6 comments:
It was supposedly -15 (with wind chill) this morning! It's been a slightly damp cold, so it bites it's way through your books and gloves. Though, I'm not one for 100 degree heat either. Keep hydrated!
Hi Elaine! Can you grab a chart? It's a busy Friday at Near North and we're all at the surgical station looking at your pictures! Thinking of you! Love, Kari, Monika, Erin, and Becky. Enjoy the 100 degree weather! It was 0 degrees when we came to work today.
Hi Elaine! Can you grab a chart? It's a busy Friday at Near North and we're all at the surgical station looking at your pictures! Thinking of you! Love, Kari, Monika, Erin, and Becky. Enjoy the 100 degree weather! It was 0 degrees when we came to work today.
i love hockey whiteouts.
It's perfectly balmy in Paris. I just hosted a dinner party with my special gnocchi dish. I won't be able to make it when I get back to the U.S., because the sauce in the jar will not be available. Alas.
Sounds like you are having a great time!
Lots of love to both you and Dad. James and I shoveled another 6" of snow this morning. The piles of snow in the yard are taller than me now.
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