Above, the former King of Thailand in his youth as seen on the wall of a restaurant here in A’dam where I had dinner with an old friend last month. Below, his son the current King of Thailand as seen from my boat en route to Wat Arun :-).
We’re sharing the rest of our Wat Arun photos in this post. I’m staring with the photo above so that you understand just how remarkable all the big buildings you’re seeing in the gallerie below are: they’re pretty much all faced with this level of delicate and beautiful terra cotta. This was perhaps my eighth visit to Bangkok since 2005, yet for some reason my first ever exploration of this fabulous place. Just outside the main pedestrian / street entrance are several stores that rent period costumes, which you can see many people wearing as they do their tour. It’s a photo opportunity for social media folks. 🙂
Thailand’s King Rama IV is recognized for many things including the accurate prediction of a total solar eclipse in August 1868, indicative, one reads, of his ability to move Thailand towards modernity and resist Western colonial expansionism through diplomacy. Amongst many legacies, he’s remembered in this statue at Bangkok’s Lumphini Park, and, yes, The King & I. 🙂
All from my July Thailand visit. I’m hoping my friend and reader Jean (sorry, I know I’m overdue to answer en email…) will confirm or correct my tendency to call the flowers that aren’t water lilies plumeria or frangipani. They smell lovely but I’ve a feeling they’re maybe not really what I think they are…
Wat Arun, in Bangkok, is more amazing temple than garden – and we’ll show you more of its astonishing ceramic surfaces in future posts. But this time we’re concentrating on the greenery and lovely lilies and other smaller wonders to be found around the temple grounds when one has time for a leisurely exploration. Big shout-out to friend & former colleague Pamela, who recommended this.
Lumphini Park, Bangkok – last month. I’ve had so much work travel both short and long-haul this year that I’ve decided for this current vacation to stay put in NL. This morning I’m off for a mostly-bike domestic exploration of areas I’ve intended to visit for years, so I’m taking the rather bold step of making this my last post using older photos, and for at least the balance of this week ahead you’ll only see pics I’ve taken here in NL while on this journey. Bold b/c it means I risk missing a day, and as you know I rather enjoy doing dailies. This morning is a bike ride to the train station then a train with one connection and about an hour bike ride at the end to the place I’ll be staying for the next three days. More about that once I arrive!
Thailand has a king and thus presumably royal buildings and parks as we’ve shown you from a few other places — but since I only stayed in the airport for a few hours to connect, this was the best I could do on finding an Ah, Royalty image for you when I flew through last month… 🙂
Bangkok, and me in BKK to remind myself I was actually there at the start of this latest trip. Was too busy in Hong Kong to take any photos worth posting, and in BKK to take more than these on my first evening…such is work travel as opposed to the lovely vacation weeks in CA and TX 🙂
For those who’ve not yet read the long text entry I wrote a few days (which appears further down on the blog), I’ve just (on Saturday the 15th) returned from a week in Bangkok, which was mostly for a seminar with MSF, but I tacked a weekend and another free day to see the city. On my last day, after the class, I was able (thanks to Tony’s car and driver — yay, Tony!) to tour a bit of the city with the teacher from our class, a very interesting French woman of Tunisian ancestry who’s worked with MSF for a while now, currently on this project and previously on Tsunami relief in eastern Sri Lanka among other things. To get a view of an older Bangkok, we rented a small motorboat for an hour’s tour through some of the smaller canals that have not (yet?) been paved over. This shot shows the skyline from the main river, which is a very busy shipping and commercial channel.
(so much world, so little time....) 