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.
With apologies, I’m throwing another big post at you – all the remaining shots from a short visit I managed to squeeze in to Chiang Mai during a short workshop-related visit to Bangkok back in March. It was such a pleasure to finally see some of the historical temples and other parts of this city I’d often heard of but never been to :-). This partially destroyed older temple shown a few times below was the original location of the Emerald Buddha, prior to his relocation to Bangkok around the time of the earthquake that partially destroyed this temple – if I recall correctly….
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!
These little guys were in that same lovely Chiang Mai temple complex as my most recent “orchids” post :-). (Tap the images to see uncropped versions.) And yeah, that was a work trip too. No wonder my poor body and brain sometimes get a bit confused and feel their age lol.
My love of orchids is long-standing, and in fact a post I put up on the blog many years ago remains one of the most frequently-viewed posts, all about a magnificent orchid show on the grounds of PNG’s parliament house back in 2013…These here, including two which may or may not be orchids or close relatives, are all from a magnificent and historic temple compound in Chiang Mai.
My travel companions and I agreed it’s definitely a sign that there’s some concentrated wealth, when the veterinary ads are so prominent by the airport :-).
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… 🙂
