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Jim Thompson House
Strange as it sounds, the Jim Thompson house is a main tourist site within Bangkok. An American stationed in Bangkok during WWII, he stayed after the war and became well known for virtually saving the Thai silk industry, by introducing it to fashion houses in the West. He also collected many lovely works of art, and toured the provinces buying threatened old traditional Thai homes, deconstructing them and then rebuilding them on his grounds in Bangkok. After his death, the grounds have become a great place to learn more about traditional all-wood Thai architecture, and see beautiful art and
gardens.
Jim Thompson House Roof Detail
Notice the very steep and deep overhanging roof here — no doubt a very useful architectural detail during the monsoon rains, some of which I experienced while in Bangkok. Reminded me of the rainiest days in Nanning.
Ayuthaya – Ancient Capital
Sunday, my second day in Bangkok, my friend Tony had booked a wonderful full-day tour for us to Ayuthaya. (Thanks again, Tony, for everything — if you’re reading this!) Ayuthaya was the capital from 1350 to 1767 or something like that — so at least by Chinese standards, it’s not so much ancient as old. But it’s definitely very impressive and beautiful, and one learns a great deal about Thailand by reading this. (The city was attacked and sacked by the Burmese, for example.) The Emerald Buddha Temple/Grand Palace complex you saw earlier is modeled after one of the temple/palace complexes here in Ayuthaya, since Ayuthaya represented a political and cultural high point in Thai history.
Buddha at Home
This statue is inside one of the stupas (I think that’s what it’s called…not really sure whether the different architectural styles have different names) shown in the various shots — up the steps you’ll see shortly.
Flowers on the Steps
Flowers on the Steps
Originally uploaded by paulbrockmann. These steps lead up to a room with a Buddha statue inside. I climbed them…see next photo.
Ayuthaya from the Heights
I’ve only posted this photo since it shows the river in the background and you can get a sense of the lay of the land. I’m at the top of the steps shown in the prior photo, which are pretty darn steep. The dumb look on my face is ‘cuz I was trying to do this dumb “help me, I’m falling thing.”
Big Buddha at Ayuthaya
This statue resides in the new temple you’ve seen in the background in some of the other photos – it dates from the 1950s, as does I think the Buddha himself.
The Temple Cat
This little guy was snoozing in the sun on one of the ruined stupas the whole time, and woke up just as I was leaving, to gaze into my lens…made me miss my beloved Kona even more than usual.
(so much world, so little time....) 