Shiny Bangkok


Advertisement
Thailand's flag
Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Bangkok
April 1st 2007
Published: August 10th 2007
Edit Blog Post

One of the things I love about Thailand is that all their important buildings are shiny. The gold ornaments, mirror mosaics, and glazed glasses add color & shine to the buildings, rendering a structure that in the west would be pompous and heavy with its own importance, rather happy, childlike, and cheery. Indeed it is as if the creators' every whimsy was indulged. "Let's put broken plates in the shapes of flowers on this one!" "Cool! OK!" Like children, I'm sure, they attacked their task with abandon, the results in stark contrast to their dingy, dark, worn surrounds.

The playful spirit these wats evoke is embodied by the activities on the Sanam Luang (Royal Field) which faces the NE Wall of the Grand palace: flying kites, practicing muay thai boxing, and generallly lounging upon the "lawn". Lighter than air, free, the kites fly joyously on the winds, high above the grime and worldly concerns that are yet constantly pulling ever downwards. The kites are neither defiant, nor rebellious; it is their nature and they relish their lives and the lot they are given. All of it is very Buddhist.

Today we wandered Chinatown extensively, mostly b/c we had three
The Stupa the Grand PalaceThe Stupa the Grand PalaceThe Stupa the Grand Palace

Holds remains of Buddha...I think it's his breastbone.
incorrect maps. Rather than street names, we should have gotten directions like the following: "Take the main road past the leaf blowers and lawnmowers. WHen you hit paintstrippers, go right until you see the guns. Take a left past car stereos and trophies. You've gone too far if you hit car speakers." No joke, every 100m was dominated by numerous stalls selling exactly one, very specific thing. We saw stores pandering everything from paint and screwdrivers to sunglasses and police sirens. Initially we were walking Hi-Fi alley, which had stall upon stall, spilled into the streets, of electronics: DVD, MP3, amplifiers, car stereos, subwoofers, speakers, and obscure parts, wires, and equipment to play fixit. It would have thrilled my Dad to no end to see all those THais fiddling with voltmeters and other meters I've forgotten the name of. Wish I had gotten a photo.

Kate made the mistake of bringing her travel alarm clock with her today - mistake b/c it had a thermometer, which now allowed us to quantify in very specific terms something that we'd just been generalizing until now. Suddenly, "hot" had a measure. Today, it was 96 at 11am in the shade. By 2pm
Reclining BuddhaReclining BuddhaReclining Buddha

Whopping 46m long.
it had reached over 115 in the sunshine. Personally, I am incredulous and think that it needs recalibration. On the other hand, the newspaper said highs in 40 Celsius, which is in the right ballpark. And to think that I had thought it was about 90.

PS - Picasaweb photos are up! I'd link like Kate's snazzy one but TravelBlog doesn't allow HTML code pasting. Sigh.


Additional photos below
Photos: 6, Displayed: 6


Advertisement

All-porcelain Wat ArunAll-porcelain Wat Arun
All-porcelain Wat Arun

In the Khmer style (i.e. very phallic).
Chinatown Chinatown
Chinatown

Doesn't look much different from the rest of Bangkok in terms of traffic, population, or cleanliness.


1st April 2007

Old electronics
Great! Bring me home some old transistor radios with 4 transistors in a box the size of a mailbox! After cooking in that 40C weather they should work just great.

Tot: 0.041s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 10; qc: 22; dbt: 0.0194s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1mb