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Published: July 21st 2013
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It's Tuesday and it's cultural outing day! My friends and I met around 930 and took the BTS all the way out to Bearing, the last stop on the line. We then took a cab to Erewan Museum, which my friend had briefly described as being like an elephant temple. Since I like temples and I love elephants, I didn't need to be asked twice!
We bought our tickets for 300B and walked in. In front of us stood a massive pink temple. On top of the temple was an equally massive three-headed elephant. All I could do was stare at it and try to fit it all into one photograph.
The museum has several floors and is surrounded by gardens. The ground floor currently has a nice exhibit on textiles and ceramic pottery. You just walk around in a circle until you've seen it all.
Then we went into the pink temple. I was just in awe. It was a massive room with stairs gliding up the sides and crossing in the middle. The ceiling was like stained glass, but with no actual window, it must be lit by artificial means. We walked around, noting how the
stairs seemed to form dragons and that their scales were made of old ceramic bowls and spoons. The whole thing struck me as old meets modern and dazzles.
We climbed the stairs to the top, taking in the view as we went. At the top, though, I discovered it wasn't the top! There was a spiral staircase in one corner. The walls were painted with green and gold murals of strange creatures and the sun. It seemed to go on forever (I started to get dizzy) and then suddenly I was in this little room with an altar and a window that looked down onto the gardens. There was also a doorway and some more stairs, so up I went. (There was also an elevator, but where's the fun in that?)
At the top was another room, shaped a bit like a long room with a rounded roof. It was dark blue with paintings of the night sky's constellations. At one end were two Buddhas, lit from behind. Other Buddhas lined the walls in glass cases. This room took my breath away. I could have stayed much longer, just taking in all the painting and statues and the
mood. It was calmness and tranquility and peace all in one space.
We circled our way back down and then went outside. As we were walking around the gardens, admiring the mythical creatures in their natural habitats, we kept looking up at the elephants looming over us. I suddenly realized that the spiral staircase went up one of the elephants' hind legs. And the magical blue room was inside the elephant's bottom! I could even see the little window peeking out on the side of the elephants' belly.
We finished our tour of the gardens and had a nice little lunch before heading back into the city. This was by far one of the most spectacular things I've seen here over the years.
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