Bangkok

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Hello everyone. Comments and e-mails seem to have dried up. Sob Sob......but I'll blog anyway.

We are in Bangkok at the moment. We arrived at the new ariport that only opened the day before we got here. It all seemed very organised though and we managed to share a taxi with some people who knew where they were going. We are in the very travellery area where there are more white people than thais. There is no obvious sign of the coup and everything is as normal.

Yesterday we went and did the Grand Palace and Wat Po (temple). They are both great, if expensive. The whole place is glittery and bright and colourful. In the palace grounds is the temple of the emerald Buddha which is the most sacred Buddha image in Thailand. It even gets it's clothes changed four times a year by the King. There is also a long gallery with wall painting that go on for miles. They are of the Ramakein which is the thai version of the Hindu epic the Ramyana. This is where is where I become a real swat as i did a course in Hindu text last year. so i had to go and see the whole thing and try to work out what was happening. It seemed to all be battles but I did recognise Sita going through the fire test and the Monkeys getting Ravana (the bad guy). So I feel like I've been a good girl and done my homework ( i know I finnished uni in June).

The Wat Po was good too. This is where the wolrds second largest reclining Buddha is. It is beautyful and covered in gold.

Today we went to the weekend market which was great. It is huge! I got a Pashmina shawl and had to stop myself buying the whole stall. We both got some baggy tousers but had to limit ourselves to that as we have to carry what we buy everywhere.

Tomorrow we are off to Ayuthaya for a few days then heading to Chaing Mai. After that we plan to do a rafting trip where you live on a raft for 3 days and visit tribes. Sounds very cool.

Going to put photos on now so bye bye. Sam- good luck with the job!

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Photos

Buddha's Relics....
...apparently

Sita in the fire test
For fellow swats

Comments

[Andrea]

ok, ok a comment if you insist...
did you take a pic of the green budda? All sounds very exciting and im glad the coup is not making things complicated. am on the first day of my new job which is lovley so far. im on my lunch break before going back to uni for greek lesson. its all go here!

[Helen wid]

Great to see your photos Jen, shame Sam hasn't quite got the hang of putting them on! They are very good too.