Photoblog
December 20, 2004 02:08 AM PST
Thailand is truly the land of smiles. It is so refreshing to travel in a place with virtually a complete lack of xenophobia. Thailand is the #1 country for repeat tourism and it is not hard to see why. From the beautiful beaches and countryside to the temples and food and people, Thailand is the best place to become acquainted with Asia.
Fun fact: It's a recent fad among Thai teenagers to wear fake braces. They're kind of like jewelery for the teeth, given the cost of orthodontics for the average Thai family.
"He who has understanding and great wisdom does not think of harming himself or another, nor of harming both alike. He rather thinks of his own welfare, of that of others, of that of both, and of the welfare of the whole world. In that way one shows understanding and great wisdom.” - Buddha
Pantip Plaza in Bangkok. "Computer related items at a discount". Pantip has 6 floors of hardware, software, DVDs and MP3 CDs in one building. The electronics hardware is more expensive than the states (given current exchange rates) but anything binary is pirated and cheap. Anything that fits on a CD is typically $2. Nearly everyone has the same selection - one gets the impression that the day Half-Life 2 came out, ISO images were downloaded off the Web and made their way to Pantip. As soon as one stall had it, the rest copied from that one.
The mechanism of purchasing media is very clandestine in a humorous way. The small storefronts contain only booklets of hand printed media labels. You tell the teenage proprietor the ones you want and after paying, someone will run off to an "undisclosed location" and return with the discs in a bag. I of course "didn't inhale", but for a couple bucks it sure beats messing around with KaZaA or BitTorrent.
Morning sunlight illuminating a Buddist altar in a home. The statues are "Buddha images". One purpose of the images is as a reminder of the lessons of Buddha. Some Thais also believe the images themselves contain a "life force", and so offerings such as food, water and incense are placed near them. The images are typically acquired at temples and blessed by the local monks in residence, and hence serve as a reminder of personal experience as well.
Small pieces of gold foil are pressed onto Buddha images as an offering by visitors to the Temple ("Wat" in Thai).
Obligitory beach picture from Koh Chang, an island in Eastern Thailand, near the Campuchea (Cambodia) border. While the beaches in Krabi were more beautiful, they were also more packed with primarily topless European tourists. Wouldn't want any pictures of that... at least not the speedo wearing guys!
Thai dancer at dinner on the King's Birthday, a national holiday in Thailand. The king is greatly revered as a benefactor of the people. He seems to have a bigger role in Thailand than royalty in England, and he would never be the subject of the tabloid press - his reincarnated spirit is very enlightened. In America you might call the king a true patriot, or real american.
On an elephant trek we were able to give elephants a bath in a stream. They lay right down and periodically lift the end of their trunks above water to breath. They were very gentle and looked at you sweetly when you leaned on them and scrubbed them with a vegetable brush.
No problem finding french fries at this night food market in Chiang Rai. You have to be pretty remote in the world to not get by with English. As for the Thai food, we found it to be excellent, with perhaps more varieties within a dish than you would find here. We didn't find food overly spicy (it was 2-3 stars out of 5 by Seattle standards), unless it actually said "spicy" on the menu. That meant it was basically inedible. In Chiang Mai, cooking classes are popular, and we were able to spend the day learning to make several classic Thai dishes.
A gold Chedi at Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai. This is a temple high on a hill overlooking in the north of Thailand. One of the temple buildings is present in near-silhouette and the Chedi (covered in gold leaf) is radiant in the sunlight. A Chedi will typically contain a sacred artifact or the remains of a Buddist Monk.
This panorama was taken from the bar in the pool at a wonderful hotel in Krabi, southern Thailand. The islands in the distance are between Krabi and the large island of Phuket, and are where the Dr. No lair in James Bond and "The Beach" was filmed.
Opium poppy (and bee) in a hilltribe village. Thailand has drastically reduced opium exports, but Burma and Laos are still heavy exporters. The three countries share a common border known as the Golden Triangle (bottom image), formed by the Mekong river (far upstream from where Bass-man was born).
Every house, office and store in Thailand has a spirit house set up outside. These can be very opulent, and often are decorated with Christmas lights, gold foil and Buddha images. They are meant to be a place for the spirits of the land to inhabit, since the land was cleared for building. These houses are taken care of with offerings of flowers, food and incense. This spirit house was viewed as "bad luck" and has been abandoned outside an old Wat. There are actually several other abandoned houses near this one.
This was an early morning on Koh Kred, which is an island in a Bangkok river. Koh Kred is the equivalent of a National Historic Site, protected from change by the Queen. Roads and cars are not allowed, and all property must be passed down through a family. The primary industry is clay pots, and several kilns are present on the island. The island is also the starting place of several national ping-pong champions.
A monk waiting to bless visitors to a temple near the spirit house on Koh Kred. Monks live of donations by the community, and are afforded great respect and even special seating at the airport! The monks seem pretty cool, as evidenced by the inset picture, which is a sign on the outside of a different Wat in Chiang Mai.
Comments (3)
I am seriously jealous.
Looks like a sweet trip. Nice job on the pics. Are you really wearing a luminescent biker strip on your shorts in pic #2 though? Maybe it's kinda like the braces fad.
Ahh, those are built into the pants. Very useful for walking around in Bangkok traffic at night! I actually bought them a couple years ago in Malaysia to fend off mosquitos at night. I'm surprised you noticed them, they're about half as bright as the loud shirt I'm wearing! LOL.