Thailand Vacation – Part 1

Mike and I just returned from the most amazing three-week trip to Thailand.  We were able to request enough leave for a big trip and we took every advantage of that opportunity.   We visited 5 different locations while we were there, and then flew though Tokyo to visit the Tokyo Quilt Festival which was equally amazing and eye-opening.  I’m going to break up the trip into a few posts because I have so much to share with you!

We started the trip by visiting Bangkok for two full days. The city is a really interesting mix of ornate Buddhist temples (called Wats) and poor destitution.

This is one of the main streets near our hotel with a picture of some of the royal family which are highly honored and respected by the Thai community.  I also wanted to catch the traffic in this picture in hopes of showing how crazy it really was. Motorcyclists weave in and out of traffic with no regards to the rules and tuk tuks (motorized tricycle taxis) do the same.

Our first plan was to visit The Grand Palace, a complex of buildings that originally housed the king and his court. Ornate doesn’t even begin to describe the buildings and temples.  I can’t even imagine living in a place like that.

This statue was HUGE, standing guard over one of the buildings.

So much of the compound was covered in gold.  There could be no doubt that this was the home of a wealthy man.

Of course, I kept my eyes peeled for patterns and quilt-spiration.

Look at those pretty HSTs.

Adjacent to The Grand Palace is Wat Pho, a Buddhist temple with a 46m long reclining Buddha. We learned that Buddha’s position is representative of reaching nirvana.

The image was so big we had a hard time getting a picture of it.

I have to confess that my favorite part of the temple was the ceiling pattern.  I love that deep purple and gold combination.

This medallion design on the side of the buddha really drew me in.  Isn’t it beautiful?

Our last sight to see in Bangkok was the home of Jim Thompson, an American expat who fell in love with Thailand after spending some time in the country during his military service.  He saw great potential in the silk industry and over time became a highly successful businessman. His silk products were hugely popular in his lifetime, even being used in the play The King and I, and continue to be successful today.

We learned about the silk making process, from worms to weaving and printing. In 1967, he mysteriously disappeared on a nighttime walk and his home was later converted to a tourist destination.

This board was used to print the raw silk fabrics in this particular Thai design.

Our next stop was the town of Ayutthaya which served as the capital of Siam starting around 1350.  Ayutthaya was uniquely placed for international trade making it large and wealthy but in 1767 was burned to the ground by the Burmese.  For that reason, most of our sight-seeing in that city was to visit ruins.

However, we did enjoy some beautiful sites such as this view from our hotel room.

Although this temple has fallen into disrepair over the years, the remaining Buddha statues are still treated with respect.  We weren’t clear on the meaning of the yellow sashes adorning the Buddhas, although the monks dress in similar yellow robes.  In one of the fully functioning temples we visited, we saw visitors buying these yellow sashes and throwing them up the massive icon to be caught by temple workers.  We saw many tourists taking videos of the process, but we abstained feeling it may be disrespectful to the worshipers. I hope you can imagine it with me!  Our taxi driver told us it was a way of sending prayers up.

After the city was burned, many of the temples were left uncared for. This Buddha head at Wat Maha That must have fallen off after the fire and tree roots grew around it.

We visited 9 Wats that day, and this was a typical view.

Although this Wat is starting to deteriorate, the massive statue is still a regular site for worshipers.  We saw a huge school group visit the 37m long Buddha while we were there.

After two days in Ayutthaya, we jumped on the train for a trip north to Lopbori. Lopbori had, in my opinion, the most exciting temple on our vacation.  This group of monkeys has completely overrun the temple ruins making it a huge attraction for visiting tourists.

They have absolutely no fear, and this little guy immediately climbed up my body and positioned himself on my shoulders with a firm grip on my hair.  He was certainly ready for a ride! Thankfully a couple Thai women with brooms were stationed nearby and rescued me by scaring off my little friends.  I had a few more trying to crawl up my legs at the same time!

Our last day in Lopbori, our hotel took us on a tour starting with the beautiful and fully functional Wat Phra Phutthabat.

I really loved these trees.  They looked like something out of a Dr. Seuss book.

We visited a sunflower field and Mike and I took the opportunity to play with our new camera that we have become so fond of!

The last temple we visited was known for the peacocks that live on the grounds.  They are such magnificent creatures. I confess we were a little ‘templed out’ at this point, and spent our entire allotted time watching and photographing the birds instead of entering the Wat.

Look at those colors!

More trains!  At the train stations, bottles of soda are poured out into nonsealable bags with a straw when purchased.  I couldn’t stop laughing at how funny and impractical they were!  I’m assuming that shop owners get something back for recycling the bottles?

Part 2 coming soon!  I hope that you found our Thailand adventures interesting and were inspired by the ornate designs. Next up – elephants, Thai food and paradise!