 | |  | |  | |  | |  |
Thailand and Singapore Trip May 2011 - Page 2
- Our tour through Bangkok covered a lot of miles. We went to quite a few Buddhist temples and saw many different Buddhas: Sitting Buddha, Standing
Buddha, Reclining Buddha and the Emerald Buddha. The Sitting Buddha shown below is a 15 foot tall, 5 ton (10,000 pound) solid gold statue that was
made 700 years ago. Also, each shrine has beautiful artwork, interior and exterior design. People burn incense, leave fruits and marigold flowers and
donate money to the monks who take care of the shrines. At the Reclining Buddha temple, we put 129 coins into 129 metal cans for good luck. With a
lot of people doing this, it made quite a bit of noise.
Click on any photo to see a larger view
- The shrines make a lot of donations from
visitors and from locals who pray for good
luck or something good to happen.
Our tour guide's name was Ling and she
lives in an apartment without an air
conditioner.
Tuk-tuks are a very common way to haul
people, animals, produce, trash and flowers
around Bangkok. We had a good ride in one.
The pictures below were taken at the Grand Palace in Bangkok - home of the King of Siam for over 150 years. It was built in 1782 and is a
giant walled area
giant walled area
- There are pictures of the King of Thailand
on every store, on billboards, on all money
as well as many statues. The people in
Thailand love the king, who was been king
for over 60 years. Interesting fact, he was
born in Massachusetts and went to school
and college in Switzerland. People think
he is a good king, he is a figurehead like
the Queen of England. Thailand has
elected official and a Prime Minister to
run the country.
- We took a ride in a
long boat around the
canals in Bangkok to
see how people had
traditionally lived around
the rivers and canals.
- There are hundreds of large painted murals that are in many of the
galleries at the palace. They depict life in Thailand, wars, famous
battles betweens demons and the King of Siam. They are pretty
violent but very interesting. There is even a wall devoted to human
anatomy that was used because there were no doctors 300 years
ago.
- The statues above show human and monkey demons, the humans have on shoes, the monkeys do not so you can see their toes. I think they had
watched too many Planet of the Ape movies as they also had hundreds of murals showing wars between humans and apes
