Bangkok - I love it

This is pantip plaza. 6 floors of pirated software, crappy movies, Ipods, Cellphones, infrared security cameras (for the peeping tom in all of us)

and of course 4 Buddhist monks haggling over the price of motherboards.

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Bangkok Grand Palace - part 3

Some more nice pictures of the Gran Palace in Bangkok in July, 2007.


It is a very chaotic place, the layout is not so easy to understand and while the area is huge, many of the buildings feel cramped.


Rather than the overall majesty, it is in the details that I find the most interesting things.


The little statues throughout, the ornamentation.


And, as you can see, visiting on a sunny day! That's not too common in this huge city. So lots of shiny pictures .

Just when you thought life couldn't be any better

This image was in a hospital on Bangkok. I don't think I will ever use a sad toilet again. Or angry toilet. Or depressed toilet. Nope

Only happy toilets for me.

Bangkok Grand Palace - part 2

A picture of part of the temple complex that makes up part of the Grand Palace. Notice the total mash-up of styles. The Temple in the background, the one in the foreground, the statue and of course the tourists.

This is part of what makes Thailand what it is. A huge melting pot. They really do have a fairly open attitude about people, and sort of pick and chose from all the influences. It certainly doesn't make things easy to understand.

Often you'll find Alters with Ganesh, laid out according to Feng Shui standards with fruit from Australia being prayed at by Thais, with Europeans taking pictures.

Trees and rocks are also venerated ways that harken back to their animistic roots.

Bangkok Grand Palace

After the loss of all our pictures a few years ago, we've been trying to rebuild the collection. So a visit to a few of the famous places in Bangkok was called for. The Grand Palace and the temple of the Emerald Buddha are number one on the list. I enjoy the murals more than the architecture. The buildings are a bit flashy. But the murals, 170 different ones, line the entire temple grounds and re-enact scenes from the Ramayana (spelling?). This is one of the master pieces of Indian Literature.
Yes Thailand is very heavily influenced by Indian art, culture and religion. With a very interesting blend of Buddhist, Hindu and local religions it makes for a massive palette to draw from.
Above is one of my favorite drawings (click on them for much larger pictures), with a demons mouth being a temple. I am sure the mythology behind this is interesting, but the stories in my head are pretty cool too.

And here is a nice scene from the river. Yes, the water is very murky. But this is a bangkok longtail (I say that, because there are different styles) with a couple of tourists. They are passing in front of one of the many temples that line the river. Very cool stuff.

More later.....


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