Bangkok, Thailand: Part 3: Wat Pho

Following the Grand Palace exploration, we went on a short walk to visit Wat Pho or วัดพระเชตุพนวิมลมังคลารามราชวรมหาวิหาร in Thai (I had to copy and paste that one!) This is also located in the district of Rattanakosin in Bangkok. This complex was very interesting as it functions as a univeristy for Thai medicine and massage training as well as hosting the Reclining Buddha. In fact, this is said to be the birthplace of Thai massage. Although Mark and I are BIG fans of Thai foot massages and part-take in that cultural experience often in Thailand, we did not have time for a massage during this cultural visit. (Don't worry though-we were able to squeeze one in after dinner!)

Cultural lesson: I had to do some research here to save all of you from needing to investigate. I also think it's important to learn a bit more about the culture than just looking at my pictures :)

A traditional Thai temple consists of both a Phuttha-wat (an area dedicated to Buddha) and a Sangha-wat (the monks living area). The Phuttha-wat area has many parts to it and includes the main Buddha statue, an area for scriptures, an open pavillion, an assembly hall for visitors and monks to congregate, an Ordination hall that is the most sacred area, a bell tower, and many other special areas. The Sangha-wat area is basically the living quarters as you would think, only on a much more simplistic form. (Wikipedia and www.bangkok.com, 2/26/14)

Wat Pho is said to be one of the oldest, as well as, largest wats in Bangkok. You may wonder, "well how many wats can there be in one city anyway?"...good question, the answer is around 43. However, there are around 40,000 in Thailand!!! I had to verify that, but I feel that the Office of National Buddhism is a reliable source so I am going with it. However, not all 40,000 are active. Back to Wat Pho, this temple has approximately 1,000 images of Buddha but the claim to fame per se, is the Reclining Buddha. It measures 15m high and is 43m long!



This candle is in the hallway with other memoribilia from distinguished guests and nations. President Obama sent this candle from the White House. (On a side note, we were the only nation to send a candle and hurricane lamp...)



Mark standing at the end...those are the toes on the right side. Mark is 6 ft. 1 in. tall, for comparison sake.

The feet up close.

The feet measure 3m high and 4.5m long. They have mother-of-pearl inlaid which is creating the designs of 108 images of flowers, elephants, etc. These images, we were told, represent auspicious symbols of Buddha.

Buddha is a religious symbol and as such you must dress appropriately inside the temples. There are signs dictating the do's and don'ts. We knew ahead of time that our shoulders needed covered, you take your shoes off outside, no shorts, no PDA, etc. There are robes to slip-on outside if you are not appropriately dressed, as most visitors are wearing touristy clothes made for the high heat and humidity, so it's not a problem if you aren't previously prepared. Anyways, Mark and I thought "really, they need signs saying "no PDA" in a religious place". Well here comes Jen walking through the temple and talking to Mark about watching his wallet (as pick-pocketing may happen). He wasn't answering me though, so I turned as realized I was speaking to some other tall, white, European guy and not Mark. It was also at this time that I realized by entire left side of my bra and chest was hanging out. Apparently my camera strap is very strong and in 95 degree temperatures, you don't really notice a little skin hanging out! So no PDA from us, but I was basically flashing everyone...I apologized profusly to Buddha and we were on our way again.

Additional information was gathered from: http://www.watpho.com. I encourage anyone interested in this place to view this video and website. There are some gorgeous photos and you can see Wat Pho at sunset, which is stunning. If you look at the top right-hand side of the website, you can have it translated into English, after the video plays.

Bangkok, Thailand: Part 2: The Grand Palace

Outside the Grand Palace prior to walking through one of the main entrances. The white wall is part of the protective wall build around the Palace grounds.

On Sunday Mark and I set off to explore the historical and cultural sights of Bangkok. Our first stop was the Grand Palace, a must-see for anyone visiting the area. The first photo was taken prior to entering through the official gates, the palace is in the background.

According to what we read while there, the construction on the Grand Palace began back in 1782 for the King of Siam, who eventually became the King of Thailand. The Palace is not actually one large building, like how some might think of a castle or the main structure of Buckingham Palace, rather it consists of many buildings, pavillions, and structures. The structures were not all built at once, rather various kings added something here or there during their reign. It is truly a sight to see. It is amazing to think of how difficult the construction process had to be back in the 1780's, especially when you can see the minute detail and complex designs. There are many curved lines and individual mosaic tiles to construct the trim and framing. Also, there is an exetremely large amount of gold used in the decorations. We had read various plaques posted around the building and statues which detailed the originality of the pieces, although some have undergone remodeling, many of the original structures, tiles, and statues are original.

I believe that wikipedia does an excellent description of the history of the Grand Palace and the construction, so I am adding the link here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Palace

Since we are discussing the Grand Palace it is fitting to state that the King and Queen of Thailand are VERY well loved and respected by the Thai people. It is considered disrespectful to speak ill of them. In fact, when you look around stores, taxis, restaurants, street vendors and such, many of them have pictures of the Royal Family posted. This is not to be confused with the reasons various countries post pictures of their dictators/prime ministers/etc. within a communist society. Finally, the Thailand Monarchy no longer reside in the Grand Palace, it is still used for various official and special ceremonies several times a year.

An additional tidbit of information: Thailand's Royal Familiy have a constitutional role, while elected officals serve in the governing body. Recently, you may recall the riots in Bangkok due to the upcoming elections (held Feb. 2). This was for the parliment positions and political governing bodies, which did not have anything to do with the Royal Family.

Wondering around the grounds, we came across a building where monks gather to meditate and pray. As we were walking around we could hear their rhythmic chanting, which was very awesome! Mark audio recorded it, but I am not able to upload (download?) it to the site due to my complete technological handicap.

All of the work is actually individual small mosiac tiles placed in that pattern. The sun creates a gorgeous glimmer off of the glass and gold.



If you look close, you may see the layers of tiles and gold. This was actually only about 1.5' high. Many of these surrounded the buildings.



Here is a close-up of the ceramic flowers. These flowers adorn many columns in the area-some columns reach of 20-30 feet with flowers all the way up!

Paintings down the many hallways. The detail of these paintings was very impressive, I'm not sure the picture captures its' beauty!

This is a minature replica of Angor Wat, Cambodia cast out of concrete. Once again, the detail is exquisite! You can look down the hallways, into the windows, and such. I should have held my hand next to it for a size comparision, but I would guess it's not much taller than 2 feet at it's highest peak.

The Emerald Buddha. Despite it's appearance, this Buddha is actually quite small, I would guess 2 feet. Buddha's clothing, which is made of gold, is changed 3 times a year in accordance with the seasons. The King or an official diplomat must change the garmets. This picture was taken outside of the temple, as you may not photograph inside and must show respect at all times. You may photogrpah outside according to the guards so please do not think I broke any cultural or religious laws here.

The Emerald Buddha dates back to the 15th Century and is carved from a single blcok of green jade. This Buddha has a rather interesting history intertwined with myths and fables. It appears that it actually may have originated in either Northern Thailand or India, but then traveled around many parts of Asia before finally resting in The Temple of the Emerald Buddha in 1784. The official name is Wat Phra Rattanasatsadaram.

Here is just another picture of one of the buildings. Those are full size doors several feet in the air. I have no idea if they open or not, but they are very fancy and absolutely gorgeous in person!

Bangkok, Thailand: Part 1

It's about time I update this blog, don't you think?!?!

This year's October school break happened to fall during the same week as Marks' global meetings hosted by Hong Kong. This meant no week-long, island vacation for the kids and me. However, we were fortunate to have wonderful friends come over for a visit during that week! Actually, one of them was coming over for the work meetings and his wife came along. Andrea and I spent a lot of time relaxing tai-tai style in salons, restaurants, bars, and at the pool, while the guys were stuck in boring meetings all day!

However, I am a girl that enjoys vacations, so by November it was high-time to break out of Hong Kong for a bit. Mark and I decided to try a long weekend in Bangkok, Thailand. It just so happened that one of our very good friends from HK coincidentally had the same idea, so our weekend was double the fun!

On a different note: I have tried to get these pictures to download into the text as I discuss them. However, it is very difficult to manuever them around. If anyone is an experienced blogger via this website and has any great tips, I'm keen to hear them!!!



Overlooking Bangkok @ The Sky Bar



Above Eleven, Japanese-Peruvian fusion food and drinks.



The Sky Bar



We began our adventure Friday night with a Japanese-Peruvian dinner at Above Eleven roof-top restaurant located on Sukhumvit Soi 11, a world-famous party area of Bangkok. We enjoyed fantastic views of the city nightskape as we were 32 stories above street level! In the spirit of keeping this blog mostly "G" rated there is nothing else left to report on this night!

Saturday we ventured to the Chatuchak Weekend Market for some serious shopping and cultural experiences! This particular market is touted as being the largest, open-air market in the world. I had to do a little internet research here: the market is over 14 hectares and hosts around 200,000 people plus per day. For the hectacre challenged, 14 hectacres is approximately 37 acres! There are somewhere in the neighborhood of 9,ooo-15,000 stalls for your shopping pleasure. Keep in mind, that Bangkok is around 90 degrees with 90 percent humidity at this time of year. That's a lot of stalls, people, and smells crammed into a very hot and humid space! I was a bit skeptical about dragging Mark to a place this size when a visit Easton Towne Center causes distress, but our friends were sink-shopping, so Mark had no choice but go and suffer along with Chris...more on the sink in a bit!

Mark and I were scouring the stores for a traditional Thailand wood carving for ourselves and trinkets for the kids. Going to the market with a goal in mind helps with the organization. The market is divided into "districts" such a animals, furniture, clothing, soaps, clay, etc. We wondered around aimlessly for a bit until we discovered the areas we needed. After a while of negotiations, our friends had bought a beautiful mosiac sink and we had purchased our wood carvings. I forgot to mention that we had a driver and van arranged to transport us to and from the hotel, along with our packages. My girlfriend and I decided to have a drink and snack while the guys carried the stuff to the van. One hour later, we still have not had any sightings of the guys, when alas they surface laughing hysterically. Super long story short, at one point when trying to locate the van, a police office driving a moped called our van driver to clarify the location of the parking lot. At this point, the officer offered to bring our friend to the van. Chris hoped on, holding the sink, when the officer, then pointed at Mark and gestured for him to hop on as well. If you are keeping track, you are correct in the fact that there are now 3 grown men riding on a moped, holding a rather large ceramic/mosiac sink off to the side weaving through Bangkok traffic in serch of a van! Unfortunately we were no where around the guys to snap a picture of this! After we reunited and regrouped we headed to lunch at the market for some traditional Thai. We dined on: fish cakes (similar to crab cakes), a hollowed out pineapple stuffed with rice, chicken, and cashews, mango and sticky-rice, deep-fried spring rolls with sweet and spicy chili sauce, and Singha (Thai beer). All of the food was excellent! We then headed back to the hotel to wash-up for the night.

Following dinner at an Italian restaurant, Mark and I decided to head to The Sky Bar rooftop at Lebua State Tower, which is where The Hangover II was filmed. This bar is on the 63rd floor (or 820 feet in the air), making it the tallest open-air bar in the world (per the Sky Bar). Mark and I grabbed a table along the edge to enjoy the views and listen to the jazz band playing above us. The views were simply stunning. Not only was Bangkok city full of lights and life, but the ombiance of the bar with the uplight gold and cream pillars, perfectly manicured topiaries, jazz band, and the hustle and bustle of people dressed-up for a night on the town made for a very enjoyable night. After enjoying our two-drink minimum for the table, we walked up a few steps to the circular bar for pictures. Staff are readily available and offer to take pictures of guests, free of charge. Our staffer was superb and had us doing all sorts of poses and he worked very hard to capture as many views as he could!

We then taxid back to our hotel to rest up for our busy day of sightseeing on Sunday. Taxis in Bangkok, well I believe most of Thailand, are an interesting experience. There are meters in the cabs, however, it is up to the cab drivers discretion to use it. It is very important to negotiate your rate prior to getting in the cab or insist/refuse to ride in the cab without the meter running. Most hotel and bar/restaurant staff will help give you a ballpark of a reasonable cab fare. Saturday we had quite an interesting cab ride with our friends as we had negotiated our fare quite easily. The driver had problems finding our hotel so we had a nice little tour of Bangkok at night for a very reasonable price! Luckiily our driver was very nice and just laughed as he called himself a tour guide & driver in one!

I will be publishing the sightseeing from Sunday in Part 2 due to the number of pictures I hope to be able to post.

This is the view from our table. You can see the jazz band playing towards the right side. The Sky Bar

The weekend market minus the crowds!

The Sky Bar

Our first Black Rainstorm

Wednesday was a very exciting day for the kids. They woke up to discover they had a school cancellation due to rain! That's right, our kids don't have snow days or fog days, they have rain days.

We had been having thunderstorms off and on up until that day, but around 5 am, the thunder a new kind of loud. The kids usually sleep through everything, but this was enough to wake them up. Our duplex has floor-to-ceiling windows on both levels, and we overlook the water, so when it lightnings, everything really lights-up. The windows also shake in the wind or rattle some in the thunder, it has something to do when the typhoon-stability system (I am told). The storms are called "black rainstorms" because the sky is black and visibility is completely lost. These are independent of typhoon rains. A "black rainstorm" warning is issued when the rain is falling, or expected to fall, at 70mm per hour (about 3 inches). 

The rain let up by around 11:00am, and we just experienced "regular" thunderstorms off and on the rest of the day. We weren't in any danger of mudslides, however, the Northern Territories, which are about 45 minutes away, can have them (again, I am told). Our mountains have cement drainage systems that help clear the water quickly off the slopes and funnel it down and out to the sea. The system seems to work very well because when I looked at the cement sections, it appeared that a fire hydrant was open and at full blast. 

Anyways, a friend of mine found this video online showing the rain coming in. I thought I would share it with everyone so you have an idea of what this type of rain looks like. The HK airport is about fifteen minutes, by bus, from our place. It is just over the mountains behind us, so it's probably only about 1-2 miles away, but don't quote me on that!

Hong Kong airport Black Rainstorm You should click on the highlighted section and a box should appear for you to click on to watch the YouTube video. 

Hope you enjoyed today's cultural experience!

Phuket, Thailand

Obviously I am not a great blogger, it has been over a month since my last update! I promise I will try to do better, starting maybe next school year...

Mark travels a lot, and I constantly am looking for a trip that is feasible for me to tag along on. That has yet to happen, however, this month it worked out that we could meet in Phuket, Thailand. (Between trips to India and Bangkok, Thailand)

Geography lesson first: Phuket is approximately a 3 hour flight from Hong Kong. Phuket has gorgeous waters compliments of the Indian Ocean, but more specifically the Andaman Sea. It is the largest island in Thailand and is located south of the mainland. The climate is considered a "tropical monsoon" climate, or in our terms, always hot and humid. The summer monsoon season is May to October, with temperatures usually  around 32 degrees Celsius (think upper 80's to low 90's) . However, the overall general temperature is around 30-32, so there is not much difference of high temp's throughout the year. The low temps can be in the 70's to low 80's. Western beaches tend to have the better surfing waves...more on that later. For anyone wondering, the west coast of Phuket was the area hit by the 2004 tsunami.

Blown-up view of Phuket

Thailand

     

Saturday night sunset at Kata Beach

Cultural Lesson: From the research I have done and witnessed in Phuket, the influences are Buddist, Muslim, and Thai-Chinese (had to look that one up!). We noticed a lot of religious and "good-luck" offerings around our hotel and beach area. Locals offer flowers, fresh fruits, incense, and other tokens to their religious figures in hopes of good-luck, fortune, health, prayers, etc. I sort of equate it with the Catholic faith of lighting a candle in church.
     Thai is the official language of Thailand, however, there are many dialects and variations of the language spoken, I counted around 16 different ones listed. Many in the tourist industry speak English as well, at least on some level. 

The population is approximately 503,000, with the population of Thailand around 69 million.(data.worldbank.org, accessed May 15, 2013).

Now the specifics of our trip...

I had a long list of things and tourist destinations I wanted to check out, however, did we make it to many? Nope! Once we saw our hotel and pool, I just wanted to relax and enjoy the space and fresh air. (Plus, all of the tourist places where a solid 60 minute drive away,on a very windy road, so my desire to not get motion sick convinced us to stay local).

We headed to the beach to check the ocean out first. Let me tell you, the waves are incredible, they are 6-8 feet high and break within 5 yards of the sand. We have never seen anything like it. Not sure the size comes through that well on the pictures, but they are just amazing!

Mark loves diving through the waves and convinced me to join him. Well, I couldn't get out past the first 10 feet before I was caught in the undercurrent, with waves crashing on me every 30-45 seconds...I bounced off the sandy bottom, did multiple flips, lost my bikini top, had my bottoms full of sand, lost my pony-tail holder, and thought I was going to drown. The two women watching us had quite the indecent picture of me flipping through the water! However, the water was very warm and crystal clear, so I am sure it is absolutely wonderful to be in during the calmer months. Mark played in the waves for about 45 minutes while I worked on ridding myself of the 6 kg of sand that was packed onto and into my body before it was time to head to the calmer waters of our 5 different swimming pools.

For dinner, we decided to walk up the street to check things out. We found a local little place, had a Thai style dinner and drinks, then wondered back down towards our hotel. We then found a hidden gem that became a daily ritual. One of the things Thai people are famous for is "Thai-style" massages. We have many, many massage salons in Hong Kong, but I generally stick to the salon I know. However, my girlfriends are always talking about getting "footies" after a luncheon or night-out. This place we stumbled upon offered "footies" and traditional Thai-massage for very cheap prices. We decided to give it a try and we ended up back everyday! For those of you wondering, "Thai-style" is a very vigorous massage, that actually hurts at times. It is meant to do a deep stretching and twisting of the body. I tried it once, it was too intense for me, I stuck to the "footies". Mark had 2 full-bodies but liked the "footies" better as well. A "footie" is an hour-long foot massage, with a shoulder/head/neck rub thrown in as well. They are very relaxing, don't tickle at all, and I feel asleep with each one. Absolutely fabulous! Anyone that visits us here, I promise we will take you to get one!

The pre-soak before the "footie"

On Saturday and Sunday, we went into the local town for some exploration, eating, and shopping. We rode in taxis called tuk-tuk, which are open-air in the back and pretty fun. Some of them had neon party lights at night and huge boom-boxes blasting music! I could never find one of those to ride in, but next time, I will insist!

A tuk-tuk

We found an outdoor "learn to surf/wake board" bar and decided to give that a try. Mark did it on Saturday and Sunday. I had to wait until Sunday so I could go out and buy a shirt/shorts to cover my swimsuit (no need to flash everyone a 2nd time on the trip!) Basically the water is only about 2 inches deep and shoots out around 35 miles per hour. The instructors help you set-up and give you a rope to hold while you go back up the hill. After your 3rd attempt, the instructors shoot you up faster and with less of their help. The  hill is very padded, but when you fall, you are hitting with such force and at odd angles, it hurts like crazy sometimes. We paid for 1 hour, and I don't think we could have done it for much longer, it is very physical. Luckily the massage salon wasn't far away! We both ended up not being terrible by the time our time was up, but we weren't great either! It was a lot of fun though and we will totally do it again if we run across one of those machines. 

We took a lot of videos, but I can't get them to upload :(

Sunday, before my 1st ride. I was very nervous since I had seen Mark's falls on Saturday!  The guy behind me had never done it before either, however, he was a natural, so I didn't like him very much!

The rest of the time we spent hanging out at the hotel pool and beach. We had very intense thunderstorms Sunday morning and early afternoon, so that put a little damper on things. The best weather was on Monday, which of course was the day we flew out. Luckily, we booked later flights, so we could hang at the pool until 1pm. There are many great things to do and we will be bringing the kids back to experience a lot of it in a couple of years, when they are old enough to snorkel/kayak through the caves/and appreciate cultural stuff a little  more.

Aunt Nellie Visits!!!

Welcome to Hong Kong, Aunt Nellie!!!

We haven't seen Aunt Nellie since we were home at Christmas, so we were very excited for her visit over spring break. It just so happened that the stars aligned and the kids spring break (2 weeks long) coordinated with her spring break. She booked a ticket (sorry, no upgrade to business class available) and flew the 16 hours over the North Pole to spend 8 days with us. 

Up first was a visit to C's school to be a spectator for Sports Day. Sports day is basically the equivalent of our "field day" at Marion Local. However, the entire school year leads up to game day. Every Friday, the entire student population (84 children) are divided into 4 groups of various ages. The groups stay the same for each quarter as they accumulate and earn points while competing in various logic, humanity, citizenship, and various other types of academic games. The final competition was the Sports Day games, which families were invited to attend. It was located in the big grassy area at our Community Hall, which is a 5 minute walk from our house. C's team is called "Dragons", which happens to be his football team name, so he wore that uniform. (The teams had to dress in their team color, in this case, blue. This is a big deal to the kids because they normally wear uniforms). For the record, his team won!!!

Preparing for the games. FYI, that is his girlfriend standing behind him!

Up next, a night out for the adults. After school, we helped the kids settle in for the evening with Margie, and then we hoped a ferry and taxi into the city. Hong Kong is a large city, so it is best described by the districts and streets. The trendy restaurant area is known as SOHO. We decided on an Italian place and filled ourselves with some nice carbohydrates before hitting the bar district, Lan Kwai Fong (LKF). There are around 100 plus dining and drinking establishments in these areas, so there is something for everyone! 

On of Mark and I's favorite hang-outs is Al's diner in LKF. (Don't get the wrong idea, we go out very seldom in LKF, but when we do, we always stop here). It's a great place with indoor/outdoor seating, video screens that play music video's from the 80's-90's, and people dancing on the tables...makes you feel like you are back in Ohio! We also toured another favorite location, Insomnia. This place has live music that absolutely rocks. The are open until like 4 a.m. but we always leave at a respectable 1:45 to catch the last ferry back to our island :) 

Anyways, LFK is always an eye-opening event. People are dressed up in formals, super hero costumes, in just underwear, the possibilities are endless. BUT Nellie was in for a special treat, because Hong Kong was celebrating the Hong Kong Rugby 7's. The Rugby 7's are a rugby tournament featuring teams from all over the globe. Rugby players are nuts, but Rugby fans are more nuts!!! Basically, if you have ever attended HineyGate, think that on serious steroids for the party atmosphere. We met so many people, I can't think of another place that you can talk to people from so many different countries in one night, but anything is possible in Hong Kong. 

Over the weekend, we went to visit Big Buddah, just the girls. Unfortunately, after we rode the cable car, it started to rain. We had to walk and climb the stairs in the rain. However, E had a great time jumping in any puddle she could find. Of course, I forgot to bring an umbrella, which is a staple in the subtropics. 

Bamboo growing in the gardens around the village in Big Buddah. E loves bamboo, as it feeds the panda bears!

 We also went to Disneyland, just the girls. The little man can be quite a hermit when he chooses. He was in football camp this week from 9-12 daily, plus he was running a fever off and on with a cold. He didn't really have the energy to devote to sight-seeing, football, and the NCAA March Madness, so guess which activity lost!

Riding the tea-cups with Aunt Nellie! 

Main Street U.S.A with Sleeping Beauty's castle way in the background.

Once again, just the girls headed to Ocean Park, which is a large amusement park and aquarium on Hong Kong Island. Of course, it had to rain off and on, but it didn't stop our fun. We were able to see the panda bear cubs, lots of fish, a few sharks, and ride the carousel. Overall, a success for E!

 

She loves the goldfish!

Finally, we spent lots of time eating and enjoying time together just doing nothing. Unfortunately, our weather was not fantastic, but we still had fun :)Thanks for visiting Nellie, we will see you in June!!!!