Exotic Asia

Bangkok, April 22

01 Bangkok

Miles travelled: 69542

We've arrived in Southeast Asia on the home stretch of our travels. After an 8-hour flight from Addis, we landed in Bangkok and met Anna's dad at the airport -- he traveled 36 hours from Columbia, South Carolina. We'll be on a 12-day tour with him covering Bangkok and northern Thailand. One unusual thing we noticed about 15 seconds after landing -- there's a golf course in between two active runways with no fences separating the golfers from the jumbo jets taking off. Hmmmm....

We took a tour of Bangkok today and wandered around on our own yesterday. It is a large city, with huge traffic jams, but it is overall quite modern, clean, and safe. The new "Skytrain" elevated train system is quiet, efficient, and very convenient. We took water taxis up & down the Chao Praya River, seeing both modern malls and traditional open-air markets, including a wonderful flower market. Anna & her dad also got Thai foot massages -- quite refreshing!

02 Vegetable market

The National Museum is very large, we only got a small glimpse of the artifacts of Thai history, especially its glory days as the kingdom of Siam in the 13th-15th centuries. The Grand Palace is truly amazing, the Buddhist temples are of several different architectural styles but all have the common theme of gilted gold and colorful mosaic designs. The "Emerald Buddha" (which is actually made of jade, not emerald) is the most precious object in the country -- supposedly, if it ever leaves the palace temple where it is located, the kingdom of Thailand will fall. For such an important object, it's surprisingly small, only 2-1/2 feet tall, but it is placed in a shrine which is about 15 feet tall and 25 feet wide.

03 Longboat on the river

04 Wat Arun temple

05 Anna's dad joins our trip

06 Spires of the Stupas at Grand Palace

07 Where the Emerald Buddha resides

08 The Emerald Buddha