Bangkok - Day 1 The Grand Palace & Wat Phra Kaew; Wat Pho

We planned to ride a river taxi to the Grand Palace but somehow ended up in a regular taxi. The driver didn't quite understand (or pretended not to?) know where we wanted to go until Renee showed him a picture of it on her phone. LOL After driving around who knows where for about 25 minutes, we reached our destination.

The Grand Palace (Thai: พระบรมมหาราชวัง, Phra Borom Maha Ratcha Wang, lit. The Lord's Supreme, Great, Royal Palace) is a complex of buildings in Bangkok, Thailand. It served as the official residence of the Kings of Thailand from the 18th century onwards. Construction of the Palace began in 1782, during the reign of King Rama I, when he moved the capital across the river from Thonburi to Bangkok. The Palace has been constantly expanded and many additional structures were added over time. The present King of Thailand, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, however, resides at the Chitralada Palace.

The Temple of the Emerald Buddha is on the grounds, or Wat as it is called there. It was quite grand with beautiful tile worked column's and stones. Inside is a solid Jade Buddha. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the temple as it is an active place of worship, but I did get one through the doorway from standing down on the stairs. (Below all of the photos is a general description of a Wat.)

We started our tour in the Wat and then proceeded to the palace so that is the order of the photos. This is just a few of them. There are more of them posted at my SmugMug photo site. http://nolamarimages.smugmug.com/Vacation/Thailand/Grand-Palace/19726959_CJsvXL

After the Grand Palace we wanted to see the Thai History Museum. It was Jim's and mine first experience in a songthaew! The museum was closed, so we went instead to another Wat adjacent to the Grand Palace, called Wat Pho. This Wat contains the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, a massive gold Buddha plated with gold and with Mother of Pearl embedded feet. It was quite impressive. No seemed to object to picture taking there. Here some photos from the Wat, again more at the SmugMug site.

Wat Pho (วัดโพธิ์), or Wat Phra Chetuphon (วัดพระเชตุพน) as it is generally known to the Thais, is mainly famous for the huge Reclining Buddha statue it houses. At 20 acres large, it is the largest Wat in Bangkok, and is technically the oldest too, as it was built around 200 years before Bangkok became Thailand's capital. However, today the Wat today bears virtually no resemblance to that originally constructed, as it was almost entirely rebuilt by Rama I when the capital was moved to Bangkok. It holds the dual honors of having both Thailand's largest reclining Buddha image and the most number of Buddha images in Thailand. More:
http://www.into-asia.com/bangkok/attractions/watpho.php

A wat (derived from the [Pāli] word vatthu-ārāma) is a monastery temple in Cambodia, Thailand, or Laos. The word "wat" (Khmer: វត្ត, Thai: วัด, sometimes rendered "vat" when referring to Laos) means "school".

Strictly speaking a wat is a Buddhist sacred precinct with monks' quarters, the temple proper, an edifice housing a large image of Buddha, and a structure for lessons. A Buddhist site without a minimum of three resident monks cannot correctly be described as a wat, although the term is frequently used more loosely, even for ruins of ancient temples. In Cambodia, a wat is used to refer to all kinds of places of worship. Technically, wat generally refers to a Buddhist place of worship, but the technical term is វត្តពុទ្ធសាសនា (wat pootasasna). A Christian church can be referred as វិហារយេស៊ូ(vihear yeasu). Angkor Wat អង្គរវត្ត means city of temples.

In everyday language in Thailand, a wat is any place of worship except a mosque (Thai สุเหร่า - su-rao; or มัสยิด - Thai rendering of masjid; a mosque may also be described as โบสถ์ของอิสลาม - bot khong Is-a-lam). Thus wat cheen is a Chinese temple (either Buddhist or Taoist), wat khaek is a Hindu temple, and wat kris or wat krit or wat farang is a Christian church, though Thai โบสถ์ (โบด bot) may be used descriptively as with mosque.
[edit] Structure
A typical Buddhist wat consists of the following buildings:
chaidei or chedi (Khmer ចេតិយ), (Thai เจดีย์) (from Sanskrit: chaitya, temple) - usually conical or bell-shaped buildings, often containing relics of Buddha
vihan (Khmer វិហារ),wihan (Thai วิหาร) from Sanskrit: vihara) - a meeting and prayer room
mondop (Thai มณฑป) (from Sanskrit: Mandapa) - a usually open, square building with four arches and a pyramidal roof, used to worship religious texts or objects
sala (Khmer សាលា), (Thai ศาลา) (from Sanskrit: Shala - School, from an earlier meaning of shelter) - a pavilion for relaxation or miscellaneous activities
bot โบสถ์ or ubosoth อุโบสถ์ (from Pali uposatha) - the holiest prayer room, also called the "ordination hall" as it is where new monks take their vows. Architecturally it is similar to the vihara; the main differences are the eight cornerstones placed around the bot to ward off evil. The bot is usually more decorated than the viharn.
bibiloteca (Thai หอไตร) - Tripitaka library where Buddhist scriptures are kept
drum tower (Thai หอกลอง)
bell tower (Thai หอระฆัง)
multipurpose hall (Thai: ศาลาการเปรียญ, study hall) is a building in a wat. In the past this hall was only for monks to study in, as parian is a Pali word meaning 'educated monk' or 'monk student'.
The living quarters of the monks, including the กุฏิ (Thai กุติ kuti or กุด kut - monk cells) are separated from the sacred buildings.
The roofs of Thai temples are often adorned with chofahs.

The Condo in Bangkok

Baan Sathorn Chaophraya

Renee found a great place for us to stay - a highrise condo building right by the Chao Phraya River. The view was gorgeous from the 23rd floor! We actually had two apartments. One was big with 2 bedrooms & bathrooms, and a large open living area. They stayed in that one. Ours was connected by a balcony. It was more like a regular hotel room, but with a kitchen. It seemed very secure and well kept.


Night view of the river & the city upon our arrival:


Sunrise Saturday Morning:











Dining area with the ling room behind on the right, the master bedroom on the left.

The Kitchen:



This is the balcony that connected our apartments:

The Balcony from the bigger apartment:





Pops & Orin looking at the view from the balcony:







Daytime Balcony Views:




Our view of the pool from the 23rd floor:




Another night view of the dinner boats on the river:



The Building (Center):

The Lobby:

Asia Bound!

After two weeks of shopping & strategically packing 3 very stuffed suitcases full of goodies for Renee & the family, we flew out to LA on Wed evening for the trip to Thailand on Thursday. Jim had come out for business on Monday, so we met at LAX that night. We collected our luggage & caught the shuttle to our hotel. The Hilton was very nice but shuttle seemed to take forever to pick us up, then to get us there, The traffic at LAX was incredible and it took us about 30 minutes just to get off the airport grounds.

It was quite embarrassing at every airport, hotel, and taxi to have so much luggage! The staff at each place prob thought we were just crazy Americans bringing all that stuff. Three of them were full of food & Christmas presents for Renee & Damien & the kids. :)





I found myself wishing this was a "real" UFO that would take us to Bangkok in 30 minutes instead of 22 hrs. :D



The Trip to Bangkok

Other than some long, anxious waiting for the shuttle to take us back to LAX on Thursday morning our trip to Bangkok went really smoothly. We went through the same International Terminal where we had flown out to Tahiti 6 years ago. The staff at Korean Airlines were really great. Thankfully all 4 pieces of the luggage were within the weight limit! Security only took about 15 minutes and we arrived at the gate with about 20 minutes to spare before boarding.





The plane was a huge Airbus with 2 aisles & 10 seats across. They have 2 levels, with 1st Class & Prestige Class being upstairs, Economy Class down. The very front section contained those really cool totally-reclining seats that basically turn into beds. We were surprised no one was in there. The plane was very clean & comfortable and seemed almost brand new. The ride was very smooth - the smoothest take off I've ever experienced. You could hardly tell we were moving. Every seat had it's own entertainment center. I watched Thor and some news on the way to Seoul but there were no English captions so I mostly listened to music, read or slept. I loved watching views from the mounted cameras for front, below, and tail views. Jim slept a lot more than I did & watched a lot of TV.

The flight attendants were just fabulous. So courteous, and always smiling. I was totally struck by the difference though, in Korean Air and the American airlines we often fly on. Their attendants are ALL very young, pretty, slim, females wearing smart uniforms consisting of slim teal skirts, white blouse with hair in a bun with a pretty Asian "bow." They worked really hard serving us all snacks & drinks and THREE full meals during the 13 hr flight.

It was kind of strange that we left around 1:00 in the afternoon but it never got dark until just after we reached Incheon Airport.There was a really nice view of the sunset and the small, dark mountainous islands near the airport as we landed. Incheon is a HUGE airport! We arrived about the time our next fight (Seoul to Bangkok) was starting to board. I was concerned pulling into the gate seeing how big the airport was, and we needed to get from gate 11 to 31 pronto. Fortunately, Korean Air was on the ball and had personnel there to meet us all (about 20 passengers) and escort us to the next gate. We had to go through another security check point, which I found odd but also comforting that they were being that careful.

This flight was another 5 hrs, and it seems like a blur now. LOL I did sleep a bit more, maybe 2 hrs of it total, and tried to watch the movie Super 8 but fell asleep about half way through it. They fed us yet another meal which Jim declined & I only ate part of. By now we were feeling rather zombie-ish. We arrived in Bangkok around 10 local time. Customs was a breeze - they did not do any inspection of the luggage at all, and immigration was basically just having them stamp our passports. We were pleasantly surprised our luggage was there seeing how little time we had between flight in Seoul! I'm so thankful Renee came back to the airport to meet us and escort us to our apartments! They had arrived from Chiang Mai about 2 in the afternoon. She knows some basic Thai & could work out the Taxi ride, which was about 40 minutes. It's quite odd driving on the left side of the road.

We are not at a hotel. It is a high rise condo bldg about a block from the Chao Phraya River. We have a small studio apartment which connects by very scary balcony to Renee & Damien's apartment, which is much more spacious with 2 bedrooms and a large open living area. We both have kitchens but won't really be using ours at all. It was about midnight before we got there, and the kids were all asleep. We did "have" to give them a big kiss anyway. Two very sleepy little boys woke up and came out and laid on the couch by us for a while. Our windows & common balcony face the river and the night view is just beautiful.






Photos from Day 1: http://nolamarimages.smugmug.com/Vacation/Thailand/Grand-Palace/19726959_CJsvXL

Lexi in the gym

While visiting my sister in New Braunfels TX last November I went to San Antonio one day to see my niece Jenny at the gym where she works. Jenny's daughter, my 6 year old grand-niece Lexi, has competed in level 2 & 3 gymnastics already, and is going into level 4. (She is actually technically ready for level 5 but missed the birthday cut-off date by one day!) There are some videos on U-tube of Lexi at Level 2 & 3 meets. Here are a few videos I took of her showing me her Level 3 floor routine, and doing some general tumbling that she can do but is not done in the level she is allowed to compete in due to her age. (This is just casual, and not before judges or even her coaches, so she's not being as "perfect" as she would try to be in competition.)

I just remembered that I videoed her at her her Aunt Kara's wedding in May, so I'm putting those up too. They were before she could do the back handsprings without momma's help. She's 5 in those.

She can now do either cartwheels or walkovers on the beam too. Her mom says she is fearless! I'm just amazed at her ability already.