The Land of the Multiple Buddhas.

Internet sporadic. Next posts may come in bits and pieces.

Long story short, we visited Ayutthya, home of the legendary Ramayana. It has a World Heritage site, ancient ruins of temples that cover wide areas of the city. In the first we saw hundreds of statues of Buddha, beginning with a huge reclining statue dressed in saffron cloth. Then there were courtyards where hundreds of life-sized statues sat in rows. Worshippers buy small pieces of gold leaf and adhere them to the statues.





























- Then we walked through a crazy site where people buy and donate statues of roosters to celebrate good fortune. Here was a park full of massed roosters, stretching as far as the eye could see.















I'll keep on with the next post.

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A few random Buddhas

Just a few beauties, some showing the gold leaf fragments people buy to stick on.





This huge Buddha had strings attached to it that made a web all throughout the temple. We were told that this was to carry the energy of the main Buddha to all the parts of the temple, lesser and greater. It was magical.





Iced coffee break!


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Location:Ayutthya, Thailand

Update

Just a quick update. We are in Luang Prabang, having an AMAZING adventure. I can't get my blogs to post here. I've written lots and taken a ton of photos, but they will have to wait for a more robust connection. We are fine, trip is great!


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Location:Luang Prabang, Laos

Ayutthya Part 3

Since some photos are on iPhone and some on iPad these posts are a bit jumbled and out of sequence. Bear with me! The second half of the Ayutthya World Heritage tour was to a stunning temple complex all in ruins. Here we saw remnants of a once great monument brought down by wars and deliberate destruction of the temple, presumably to get all the gold. Things never change!
















We visited a small local one-room "factory" where they make cotton candy. When it's done' they sell it in bags. They make a small crepe and roll up the cotton candy in the crepe, like a little burrito. We all had one!

















Later we went to an elephant camp and hung out with some jumbos.








As if the day wasn't packed already, we opted for hour-long Thai massages ($10) in the evening. Very athletic and intense. The masseuse uses her body weight and knees, forearms, feet and palms of hands. No oils. We are wearing big, loose pajamas. Every joint and muscle pulled and yanked and pressed. Not for the faint of heart! So glad we tried it!

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Location:Ayutthya, Thailand

Mind-blowing Bangkok

Today we went to the Grand Palace, a place of unimaginable splendor. Daniella calls it "the OCD Capitol of the World" since every inch of every surface is encrusted with jewels, mosaics, paintings, colossal sculptures, tinkling bells, and a grand slam of color and pattern. For those of us who have enjoyed the yearly productions of Mount Madonna's Ramayana, everything is familiar. Here were about 178 huge murals telling all the stories in this great epic. Statues of Rama, Sita, Hanuman, and the demons are everywhere. Tomorrow we will visit Ayuthya, the birthplace of the god Rama, where much of the Ramayana takes place.





























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One particularly ornate temple held the statue of the Emerald Buddha, carved from a huge emerald and sitting high up (50 feet?) on top of a heavily gilded altar. Since it is winter here, Buddha wears a cloak of diamonds wrapped around his body. Each time the seasons change, the king or now the prince, since the king is too old, climbs up a ladder and changes the garment. In the hot summer months, Buddha wears more of a diamond tank top, and each season has its particular outfit. As he changes the garment, the royal family member washes the statue. As he washes, he squeezes the water from the towel into a big basin. This becomes holy water that is placed in large fountains outside the temple. Believers come and dip a lotus pod into the water and then sprinkle themselves with it, as Kitch is doing in the photo below. Our lovely guide, Lada, showed us how to sculpt a lotus unto a rosette. We were not allowed to photograph the Emerald Buddha, but I can assure you that he was magnificently green and sparkly.





























Tonight we capped off an already over-the-top day with a dinner cruise at sunset on our own little boat. It was balmy and refreshing to be out on the water after a pretty hot day in the city. We went up-river for about an hour, past glittering palaces, golden stupas, and all the modern buildings of downtown Bangkok. The beautifully lit up suspension bridge is the Rama Bridge, and multi-colored LED lights spray color across the taut cable structure. We had a great meal and lots of laughter and fun. Sleepy now!



































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Location:Soi Sathon 1,ทุ่งมหาเมฆ,Thailand

Early morning Bangkok

Just waking up in pre-dawn Bangkok. We are pinching ourselves with the great good luck to have all survived the grueling 24 hour travel day yesterday. There are plenty of stories about long air travel, so let's just say that we were VERY happy to touch down at midnight here and then to fall into a real and spacious bed for a few hours of real sleep. Our guide, Lada, is thoroughly charming and fun so far. We saw little last night to write about: the ranks of fuschia pink taxis, orchids in profusion growing throughout the airport, the small roadside golden pagodas we glimpsed as we sped through the dark streets. We are definitely in a new world.

So many people ask "what are you looking forward to most?" One thing I'm looking forward to is the fun of traveling with a great group of friends, getting to know each other better as we explore. I felt it strongly throughout the flights yesterday as we began learning to look out for and support each other. Now it is off to breakfast and to see this city.



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Location:Soi Sathon 1,ทุ่งมหาเมฆ,Thailand

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Today we are off on a new adventure to South East Asia. The days of preparation are now behind us. In many ways the last few days have felt like being tossed in a front-loader dryer – spinning, bumping, and trying to get my footing. We’ve had our fair share of very welcome and wonderful house guests and drop-by visitors. There were two plumbing emergencies, one involving a small waterfall leading into a lake under the kitchen sink, and the second a complete loss of hot water, just a few hours ago. Our heroic plumber, Mark Alexander, rallied to the rescue both times and as of this morning everything is up and running (or perhaps I should say dry and warm). Last night our divine house-pet-sitter went to settle into her room, only to find that she was wildly allergic to most of the bedding on her bed (down!), so at 9:30 pm we were scrambling to replace it all with non-allergenics (not a problem in this textile-loving household), and air out the room. The icing on the cake was that my iPhone went totally dead at about 8 pm last night. Now this is my lifeline, my camera, my contact list, my face-time to the grandchildren, something I really don’t care to contemplate doing without for a month. Several attempts to resuscitate it using iTunes came to naught, and then I restarted everything and tried one last time. Voila! It came to life, but I had to reset everything to original settings, thus losing all my specialized settings and who knows what else. But it works, that’s all that counts! I hope the universe is not sending me a message, that’s all.

Now it is time to go. At 8 am we shuttle up to SF to fly to Bangkok for the first leg of this adventure. We are a group of 15 Santa Cruz people (well one has moved one), and have the great advantage of already knowing each other! What an adventure we have ahead. I’ll blog as best I can, and share a few photos every day. Fingers crossed!


www.hersecretgarden.blogspot.com


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Location:SFO