Bangkok is very hot! Even in their winter it only goes down to 25C (75F). We were there in their rainy season and it averaged around 34-35C (94-95F) each day, with lots of humidity! I can not even imagine how hot it must be in their summer which is April-June.
 |
| Buildings at the National Museum |
 |
| Inside the Buddhaisawan Chapel |
 |
| Love the Architecture |
 |
| One of the Royal Chariots |
 |
| Another Royal Chariot. |
 |
| Daniel informed us while we were in Bangkok that he had never been to an aquarium (not sure how that happened since we have been to so many!). So we went to Siam Ocean World, which is located in the basement of a Mall. It is actually quite large. |
 |
| The shark is in a large tank that you can walk under to see the fish up close. |
 |
| Touching a Star Fish |
 |
| Randy had been to this restaurant before and liked the food. I found it difficult to be there with an 11 year-old. Apparently the owner of this restaurant is responsible for introducing condoms to Thailand. |
 |
| Daniel went up to this display and says "Oh, they are made out of balloons!" Yeah, we'll go with that. |
 |
| Guess what these are made from - refer back to the name of the restaurant. Walking the streets of Bangkok you can not avoid the sex market. Street vendors sell all kinds of sex toys, videos, aides, even Viagra! |
 |
| This is what you get instead of mints! |
 |
| Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej, known as Rama IX, and Queen Sirikit. He is the longest ruling monarch, since 1946. He is 82 and she is 80. Interestingly he was born in Cambridge, MA! They have these type monuments all over Bangkok. The people seem to like them. |
 |
| The head of the Reclining Buddha at Wat Po. 15 meters (49 feet) high and 43 meters long (141 feet) |
 |
| A view of the Reclining Buddha. The feet are 3 meters (9 feet) high and 4.5 meters (14 feet) long. |
 |
| The bottom of the Buddha's feet is inlaid with Mother of Pearl. |
 |
| These are where King Rama 1-4 are buried. The one on the right is King Rama 4 is buried - made famous from the movie "King and I". He was a real king and even Anna was real. The National Museum has a section on them. |
 |
| Add caption |
 |
| Ashes are placed in the base of these monuments |
 |
| Details of a building. |
 |
| Families can pay to refurbish these Buddhas and then can bury their loved ones ashes in the base. |
 |
| We took a tuk tuk ride - you can see one (green) in the background. |
 |
| The wires around the city were amazing |
 |
| Taxis are very bright in color. Orange, yellow, green, red, etc. |
 |
| Pink taxi anyone! |
 |
| Wat Arun |
 |
| Daniel with the "Guards" |
 |
| Here is a sample of a family burial Buddha. The pictures are the people buried there. |
 |
| Very decorative buildings in the Temple areas. |
 |
| This is a worship Buddha. |
 |
| War Arun - "Temple of the Dawn" You can see the guards around the base. Two different types monkeys and demons. |
 |
| Daniel trying to hold up the Temple! |
 |
| View from the Temple |
 |
| Another view from the top |
 |
| The stairs are very steep - as you can tell from Daniel's face. I had to turn around to walk down - being afraid of heights - I could not look down! |
 |
| We took a water taxi to get to the 2 Temples. On our return these students were on the boat. They are studying to be monks. All boys need to study to be monks in Thailand or at least there is a saying in Thailand "A boy does not become a man until he has been a monk" They do not make a life commitment to this, they just learn about it for a short time. Anywhere from a month to a lifetime. |
 |
| Celebrating Daniel's 11th birthday, October 2nd, in the hotel room in Bangkok! |
 |
| A gift from Jennifer and Amy! |
 |
| Daniel feeding the Koi fish with a baby bottle. |
 |
| up close of the fish eating from the baby bottle. |
 |
| Daniel feeding the elephant some vegetables. |
 |
| Daniel with a baby tiger - yes it's real! |
 |
| I wanted Daniel to feed the tiger, but they said he was not big enough. After holding this tiger I can understand. She got real heavy after a while. |
 |
| It was awesome to be this close to tigers |
 |
| She was so sweet holding the bottle and eating with her eyes closed. |
 |
| Daniel riding an elephant. He went out into the fields for about a 15 minute ride. not just around an enclosure. |
 |
| Water buffalo |
 |
| Another reclining Buddha. With us is a friend, Laura. Her husband works for the same company as Randy. They were in Thailand for the same Trade show. So Laura toured with us, it was very nice. |
 |
| The old capital of Siam (Siam became Thailand in 1939). This is called Ayutthaya. It is mostly ruins now. The capital is now Bangkok. |
 |
| A prayer service. People pay for the yellow cloths and offer up prayers. |
 |
| The cloths are thrown up to the men standing on the Buddha. |
 |
| All the cloths are tied to a rope then they are draped over the Buddha's shoulder. |
 |
| More of the Capital city ruins |
 |
| Cambodia influenced building |
 |
| This Buddha head is in the tree roots |
 |
| Tree growing out the top of a tower |
 |
| Daniel pretending to be a GQ model! |
 |
| Daniel feeding a coconut to the elephant. |
 |
| They have very powerful trunks. When I handed him one, you feel the strength! |
 |
| One month old baby elephant. Very sweet. |
 |
| Daniel petting the baby. The other elephant is about 4 months old. |
 |
| She had something caught in her throat and she was using her trunk to get it out. |
 |
| These monkeys are raised by monks. We bought some food from the monks and were able to feed them. |
 |
| This monkey stole this bag of sunflower seeds from Daniel. She enjoyed the whole bag herself |
 |
| The monkeys would climb up and wait for you to hand them some food. |
 |
| The monkey is taking the sunflower very gently from Daniel |
 |
| They are so darn cute. I was amazed at how gentle they were. At first I was a little nervous, but they were very sweet. |
 |
| This one decided to sit on my head. He reached down and asked for a snack. then sat there and ate it. |
 |
| Can you see the face. Looking up saying "Can I have some please?" So cute! |
 |
| I took a picture of this one and he was climbing up my leg to get some food. |
 |
| "Can I have some please?" Then they took it so gently, almost like saying "Thank you" |
 |
| Our guide, Charlie, took us to see these fruit bats. They are huge! I was also amazed at how loud they were. The bats were flying, a little bit, around during the day. I thought all bats slept in caves and only came out at night. These were wake and flying around a bit. There were hundreds of them. We parked in a family's yard to see them. I am not sure I would want them for neighbors. As I said - they are very loud. Must be a site to see when they all start to fly! I can handle one or two small bats flying around. Glad I wasn't there to see all of them - might have freaked me out a bit! |
 |
| This building is in the shape of an elephant! Can you see it? |
 |
| The pool at our hotel. We spent all day Friday here. Daniel loved it! |
 |
| The pool was very large and peaceful. |
 |
| Another shrine to the Queen. The king is the ruler here, but they show both around the city. |
 |
| Elephants are very important to the Thai people. |
 |
| Grand Palace. This is where some of the kings and queens have lived. The current King and Queen do not live here. It is open to the public. Construction started in 1782 and each monarch added to it. |
 |
| They have a dress code at the Palace. You can not wear shorts, tank tops, etc. Your legs must be covered, at least down to mid-calf. If you arrived not dressed properly, the guards stopped you and gave you a sarong (can see some in this picture) or a shirt to wear. I read about it before we arrived, so I made sure to dress properly! |
 |
| Monkey guard and demon guard - in the back - that is Laura and Daniel in the front! |
 |
| The details on the building are beautiful. |
 |
| This Buddha is called the Emerald Buddha, but it actually made out of a large piece of Jade. It is currently dressed in it's rainy season outfit. They change it for winter and summer also! |
 |
| One of the Palace Guards |
 |
| We went to a show one night. This was a small performance outside before the show. We could not take pictures inside.As a matter of fact, they made us check our cameras in (they searched our bags and purses) and we got them back at the end of the show. |
 |
| At the Bangkok airport! |
Bangkok was an interesting city. It is very dirty and traffic is a nightmare. This is the first country I have traveled to that I did not learn how to say a couple of words. We usually try to learn how to say hello and thank you. I could not even master hello. They have a hello for males and one for females - I gave up!
