Ornate is an understatement for Thailand with all of its beautiful and brightly-coloured buddhist temples and buddhas. I strongly recommend Thailand even as someone's first trip to Asia!
Purchasing gold sheets from the temple, people firmly place the sheet on the buddha. Ultimately, the buddha would be covered in gold.
I went to the very traditional, yet touristy, floating markets, where all the village folk used to sell and trade goods by boat in a floating marketplace.
Here are some of those goods; you can see Durian (a stinky fruit) and lychees. Also, take a look at the interesting hats that the merchants wear.
Here is a very long reclining buddha in the Ayuthaya region.
I was ecstatic to find that Chiang Mai, in the northern region of Thailand, held one of the most beautiful Wat (temple) across Thailand. This wat, Doi Suthep, showed off scores off chedis, temples and buddhas which were completely covered in gold. The only exception, a beautiful 1m high emerald-coloured translucent buddha lay in the centre of the wat.
Thai Kickboxing... a popular violent sport, which involves a ritualistic / religious public preparation and odd background music.
Ouch! The kids fighting (they really were kids) were between 8 and 18. No older.
This is an incredibly moving picture demonstrating the destruction that took place here hundreds of years ago... a charcoaled buddha, missing its head, surrounded by the building remnants of what used to be a temple.
I had the luxury to take a one day cooking class while in Chiang Mai. It was the best investment that I could ever make. We cooked half a dozen recipes that day... and even went to the local food market for a tour of Asian products (as you can see here).
Here is the teacher telling us how to prepare one of the dishes. Note the cutting board in front of the man. (Isn't it cool?)... and the hanging bags of water are used to keep the flies away as the bags swing on the string back and forth.
Here is a snake keeper...in front of him, two poisonous cobras. Note the apparent lack of fencing between the show and the audience!
Showing the snake to the crowd.
I laughed as the announcer kept saying to the audience "Oh deadly snake, you must kiss him before he kisses you!"
So, here I am kissing a Boa. Do I look scared? (Now, you know I would NEVER do this to a Tarantula or any other bug!!!)
Lastly, here is a huge fancy sign made up for the King's birthday. (For this, the country gets four days of vacation, and a free meal paid by the king every one of those days. Also, the entire country pretty much shuts down to celebrate.)
I love this picture of buddhist monks chatting outside one of the temples.
I was told that all male thais must spend at least one year as a buddhist monk in Thailand. Females, as expected, are not privy to this activity. Also interesting, talking to a group of monks, I found out one wanted to be a basketball player, yet another a soldier!!
Here are examples of food offerings at the foot (a mighty large one at that) of a 40 ft tall buddha.
Here is a gorgeous temple (with a slight European influence - eg. columns).
This is a common sight inside temples - a large buddha surrounded by 2nd level buddhas, and offerings ranging from food, to lotus flowers, to burning oil, to gold. The murals in these places are also nice to take in.
Here is a sight from the Ayuthaya, the 2nd capital of Siam (now known as Thailand). This is a Chedi (not the car) that has along with the remainder of the temple been torched during a war with the Burmese and other neighbouring enemies.
Across Thailand, there are food stalls everywhere -- I love countries that love to eat! Much of it included fried noodles (pad thai), fried dough, fruits, various meats, and one place even sold sticky rice baked in a bamboo log).
