Trip to Thailand

Having taken a phenomenal amount of photos, I thought I should use some to share the pleasures of my trip.

I saw all sorts of things on my trip, including some rather bizarre Xmas trees, like this one in Bangkok:

I also saw a phenomenal amount of Wats, shrines and beautiful buildings like these:





Naturally, seeing so many Wats meant I saw hundreds of Buddhas, like these:




But it wasn't ALL about temples, there were also lots of markets, where I saw scary things like these mannequins:




And other amusing things like this:


Thailand has an attitude to the royal family that I've never seen or heard of before. There are pictures of the king everywhere, the national anthem is played twice a day, people even stand in the cinema for the national anthem. Yellow being the kings birth colour, is seen everywhere. Shame canary isn't my colour, really.

When I wasn't visiting the newer sites of Bangkok and Chiang Mai, I was exploring the older and more historical sites of Ayuthaya, Kanchanaburi, Sukhothai and Phitsanaluk:










And the Bridge over the River Kwai - let's all whistle along together now:

And then there were the more natural attractions like the waterfalls at Erawan:

And lots of cute things, like these piggies I saw at the Flower Festival in Chiang Mai:

I'm especially proud of this bamboo fish that I made there (under guidance of a cute wrinkled old lady):

Other creative moments came in a cookery course that I did where I made six very scrummy dishes like this one:

Naturally, having visited and donated to so many Wats, I'm expecting a lucky year. Especially, as this is the Year of the Pig, and that means it's my year (36 this year, folks!). Not such a lucky year for this piggie though that I saw as part of a temple offering display. Nice, yes?

On New Years Eve, I hopefully generated some more luck with the lantern I lit and let off. Imagine a sky full of lights from the lanterns that had risen up. Lovely!

Other quirkier moments of the trip included being invited to drink (lots of) whiskey and coke with three Thai women and two German guys, and to dance and share their picnic. in a massage parlour! Or drinking in a bar set up in the forecourt of a gas station:

Without question though, the absolute highlight of my trip, and the part I have about 90 photos of, was watching, feeding and washing these beauties:

http://www.elephantnaturepark.org/index.htm

This park, which I could write a LOT about, basically is a conservation centre which looks after rescued elephants that were pretty badly treated in the past.

You CAN'T ride them. You CAN'T see them putting on shows or painting or doing anything to entertain tourists.

But

You CAN watch them playing, interacting, having sex (the male elephant has a VERY long and curved penis). You CAN feel the power of the trunks as they take food from your hand. And you CAN play dodge the turd, as you stand in the river scrubbing them.

And that's it for now. Sorry it's taken so long to post this. Blogger's been a bugger recently.

Happy New Year to all and expect more elephant pictures as we go on. Maybe some other Thailand pictures too.



P.S.