When I was at Mayacama we snuck out of the compound for some Thai food and it reminded me of a trip to Bangkok in 2005. 

 

It was actually a very brief two-day breeze through Thailand on the way to a rendezvous with my parents in Vietnam. They had not been back to VN since 1975 so that was quite a heady experience.

 

Today I’ll share some of the photography from Bangkok. Now I’m not much of a tour group traveler.  I’d rather just grab a map and wing it on the road, but given the short amount of time, I decided to book a tour from the hotel.

 

It turned out to be a pleasant enough tour but I think we all saw more Buddha statues and temples than we ever needed to see in a lifetime, much less in 48 hours.  I was on Buddha overdrive in Bangkok.  Oddly (or not) enough, each day also ended with a tour of a gem store.  I didn’t mind it too much because for once I could say I didn’t go out of my way to find shopping–it came to me!

 

But the truth of the matter is, whatever I saw at those gem stores paled in comparison to the national treasures on open display at the Grand Palace in the photos above.  Another palace that I really enjoyed visiting was the Royal Palace at Bang Pa-In, which appeared to be floating on water:

 

This palace served many generations of kings and queens and the varied architecture found in each structure on the grounds reflected the royalty’s embrace of the world around them.

 

 

As much as I’d like to say the heavily ornate, gilded architecture was what captured my attention in Thailand, it was actually the geniality of the Thai people that made my visit so special.  Geographically we are neighbors, but culturally they couldn’t be more different from us Vietnamese.  I enjoyed their quiet warmth and gentle demeanor amidst an extremely congested, chaotic daily life.  I can’t wait to go back to Thailand and go off road.

 

In the next blog I’ll show you the Buddhas.