Confucius said, you should go to Thailand at least once in your life....
Well, not really, but that's what this statue made me think of. Anyway, we did go. Noni and Grandpa were going to be there, and since its just a measly few hours from here, we figured it would be a shame not to join them.
Bangkok was much more urbanized than I was expecting. I'm not sure why I expected anything different, but I was a little shocked by all the huge malls and such there. We did get a chance to see the laying Buddha which was absolutely amazing to behold. You can see his spiraled footprints on the right side of the picture. This is only a small fraction of the actual size of the feet. There were so many people there!
Enormous! Gold! Stunning!
We were actually there... our famous "proof" shot:
I learned a little more about Buddha and the Buddha statues that we see around everywhere in this part of the world. This one was my favorite. I kind of eavesdropped on a tour guide saying this meant "Stop Fighting". Well, then another tour guide came by and said that it meant "good luck", so you know what, I decided to like it for the first reason, and just go with it. I loved it so much I had to find myself a statue to bring home. It sits on our side table as a reminder to all of us to "Stop Fighting!" Even Kai walks by and says, "this guys says, Stop fighting!" So far, its not making us stop, but it does have value in our home and the kids at least know it means something and isn't just a pretty statue to look at.
The ornamentation there is just stunning. So much gold with other bold colors. We went to see the palace but didn't make it past the gorgeous pavilion on the one side of the grounds, and then we were distracted by the Monk's Library. Which has placards on the walls with words of wisdom from Buddha. That was my favorite part.
These windows were on yet another beautiful building. It housed another sitting Buddha but was closed when we there. We had to just peek through the windows as best we could.
Here's the pavilion. Isn't it amazing! You can see why we were stopped in our tracks. I marveled at the ceiling, the painting, the phoenix crests (as I call them) on the roof. All just lovely.
These spires were covered with these sculpted flowers in glazed clay or something. Again, there weren't any tour guides to inform us of what we were seeing specifically, we just walked around taking it all in. It was a lovely garden compound of stunning architecture, color and culture.
Our time there flew by and we are already talking about the next time we go. There are so many amazing places in Thailand to see. I'm itching to see more. This just scratched the surface for me. It was a great time to see Noni and Grandpa too. Makes us feel like we aren't so far away from family (even though we actually are).
We love visitors and foreign lands!
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