Thailand

[ljplicease]

More observations from Thailand:

Thailand is known as the Land of Smiles and if you do not know any Thai, a simple smile will be responded to with great appreciation and warmth. It's a good way to get around.

Bangkok is a very crowded and bustling metropolis. The cars dart in and out of narrow streets along with a large number erratically driven motorbikes. Pedestrian crossings are places where the cars will try to avoid you, but they probably will not actually stop for you. The drivers use their horns to announce to all that they do not intend to stop so "stay out of my way." Driving is a game of bluff. As chaotic and seemingly dangerous the whole road traffic scene appears it all seems to work without too much incident. We have seen only one small accident.

There are many different forms of taxis, including conventional cars, small open vehicles with a noisy two-stroke motor, motorcycles that will carry one or two pillion passengers, and elephants.

The women and girl passengers on the motorcycle taxis will often ride sidesaddle, seeming not to be holding on to anything and with their legs sticking out into the traffic chaos around them. On our trip out of the city to somewhat quieter roads, but still busy, we saw school girls on the motorcycle taxis sitting in pairs, side saddle, with legs protruding from opposite sides of the motorcycle behind their driver/rider. Mothers carried their quite small children (often in multiples) on the pillion seats behind them.

Elephant taxis, in stark contrast to the vehicular traffic, a sedate and they definitely do not "dart." They move their massive bodies very deliberately. While perched high off the ground atop their leathery grey backs, you rock back and forth with their rhythmic gait and think what it must have been like to travel hours or days by elephant. You wonder about Hannibal and those Alps. The elephants start, stop, and turn in response to feet moving behind their ears as their handlers sit on their heads. You are advised not to stand on the elephants back with your high heels as you step aboard, but even without high heels you first hesitate to stand on these magnificent creatures. You are told firmly "stand on the elephant." As you do, you sense the sold mass of muscle below and are in awe. When we arrived at Ayutthaya to ride the elephant taxi around the remains of the old city, there were many elephants waiting - maybe 60 or more in a small area, thirty minutes later we were retuning and passing a continuous stream of elephants and their happy passengers setting out and there were no idle elephants waiting. The baby elephants were restless and noisy and of course - cute!

We visited many temples in Ayutthaya. One modern very active one was Wat Phanan Choeng, where there was a big festival going on. There was a mass of people, most coming to give offerings to their particular figure of Buddha (there were many to choose from) and also to buy food or furniture from the stalls, watch ritual dances, and buy fish to release in the river to gain "merit." At Wat Phutthaisawan we saw an old and quite lovely reclining Buddha and dozens of more - gold, red and black, many dressed in yellow cloth, all sizes, most seated in the "touching the earth" pose. To get to some of the temples, we went via riverboat. One of the very beautiful old temples we were unable to get to, because the river was too low, was called Wat Chai Watthanaram. It sits directly across the river form the Queen's Palace and is kept lit at night so that she can have a spectacular view. We did see the Palace and the Temple from the river and could get a sense of how lovely it all must have been. The King in Thailand is highly revered.

Friday I am going to make Anzac biscuits for some of the local staff from the Embassy who are coming to a party tonight - also our driver Chai and the maid whose name I cannot spell but it is pronounced "Wow." Apparently, John tells me, this will be very well received by all!

Mum and Don