I had time to visit the botanical garden, but it was blisteringly hot. Everywhere you look there are images and shrines to the King, including in the garden. After awhile one needs to go indoors, and hopes suddenly rise for some comfort food of an American sort….so I went to a good ole North Carolina franchise store in the Bangkok mall— Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. Only to discover—- sorts of doughnuts I had never seen even in my wildest dreams. I... Read more

A more interesting museum is the Jim Thompson house museum, which has many facets to it. Jim was an American architect who moved to Bangkok, due to his great love for Oriental culture and art. He built a house out of antique parts, a door from here, a floor from there, and filled his house with Chinese art of various sorts in 1959. He went on an exploration trip to Malaysia in 1967, and completely disappeared. What happened to him... Read more

Bangkok has a large Museum of Art and Culture, and in structure it looks a lot like the Met in NY, except much larger. It is a museum of modern art, and I’m not much impressed with most of that. There are also shops in the museum selling art and artifacts. And after all that art one needs one’s just desserts— sticky rice mango ice cream…… what?????? Read more

Everywhere you look in Bangkok, there is yet another Buddhist temple or shrine. Indeed there is a saying in Thailand, to be Thai is to be Buddhist. It is the official religion of the country. Almost as inescapable are all the cartoon images ranging from Pikachu to Hello Kitty, to others…. Read more

Right in the middle of Bangkok is a huge Christian school, originally started by missionaries in the 19th century. It is called Bangkok Christian College, but it is not a college in the American sense– it is a K-12 school with, wait for it, 60,000 students. Yes you heard me right. The vast majority of them are not Christians, but apparently the education at this private and rather pricy school is so good that people send their students there… as... Read more

So, as I mentioned, it is very hot and humid in Thailand most of the year, and everything imaginable and exotic grows here. The soil must be pretty fertile as well. Of course Thai folk eat a lot of dishes with rice or noodles (see Pad Thai), but the Thai like their fruit, and they like food spicy– very spicy! Even my scramble eggs were too spicy. And then too they like strange combinations of things— like mango and sticky... Read more

Ah, Chinatown. It’s an interesting visit wherever it is– in this case in Bangkok. Millions of Chinese moved to this country due to the Communistic revolution. Here is some evidence… The smells, the tastes, the art and architecture are distinctive, but what the Chinese do have in common with the Thais is Buddhism…. (see the reclining Buddha above). The art is interesting for sure…. One more thing you may have noticed from one of the pictures above— while Chinese is... Read more

One of the more disturbing aspects of Buddhism is its fascination with demons and sinister snakes….. Look closely at the trim on this building The smaller shrines are places where individuals, not monks or priests come to pray…. To me the most beautiful of the small shrines is this one… Read more

It is really hard to describe how golden this whole complex really is, involving numerous temples and shrines… Read more

Clearly the most famous Buddhist temple complex in the entire vicinity of Thailand, is Angor Wat which is in neighboring Cambodia. Since the King could not incorporate the real temple into his reign, instead there is a full scale model in the Palace complex, and here it is….. This model stands out from all its surrounding due to its plain color. Even the ancient wall paintings of scenes from Buddhist mythology are more ornate…. Of course one of the main... Read more