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

The Grand Palace in Bangkok is far and away its most visited site, and the day I was visiting it was sizzling hot. There is no shade in the walled-off palace and temple complex, and all the metallic gold reflects the heat as well. No wonder there were so many people with umbrellas with no rain in sight. First of all, there is the traditional king’s residence, though in fact he has many residences (and in fact he spends a… Read more

Bangkok Thailand is a city of over 8 million people, out of a total of some 40 million in the whole country. It is the capital. The history of Thailand is interesting not least because it avoided the plague called colonialism, unlike Vietnam and Java and other southeast Asian countries. It has always been the kingdom of Siam, and it still has a King today, although he mainly has ceremonial duties and privilege to exhort the people these days. His… Read more

I went to Bangkok to teach a two week intensive on Biblical Theology. There were about 40 students in the class who came from Singapore, the Philippines and of course Thailand proper for the class. The Christian population of Thailand is only about 1 percent, and so there are not many churches of long standing. Here are pictures of two of them. The first is the Anglican Church in Bangkok, founded 1908, with a very traditional structure and worship service…….. Read more

(N.B. Once again some of the pictures could not be righted in Word Press, so just click on the picture and it will turn up right if it’s side ways) The first stop on my Australia swing was in Brisbane to give the keynote address on Biblical Theology (a lecture to be published in a T+T Clark volume in due course). Brisbane is yet another coastal city (this one on the northeastern coast of Australia) with a population of several… Read more

Among it’s various virtues, which include nice folks like my old friends, Alan and Allison Chapple who are natives there (Alan did his PhD at the same time as me in Durham with CKB) , there are nice hotels like the Aloft, a brand new one in the Marriot chain. There is also an excellent and beautiful university built in the old style (looks rather like a Catholic institution in the states) called the University of West Australia—-That’s a jackaranda… Read more