The Grand Plaza, Bangkok

The opulence of the grand plaza is almost unprecedented in Thailand.








It is a stunning plaza of patterns, details and complexity.











The Grand Plaza is the home of the royal family - and has been the royal residence since it was constructed in the 1700's honoring Bangkok as Thailand's new capital. The claywork is masterful...





The level of detail is awe-inspiring.





There must be thousands of these hand painted tiles 11" x 20" - with such precise and delicate brushwork.




And then there is the hand carved slate tile....





Absolutely millions upon millions of tiny mosiac glass work throughout this gaudy, overdone and yet inspiring homage to royalty.





And everytime you turn your head... there is more and more...







layer, upon layer of patterning, movement, texture, design, artistry & mastery, both of workers and kingdom.





Even today, the mastery continues as restoration artists maintain this great plaza as it was in the days of King Rama 1st.






Paintings on plaster walls peeling with age are being redone...






And the mosiac artistry of the past is channeled through these contemporary craftsmen...





All keeping the Grand Palace simply Grand!

some new friends

She let us enjoy a short ride



Cruising

Time for a snack


Getting a litle pushy

Farmlands and Mountainsides

Sukhothai: Ancient Ruins of Thailand

Sukhothai. This was established as a world cultural site by UNESCO because of the tremendous ancient ruins here.





Sukhothai was the first of Thailand's 4 capitals, established in 1238 - The Sukhothai reign was considered the golden age of Thai culture.
Ayutthaya was the next capital in the 1700's. Thon Buri (the east river of Bangkok) was the third and finally, Bangkok, the current capital of Thailand.







Back in the 1300's these amazing ancient cities and temples were built.







Today, these remains speak volumes of a past filled with pride, spirit and wisdom.





The craftsmanship alone is breathtaking. The imagery, astounding.





Many of the Budda's, carved in the Sukhothai tradition, are in one of two poses: Dispelling Fear and Subduing Mara (shown above).



Dispelling Fear is what it sounds like and shows the Budda with two palms pushing away from the body...


As this is primarily a Budist land, many of the sculptures are of Budda.



Most people know of the Chinese Budda, the well-endowed, icon. Here in Sukhothai, Budda is a lean, muscular, soft-lined god, very much in the image of the Thai people.





I was speechless as I walked upon the land that, 700 years ago, was one of the richest cultural communities in the world.



The second, more popular pose is "Subduing Mara". The left hand is on the lap in meditation, while the right hand is palm down, fingers directed toward the earth. Mara is desire - as in the wanting in every human being that prevents us from appreciating what we have. I want more money, I want to be prettier, I want the weekend to come....
Subduing Mara is the Budda's way of saying "Be here now"... and see the gloriousness in this moment. Budda teaches this desire is one of the main causes of human suffering.





Sukhothai is by far, my favorite part of Thailand.

Thailand's Pottery Trail

About 45 minutes outside of Chiang Mai we ventured into a small village called Muang Kung to find Thailand's version of The Pottery Trail. And find it we did.



There were two major neighborhoods we visited. In one area, the front of each of the 60 potter's homes were decorated with this traditional water drinking vessel. Thailand is very hot and in the "old Thailand" most homes offered cold drinking water to passersby - the water was housed in covered jars just like this one with a laddle on top, for all to use. Though these vessels are no longer used, they have become a welcome symbol for this pottery community. And what a welcome we received!



In nearby Muang Kung, most of the potters we met were woman and all of the work was handbuilt. This woman is making one of the many "happy" animals we saw. Smiling pigs, elephants, goats....



And monkeys! These all lined the little street potteries by the hundreds. And all the neighbors had ceramic animal figurines of all sizes in their yards.



And where do they sell these playful figures, you might ask - well in the rural backroads of Thailand, where chickens and roosters walk through studios and around kilns, the internet is their main source of income - shipping to stores all over the world!



The figurines are light, joyful and playful, but potting is hard, back-breaking work in Thailand. All the clay is dug up from the earth all around this small village, cleaned of pebbles and rocks, slaked down with water, set up to dry, wedged, bagged and then made ready for the potters. Here, a woman working the clay the morning we walked through this neighborhood.

They gave us some clay to feel, so plastic and smooth, it was quite nice to work with!

And every small pottery had the same kiln design; a small, wood-fired updraft kiln, with metal roofing as the lid to the kiln.





In addition to small figurines, it seemed this section of Muang Kung was a mini brick making facility. We saw hundreds of bricks lined up freshly made....



And even more drying in the sun....



The brick making molds were sitting around - the potters were even making the special arch bricks, used mostly just to build arches of kilns, doorways, and pizza ovens, for example.



The last stop in this section of the village was a ceramic artist and sculptor who designed these fine cast concrete sculptures, here called "stoneware".



Here is our friend, the sculptor...



Next stop on the Thailand Pottery Trail.. The Muang Kung Pottery Village.



Here, all the potters were throwing on a wheel, firing large wood fired kilns and making hundreds of traditional style earthenware vessels.



The potters of Muang Kung work in their backyard studios making traditional forms....



Buyers come by to place orders....



Once the work is made, it is packed up and the buyers send trucks up to load up and pay the artist.



All the vessels are fired in large noborigama style wood kilns...





And even though the kiln is fired for 5 days, it is still a low temperature earthenware





Some of the work made here at Muang Kung is burnished and smoke fired.



This potter was sitting quietly burnishing small oil lanterns. We think she must have been 85 - 87 years old and has been burnishing most of her life.



She told our interpreter that she gets paid 1.5 baht per pot for burnishing and she can complete as many as 50 pots per day. 33 baht equals $1 u.s.
So she gets paid about $1.75 per day.





Wow. It's humbling to visit these communities. So basic is their equipment, their means, their salaries....
So beautiful, their lives.







Next stop.... The temples of Sukhothai.

Chiang Mai: Celadon Pottery Factory

Chiang Mai is alledgely the artisan capital of Thailand - where potters, woodworkers, weavers and the like do their work and ship it across the country and the world. So naturally, that was our first stop.
This Siam Celadon factory.
Celadon is this smooth green glaze, famous in Chinese Ceramics, but also developed here in Chiang Mai and once dominated the world.



Once all handmade, today, just a few of the pieces at Siam Celadon are hand thrown and hand carved. As we walked into this pristine factory, we saw two of the master throwers....



It seems the men work on the wheel, while the women carve, attach handles...



and do the final cleaning and refinement of the work.



Today, the original vessel is handmade - and hand carved... but then a mold is made and the pots are jiggered.



This worker is "jiggering" or making a reproduction of the original bowl.



And another worker cleans the rough edges on a small banding wheel.



The workers are so quiet, working away, shyly smiling at us... but suddenly a bell tolls... the 3pm break is here and everyone runs out side with smiles and laughter!



Tom gets in with the crowd as they buy fresh fruit and vegetables from the vendors who drive up just in time for the worker's half-hour break.



It's a fast 30 minutes... then back to work.



Next stop... the master mold makers work in another room. This room is all men, designing the molds that will be used to go into the jigger. They tell us we can bring any item to them and they can create a mold for it and presto.,,, you can easily and cheaply duplicate the work.



A view from outside the studio...



And back to the women, finishing the work that has been glazed.



Finally, the big kilns. 4 large gas fired kilns run today on computer, in the past, manually run on gas, we believe, though it may have been wood. This is a very large and very sophisticated factory, making most of the celadon consumers see coming out of Thailand.



Next time you're in a japanese or chinese restaurant and see this well-known look - peek underneath the foot. If it says made in Thailand - or Siam Celadon - these are the people and this is the factory in which it was made. Next stop... a pottery village where all the work is hand made and the kilns are in the backyards of people's homes!

Tom Revisits the City He Loves.... Brenda is Wide-Eyed!

Brenda is getting her first taste of retail sales on the street - Bangkok style.



Upon searching for the recommended guest House off Sukumvit Soi Eleven - we by chance found the most beautiful hostel, Suk 11, tucked away down a back alley off a busy street. If you travel to Bangkok - you must stay here, at just $20 a night and filled with the charm of interntional travelers and the warmth of the thai community....



right next to the hostel, is an amazing little restaurant, Gallery 11, next to it, Suk Spa, with traditional soaking baths and thai massages. Just beautiful, old thailand.



We relax, enjoy lunch and take it all in...



Next Stop... Chao Phraya River. Bangkok was filled with river canals back in the 1700's as the reigning King expanded commerce in this then young cty. The canals, once used as major thoroughfares, are now relaxing avenues away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Traffic, they say, along the smaller canals is quite slow, but the main river is filled with fast moving riverboat taxis.... it's a feel for what once marked Bangkok as the "Venice of the East"...



We got on a longtail boat at the base of the river and rode it uptown to one of the hundreds of temples marking the way upriver.....



This is the Temple of Dawn. More detailed shots of this spectacular site in a separate posting!



Above... one of the many backyards of these riverhomes. An old boat used by a local family to traverse Chao Phraya.



Famous... and not so famous hotels border this river path along Bangkok's east side.



Next Stop... The Temple of Dawn and all it's diverse mosiacs....

BANGKOK

Bangkok - City of Angels...



The "Venice of the East"....






Beautiful, glorious, busy, insane, filled with so much.... of everything...



The food is everywhere....



The people, so friendly....






A very old tuk tuk with a very sleepy driver....



We were taking a short cut through a temple, attempting to get away from the noise and racket - and came across a temple under renovation. Here is the master carver, and we saw his work, beautiful carved pieces of wood out of teak....
After we left that temple, we hit the streets again, where we could have bought anything from beautiful articles of clothing to fried grasshoppers. We choose the clothing!

Stairway to the beach

On another note... yesterday we traveled on our moped to go off the beaten path - and an adventure we had. Just a few miles from our Inn, up a fairly large hill, we followed a hand written sign for "beaches". We turned right down the road which took us down a steep paved slope, around several bends, where we saw almost a dozen mamouth boulders on the roadside, having falling off this quite large hill. With mostly excitement and just a little bit of trepidation, we drove on.

The paved road turned to dirt and another hand written sign directed us to "beaches". A sole Thai man was sitting at a water stand (how much business could he possibly have here?) and told us the beach was "down there". This is the view we first saw....



And then the stairway to the beach....
As we peered over the edge, we were intrigued. It is a very steep descent.



It went down.... and down.... and down.



We thought we were done, but there was more. The stairs turned into a dirt path with a few boulders, but mostly another steep descent.



(Did I mention they charged us 100 baht each - $3 each - to go to this beach!) We willingly paid. I see water, Tom exclaimed!



Finally - something that resembeled a beach, sort of. Mostly it was a collection of very large boulders with a small patch of sand, not quite a western version of "beach", but enought to lay out a towel and take a swim.



So the truth is we got so involved in the hike and trying not to fall down the slope - then soaked ourselves in the Sea that I forgot to take a picture of the beach... but this is me, brenda, sitting on one of many boulders, enjoying our discovery!

The King's Birthday Party

It would be hard to talk about Thailand in December, 2007 (the year 2550 on the Thai Calendar) without mentioning the most celebrated day of the year - The 80th birthday of His Majesty, The King. Thailand is filled with birthday celebration plans that began earlier in the year, but are coming to a crescendo from December 1 to 6th. His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej, born in Cambridge, MASS, turns 80 on December 5th. He is by far Thailand's most revered, adored and beloved king. On top of that, he holds the distinction of being the longest serving Monarch in the world - yes, I said world - celebrating 60 years on the thrown this year.



December 5th is also celebrated as Father's Day here, his Majesty is considered the father of all Thai people. Many will wear yellow in honor of the king on Decmber. Tom and I might need to buy yellow t-shirts to share in the celebration. If we can handle the crowds, we're hoping to go to the birthday celebration at the Royal Palace in Bangkok, where there will be an all day festival, jazz music (written by the king) will be performed (he is an avid jazz musician who has played with Louis Armstrong and Benny Goodman).



Here on Phuket the celebrations are ringing in early with the annual Kings Cup Regatta, where over 100 sailboats compete for 5 days in various races.



This morning Tom and I had yet another breakfast overlooking the Andaman Sea, this time from Mom Tri's Boathouse restaurant, just up the block from the Villa Royale. As we drank coffee and ate fresh mango (I know, traveling is tough business), we watched scores of sailboats preparing for the day's launch. As I understand it, the Regatta is 5 days of races, with evenings spent reveling in Phuket nightlife.

The Exhibition Night

What a party! Mom Tri's sure knows how to open an Art Exhibition!



The evening was a glorious and elaborate setup. Food and drink to satisfy an army of people, two thai performances to entertain the crowds and scores of people coming through the doors.



There was a lasar light show, a full d.j., a full complimentary wine and liquor bar and



our guest of honor to cut the ribbon was Khun Runjuan Tongrut, the Assistant Director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand. Khun Runjuan introduced us to the crowds and joined us later for dinner.



Before the official opening of the Art Exhibition, a tradition thai trio performed the "Dance of Art"



This spectacular perfomance was a great honor for us to be a part of.



Once the performance was complete, Tom and I went up to the gallery where a throng of press snapped photographs, asked questions and looked at our work.

The grand finale to the opening was a complimentary dinner at Mom Tri's Restaurant with Khun Runjuan. Overlooking the Andaman sea we talked of art, culture, thailand, malaysia, america and many places in between.

The Exhibition is now officially open.