Day 3 - Wed, Nov 5, 2008 - Wat Pho (Bangkok)

Wednesday afternoon was our first foray into a Bangkok wat: Wat Pho (pronounced watt, as in 100 watt bulb, and po as in Edgar Allan). According to our guide book, wat means "temple monastery" and the ones we've seen so far and usually walled enclosures with a series of buldings and temples inside.

It's hard to know where to start describing Wat Pho. Wats specialize in colour and texture. There are stupas, "conical Buddhist monument, used to inter sacred Buddhist objects" which are covered from head to toes in mosaic tile.

There are big stupas (this one is a few stories tall):

(Detail of a side of a stupa:)

...and little stupas:

In amongst the stupas are a series of temples with Buddha images on display, such as this one which is particularly elaborate:

The reclining Buddha is the show-stealer of Wat Pho, and is 46m long an 15m high

(here are Buddha's toeprints, just because I think it's a neat design:)

Lining the wall behind the reclining Buddha are a row of alms bowls for the monks of the monastery. People make a donation to the (locked) donation box and receive a small cup of 1 baht (1/30 cent) denomination coins, 1 for each bowl lining the wall (there are about 40 or 50).

Then, you carry the cup of coins tot he wall of alms bowls and proceed down the line, placing one coin in each bowl. It's good system because donators (both Thai and tourist) get the experience of putting coins in the individual bowls (which make a gorgeous ringing sound that you can hear all across the temple) and the temple doesn't have to worry about making sure no one steals from the bowls. (I have a sound recording of the sound of the alms bowls, but I haven't been able to upload it yet.)

In addition to the Buddhas, tiles, buildings and such, there are painted designs on all of the ceilings:

Along the outer walls of the wat there is a covered walk with painted walls and paintings line the inner gables (this painting is about 7 or 8 inches high):

The wat is also the natinoal headquarters for traditional Thai massage so in addition to two buildings in the inner courtyard where you can pay for a massage from the students, there are also massage diagrams painted under the gables:

Oh, and there are sculptures outside in little gardens:

...and stone guards at the gates:

(Detail of guard's belt:)

It's a lot to take in, so we take our time and just spend a few hours wandering around and enjoying the colours and textures and not asking too many questions.

Photo credits: PG, PG, PG, PG, PG, PG, PG, DG, DG, DG, DG, DG, DG, PG, DG, DG

Day 3 - Wed, Nov 5 - The Ban Baht Monk's Bowl Village (Bangkok)

From a few different museum exhibits we've been to, we've noticed that there isa movement to save traditional Thai Arts and crafts from extinction. The Thai Queen especially has played a large part in reviving and spreading certains arts and crafs by comissioning large works, creating a kind of workforce adjustment program that turns farmers into craftsmen through training programs. The Thai's get a chance to learn and carry on their culture and tourists end up with lots of interesting and well made crafts to buy.


Pierre noticed a mention in our guide book about a group of craftspeople who make monk's bowls by hand. The bowls that are used by monks nowadays to collect food offerings are mass made (in China, of course) but traditionally they were made by fusing several pieces of steel, copper and/or brass together, banging it into shape and then covering it in a dark lacquer.


Pierre was interested in getting one of these bowls so we headed over to check it out. It was only a 15 minute walk from our hotel. A handful of artisans live in two short, narrow, parallel alleys called Ban Baht. The alley was pretty easy to find thanks to signs like this:

The area is pretty poor, though safe and clean. This type of craftwork doesn't yet seem to be a part of the Queen's traditional crafts movement so income comes from tourist dollars and the occasional high ranking monk/priest who splurges on a handmade bowl.

We preferred the unlacquered bowls and ended up buying from the first woman we'd met on our tour of the alleyways. Her prices were the best and we like the style of her bowl, with the hammer marks still visible on the finished product.

She gave us a demonstration of the technique for hammering the semi-finished bowl into proper shape using a hammer with the bowl hung over a rounded anvil:

She was a highlight of the day - great smile, and she kept chucking us under the chin like we were babies.

photo credits: DG, PG, PG, DG, DG

Day 2 (Nov 2, 2008): Incheon temple tour

There are 5 of us on the temple tour offered by the airport. We hop into a tour van and drive 15 minutes through Incheon city and up a narrow mountain road until we reach the temple. Our tour guide is Kim Hae-Suk (last name first name; sounds like "hay sook"). She teaches us a few phrases, including “Hae-Suk is beautiful.”

On the more practical side, we also learn how to say hello and thank you, which become our words of the day. Pierre and I give the phrases English equivalents and stories to remember the pronunciation, which otherwise feel totally random.

- ann yeong haseyo (hello) becomes “Ann Young has say ‘yo’.”

- gamsa hamnida (thank you) is a bit trickier, but we eventually settle on a story in which Grandpa (G(r)am(p)sa) needs a ham (ham needa) and we’re thanking someone for having thought to bring one for him. A bit convoluted but it works well enough for the day.

When we reach the temple, Hae-Suk tells us that its name, Yonggungsa means “Dragon Palace Temple.” The temple consists of a series of small buildings that are 1300 years old. On the grounds there are two 1300 year old trees (with lots of supports and trunk reinforced with concrete) and 3 monks (not 1300 years old) that live on the temple grounds.

1300 year old tree :

Today the monks are doing a special ceremony. (“…because we’re here?” asks one skeptic from the group.) We’re a little sketchy on the details, but from Hae-Suk’s explanation we understand that the ceremony allows people to come and say prayers for the dead and have the monks say a special prayer as well. (I have a sound recording of the chanting but I can't seem to upload it yet.)

She explains a couple of details around us that we would have missed otherwise:

- The buildings are all originals, she says, but they have been repaired and re-repaired over the years and the paintings, based on the originals, are retouched continually:



- A small bell outside one of the buildings has a fish sculpture as a chime weight. The fish symbolized water (the buildings are made of wood and fire was a real threat to hem) and freedom (when you look at the fish against the sky it looks like it’s swimming in the ocean):



We walk around the temple grounds for a few minutes before we head back to the van, past the temple garden, outhouse, laundry line and satellite dish.

photo credits: PG, DG, DG

Breakfast in Bangkok

Just a quick note to say we made it to Bangkok safe and sound on Tuesday night and had a chance to explore the city yesterday. We'll post more later.

Incheon Int'l

It's 8:08 am KST and we're hanging out in the Incheon (sounds like "injun") International Airport in Seoul. We arrived at 3:30 am and had to kill a few hours before the restaurants opened.

The flight here was roughly 15 hours long but went by surprisingly quickly. We were assigned seats in separate parts of the plane, so we decided to try our luck getting upgraded. We managed to get one ticket switched to business class - on Korean Air it's not so much fancy schmancy business class as it is comfy class. The seats are a little wider with more leg room and foot rests but the food is still served in plastic dishes. Still, no complaints, especially since it was free. Since Pierre is 6'0 and I'm all of 5'4" we decided to upgrade him to business class since I knew I'd be comfortable in economy. By fluke, my ticket turned out to be for a seat at the head of the row with no wall in front of me, which translated into infinite leg room.

We boarded at midnight in Toronto, were served a light dinner at around 1:30 am and then slept our way through most of the flight. By the time we woke up, there were just a few hours left. Crazy fast. Now we're killing time. It doesn't look like popping into Seoul is an option so we might do a quick guided tour of a temple nearby. Our next (last) flight leaves at 5:30 pm KST.

leavin'

It's been awhile since the last post- we've been busy the past few weeks with lots of things, not least of which was packing up our apartment and sticking it into storage (we finished at 3:30AM on Friday, October 31st). Since moving out of our apartment we've been staying with friends, doing some final errands, and taking some time for visits with friends and family. We fly out on tonight (Sunday) at 7:00 pm and our trip has three legs: Ottawa to Toronto, Toronto to Seoul and Seoul to Bangkok (31 hours in total, including a 12 hour stopover in Seoul). We should be in Bangkok by 9:00 PM Thai time on Tuesday evening, most likely a wee bit jetlagged.

Our luggage:

Sustainable souveniring

Watched the "Where the hell is Matt (2008)" video again tonight on a whim. I first ran into it a few weeks ago when a friend passed the link onto me as possible inspiration for a travel project. Every time I watch it, it blows me away. Beautiful images, beautiful music, beautiful idea.

I love this kind of travel project. It strikes me as being sustainable souveniring - you come, you see, you leave with something special you've made. Sometimes it's polaroids of a garden gnome in front of international landmarks (like in Amélie) and other times it's videos of you dancing in 40-odd countries around the world with hundreds of people (like this Matt guy).

And, most importantly, it's more fun and accessible for other people - far easier than 2500 photos and/or a 3 hour slideshow.

Once, one of my best friends decided to do a travel project someone who couldn't join us on a two-week vacation. She wrote "we miss you" in her notebook. Then, for two weeks, she diligently went around to random people (shopkeepers, butchers, tour guides) asking them if they'd be willing to hold the note towards the camera and look sad while she took their photo. The album was a huge hit with her friend, and my memories of the people we met while taking those pictures are some of my favourites from that trip.

Pierre and I have talked about doing something, but haven't figured out what we'd like to do yet. Probably won't have time to think about it 'till we're on the plane...