Not much I like better than mooching round in a different land, absorbing the culture and checking out the sights of the sites.
Architecture, art, people, culture and strange different things to look at. Markets are good!
A walk around Phuket!
Thailand – Phuket – lunch by the side of the floating village.
We caught a taxi down from the giant Buddha and asked the driver to take us to his favourite place to eat!
We ended up in a little restaurant by the side of a lake. A little fishing community had a floating village in the middle of the lake. We had freshly fried fish curry caught straight out of that lake washed down with local beer. Fabulous.
Phuket – Up in the Hills – Serenity and peace.
Up in the hills it felt very peaceful – beautiful.
Phuket – in the hills by the Giant Buddha.
We took a walk around the hill where the giant Buddha sat. There were many shrines, art and spectacular scenery.
Heading to Buddha.
We headed out from the Wat Chalong Temple heading for the giant Buddha on the hill. As we approached we passed what looked like a school trip for young Buddhist acolytes.
The Wat Chalong Temple – Thailand – Phuket
We went in and out of the various temples and looked out at that giant Buddha on the hill. The temples were full of gold Buddhas and art.
Phuket – Thailand – The Wat Chalong Temple
It was a fabulously colourful temple.
Phuket – Wat Chalong Temple
We teamed up with a couple of friends and headed off into the interior. First stop was the Wat Chalong Temple. Incredibly ornate. Had a thing about elephants.
There was a firecracker resonator that scared the shit out of us. It went off unexpectedly making a deafening racket as if someone was throwing grenades in our ears! There wouldn’t be many evil spirits left around after that!!
Even as a devout atheist Buddhism has a great appeal to me. We got married in a Buddhist temple.
Thailand – Phuket
We approached the tropical paradise of Phuket in the early morning. The sky was blue. Felt fabulous. We were off to explore.
The place seemed to consist of a number of emerald green islands lush with vegetation. On a distant hill, we spied a giant Buddha.
We had to check that out!!
Protests on the streets of Bangkok 2014
I persuaded our tuk-tuk driver to take us to the sites of the street protests. People had been building barricades and fighting the police and army. The anti-government protests were very violent. He was very nervous about going anywhere near.
‘organised by the People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), a political pressure group led by former Democrat Party parliamentary representative (MP) Suthep Thaugsuban.[10] The crisis eventually resulted in the removal of incumbent Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, a coup d’état, and the establishment of a military junta.
The primary aim of the protests was removing the influence of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the brother of Yingluck, on Thai politics and the creation of an unelected “people’s council” to oversee reforms of the political system.[11] Protesters viewed Thaksin as corrupt and damaging to Thailand’s democracy.’
It reminds me of the current situation in Myanmar.
