What can I tell you? The extraordinary in Thailand is becoming quite the ordinary for me. As I was in my elevator yesterday morning, going to buy the morning paper, I started to talk with my elevator partner, practicing my Thai as usual, when before you could say ‘Jackie Robinson’ I was in her car speeding down the highway heading to three temples and the famous floating market. The generosity of spirit of the Thais continues to overwhelm me. I can’t imagine this happening to me in Toronto or any other place for that matter!
What has not changed is my sense of direction. I keep looking at the sun to try to find out where we are or where we are going, but because the Chao Praya River winds it’s way around the city, you are never going in a straight east -west or north- south direction. In fact, I thought we were heading towards the east coast and it turns out just the opposite was true.
The first place we visited was an elaborate Temple or Wat (you can see the pictures on my picture site) which had wonderful frescoes on the walls and ceilings. The thing that was amazing about this Wat was the veneration for its’ dead leader who had died twenty-twenty two years earlier but was still present in his waxen image. Actually, I thought it was him a la Mao, Lenin or Ho, but it was not, even though supplicants were praying to the image. I do not quite understand the veneration of individuals in Buddhism, including the Buddha himself and my guide could not explain it to me.
We then visited a series of three homes which I was told were at least two hundred years old. They were on traditional stilts and looked exactly like the other homes I have seen in Bangkok and elsewhere… you walk up about twenty stairs to get to one level and there are about three rooms. The floors are beautiful teak, the windows are all open air and of course, there are no bathrooms or electricity.
The third Wat we visited was a rather modest structure which was being held up by the enormous tree roots surrounding the building. Daniel, there may be a use for the tree in front of your house after all! Look at the pictures to see the size of these roots. In two hundred years, the roots in front of your house might actually look like this.
By the time we actually got to the floating market, it was just before dusk. The market was huge, with hundreds of stalls scattered on both sides of the canal. The’ kanomb’ or snacks were absolutely delicious. I never had the nerve to try them before, but when someone else is ordering for you, it makes it all that much easier. I never bothered to ask what was inside and I am not sure I would want to know ( especially since I know it is Pesach. Maybe if I don’t know, it is not such a sin to be eating leavened food.)
We then took a motorized launch down the canal under the full moon ( which I guess is why the Seder was celebrated to-night). We saw twinkling fireflies on both sides of the canal. It was quite spectacular really. It was like Christmas without the snow. As we cruised slowly down the canal and around the river, it was great seeing the giant ferns, people out on their verandas of their homes doing their laundry or just sitting talking. You could actually see into their homes since all the doors and windows were totally open. I just can’t imagine this way of life in a large urban metropolis like Toronto. We are too busy playing on our computers or doing whatever. The emphasis is on the whatever. People here were just sitting in the beautiful evening weather presumably also watching the fireflies and talking with each other.
Back in the same elevator I left 12 hours earlier filled not with memories of fireflies or Thai delicacies but the kindness of the Thais people. (Did I mention I was invited into the home of a retired teacher who lived by the canal who had to show me her picture with the king?). If I was a Thai living in Toronto, would the same things happen to me as a foreigner? We both know the answer to this!
What has not changed is my sense of direction. I keep looking at the sun to try to find out where we are or where we are going, but because the Chao Praya River winds it’s way around the city, you are never going in a straight east -west or north- south direction. In fact, I thought we were heading towards the east coast and it turns out just the opposite was true.
The first place we visited was an elaborate Temple or Wat (you can see the pictures on my picture site) which had wonderful frescoes on the walls and ceilings. The thing that was amazing about this Wat was the veneration for its’ dead leader who had died twenty-twenty two years earlier but was still present in his waxen image. Actually, I thought it was him a la Mao, Lenin or Ho, but it was not, even though supplicants were praying to the image. I do not quite understand the veneration of individuals in Buddhism, including the Buddha himself and my guide could not explain it to me.
We then visited a series of three homes which I was told were at least two hundred years old. They were on traditional stilts and looked exactly like the other homes I have seen in Bangkok and elsewhere… you walk up about twenty stairs to get to one level and there are about three rooms. The floors are beautiful teak, the windows are all open air and of course, there are no bathrooms or electricity.
The third Wat we visited was a rather modest structure which was being held up by the enormous tree roots surrounding the building. Daniel, there may be a use for the tree in front of your house after all! Look at the pictures to see the size of these roots. In two hundred years, the roots in front of your house might actually look like this.
By the time we actually got to the floating market, it was just before dusk. The market was huge, with hundreds of stalls scattered on both sides of the canal. The’ kanomb’ or snacks were absolutely delicious. I never had the nerve to try them before, but when someone else is ordering for you, it makes it all that much easier. I never bothered to ask what was inside and I am not sure I would want to know ( especially since I know it is Pesach. Maybe if I don’t know, it is not such a sin to be eating leavened food.)
We then took a motorized launch down the canal under the full moon ( which I guess is why the Seder was celebrated to-night). We saw twinkling fireflies on both sides of the canal. It was quite spectacular really. It was like Christmas without the snow. As we cruised slowly down the canal and around the river, it was great seeing the giant ferns, people out on their verandas of their homes doing their laundry or just sitting talking. You could actually see into their homes since all the doors and windows were totally open. I just can’t imagine this way of life in a large urban metropolis like Toronto. We are too busy playing on our computers or doing whatever. The emphasis is on the whatever. People here were just sitting in the beautiful evening weather presumably also watching the fireflies and talking with each other.
Back in the same elevator I left 12 hours earlier filled not with memories of fireflies or Thai delicacies but the kindness of the Thais people. (Did I mention I was invited into the home of a retired teacher who lived by the canal who had to show me her picture with the king?). If I was a Thai living in Toronto, would the same things happen to me as a foreigner? We both know the answer to this!
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