One Night in Bangkok

Here come the holiday snaps!

Actually we spent about 3 days in Bangkok, and that's pretty much all I saw of Thailand on my holiday before moving on to other countries, but I thought I'd start with those photos. Above, some Christmas lights and dayglo taxis. It is so weird seeing tropical countries put on the Xmas trappings, complete wih Santas and snowscapes.

Bangkok is bloody huge. I mean, enormous. It's a rising financial centre and boy does it show: high-tech new buildings are bursting out of the grimy lo-rise wherever you look. They've got a skytrain, which slightly mitigates the worst traffic jams in human history. Just being there is weirdly exciting: you can see them rushing forward into the new millennium at breakneck speed. Think Blade Runner. In fact, it's a salutory lesson that the future is not British: it's not even going to be White, lol.

But most of my photos are of the Old Stuff. Here's the gigantic Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho.

We saw a lot of Buddhas in all three countries we visited! And a lot of monks. The way it works is that most men become monks in their teens, for a minimum of 3 months, in order to earn merit for their parents. This allows the boys to learn meditation and discipline (and is a bloody good idea, in my opinion - we should introduce it here). They also get an education (and avoid military service!). Our tour guides in Thailand and Laos had been monks for years.

Here's a shot of one of the buildings in the Royal Palace, but honestly the picture does not do it justice: this structure is so bright and colourful it is physically painful to look at: the painted walls are studded with multi-coloured glass tiles and gilded, and under the midday sun it makes your eyes bleed. The most bling place I've ever seen!

Here's one of  the many mythological subjects used in statuary: half-woman, half-bird, and completely kinky.

Coming up ... Laos.