Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Suphanburi
Last night I stayed at the beautiful home of my host for the next four days, DGE Pornchai, a prominent Suphanburi physician. I can assure anyone concerned about me that I am in excellent hands.
Today is scheduled to be a vocational day, with the team splitting up to pursue their individual areas of interest. Since I had expressed interest in my post-retirement field of photography, the D3330 GSE planned a day of photo-ops for me.
Our first stop was the Wat Phai Rong Wua which houses the world’s largest metal cast Buddha image in the world. It is called the Phra Phutta Banlue. It rises to height of 80 feet and has a lap width of 30 feet. It is truly impressive (but not to a cat who chose to lay down in the hat that I placed on the floor besides me as I knelt in respect, and tried to fall asleep.)
Leaving the giant Buddha we travelled to another wat that had been founded by Chinese settlers inThailand hundreds of years ago There I found groups of elementary school children, each school identifiable by the the bright colors of their t-shirts.
Proceeding onward we came to what appeared to be an amusement park, which featured in the entrance a huge, gaily painted dragon proudly topping an equally attractive building. As it turned out, the building housed an important historical museum. Unfortunately, the exhibit times did not coincide with our timetable and we had to move on to our next stop. An old street market which covered perhaps as many as 15 to 20 blocks. As we meandered from shop to shop it became quite apparent that anyone’s shopping desires could be well satisfied. There was even an old photography store which contained, among other treasures, an ancient large format bellows camera (of the type that might have been used by Ansel Adams).
After an al fresco lunch, in what one might mistake as a tropical jungle, with a myriad of plants, trees and birds, we moved on to the “featured” event of the afternoon – a buffalo show. Actually the show took place in an area that was housed in an exceptionally beautiful park, with a large lake that was the home to hundreds of very large catfish. When I tossed a handful of food pellets into the calm water of the lake, it suddenly was transformed into a churning sea as the frenzied fish fought for the tidbits.
The buffalo show, which featured not the bison that we erroneously refer to as “buffalo”, but rather huge water buffalo, some with horns spreading more than six feet. The show demonstrated how the buffalo are used as beasts of burden in plowing the rice fields and other farm applications. In order to qualify as a “show”, they also performed stunts that I somehow always associated with trained horses – raising one hoof at a time to voice command, kneeling, rolling over and (this was new) smiling.
Lest you think that our visit is all play and no work, the entire team gathered in time to make our first presentation, to a joint meeting of four Rotary clubs. Considering that fact that this was our first attempt, the presentation went quite well. I started my talk in my well-rehearsed Thai, but after a few minutes of looking at blank stares, I asked if they would prefer me to speak in English. This was received by laughter and applause. We were assisted my an ex-pat from New Zealand, who translated our presentation back into understandable Thai.
After a long Rotary meeting lasting over 2 ½ hours, we finally staggered back to our hosts homes and to bed.
Suphanburi
Last night I stayed at the beautiful home of my host for the next four days, DGE Pornchai, a prominent Suphanburi physician. I can assure anyone concerned about me that I am in excellent hands.
Today is scheduled to be a vocational day, with the team splitting up to pursue their individual areas of interest. Since I had expressed interest in my post-retirement field of photography, the D3330 GSE planned a day of photo-ops for me.
Our first stop was the Wat Phai Rong Wua which houses the world’s largest metal cast Buddha image in the world. It is called the Phra Phutta Banlue. It rises to height of 80 feet and has a lap width of 30 feet. It is truly impressive (but not to a cat who chose to lay down in the hat that I placed on the floor besides me as I knelt in respect, and tried to fall asleep.)
Leaving the giant Buddha we travelled to another wat that had been founded by Chinese settlers inThailand hundreds of years ago There I found groups of elementary school children, each school identifiable by the the bright colors of their t-shirts.
Proceeding onward we came to what appeared to be an amusement park, which featured in the entrance a huge, gaily painted dragon proudly topping an equally attractive building. As it turned out, the building housed an important historical museum. Unfortunately, the exhibit times did not coincide with our timetable and we had to move on to our next stop. An old street market which covered perhaps as many as 15 to 20 blocks. As we meandered from shop to shop it became quite apparent that anyone’s shopping desires could be well satisfied. There was even an old photography store which contained, among other treasures, an ancient large format bellows camera (of the type that might have been used by Ansel Adams).
After an al fresco lunch, in what one might mistake as a tropical jungle, with a myriad of plants, trees and birds, we moved on to the “featured” event of the afternoon – a buffalo show. Actually the show took place in an area that was housed in an exceptionally beautiful park, with a large lake that was the home to hundreds of very large catfish. When I tossed a handful of food pellets into the calm water of the lake, it suddenly was transformed into a churning sea as the frenzied fish fought for the tidbits.
The buffalo show, which featured not the bison that we erroneously refer to as “buffalo”, but rather huge water buffalo, some with horns spreading more than six feet. The show demonstrated how the buffalo are used as beasts of burden in plowing the rice fields and other farm applications. In order to qualify as a “show”, they also performed stunts that I somehow always associated with trained horses – raising one hoof at a time to voice command, kneeling, rolling over and (this was new) smiling.
Lest you think that our visit is all play and no work, the entire team gathered in time to make our first presentation, to a joint meeting of four Rotary clubs. Considering that fact that this was our first attempt, the presentation went quite well. I started my talk in my well-rehearsed Thai, but after a few minutes of looking at blank stares, I asked if they would prefer me to speak in English. This was received by laughter and applause. We were assisted my an ex-pat from New Zealand, who translated our presentation back into understandable Thai.
After a long Rotary meeting lasting over 2 ½ hours, we finally staggered back to our hosts homes and to bed.
2 comments:
The gardens and flowers look great. Much better than the snow here. Take care.
Don't worry- I'm sure you will be near fluent in Thai before you come home! You'll have to teach me...
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