Gorgeous, @Terry Page ! I love how colorful the buildings are, and the statutes along the side of the wall are amazing. Such ugly faces, and weird bodies (especially the feet) on those golden part-human looking statues. It really makes you wonder what they were modeling when they made those things ? It looks like just a beautiful place to visit. Who is in the Grand Palace ? Your pictures look like they came right out of the old Yul Brynner movie, “The King and I “ . Thank you for sharing !
After a flight from Bangkok we spent our first day in Chiang Mai viewing temples and a very large market, life seems to be 24/7 here, nothing really closes. The temperature in the north is less intense, in the upper 80s during the day and lower 70s at night. Tomorrow the car rental starts so we will drive out to some of the outlying villages in the mountains here. Here are a few photos from the day Dinner
No one lives in the "Grand Palace" @Yvonne Smith , though it is closed to the public for some reason The king lives in a private residence called Dusit Palace., he is highly regarded a bit like a Buddha, so evidently saying anything derogatory about him is likely to get you into prison
I remember some guy getting thrown in jail for accidentally stepping on Thai currency, as it has a picture of the king on it, and it was considered some kind of sacrilege.
Very nice photos Terry did you get a chance to visit the countryside. I would be curious just how the average person lives?
Yes we did @Martin Alonzo especially in the north of the country, close to Burma (Myanmar) .......life is pretty simple generally, a lot of agriculture and of course tourist related work, which increases prosperity. You don't come across much begging or any homeless people on the streets at all. The housing is traditionally clay huts and wooden houses. The road system here is remarkably good even off the beaten track, away from the tourist areas.I do love driving here, partly because the roads are quiet and free from trucks, unlike the UK which is all large trucks and congestion everywhere
One day last week we walked to a temple in the hills this morning, a lot of climbing of steps We didn't climb on up to the white Buddha
Here are the photos of our trip on the Khao Sok National Park lake.. Arriving at a floating restaurant with bathing huts called "Paradise" the only place where there was no phone network signal, truly paradise We had a great lunch and Lisa had a swim before going on the second trip... The second boat ride took us to the start of the trek up the hill to the higher lake and the bamboo rafts. The raft brought us to the cave entrance...
The cave with it's beautiful coral formations... Then everything in reverse, trekking through the jungle and the boat rides back... Our boat ran out of petrol on the way back, but within minutes along comes a mobile gas station and tops us up
Yes we did drive through a lot of the countryside away from the tourist areas @Shirley Martin and @Martin Alonzo, and as far as we could see the locals either live in basic wooden or concrete bungalows and in the suburbs of towns in small blocks of flats.