THAILAND AND CAMBODIA Jan-Feb 2012

SAWATDEE

“Hello” from Thailand (and Laos and Cambodia, too), the “Land of Smiles”!

What a memorable journey to this exotic land of dazzling temples, spectacular palaces, a world-famous floating market, hill tribe villages, and chili-curry flavored food fit for a king.

Dazzling sites of white stucco and glass architecture with intricate detail greet one at every turn.  Solid gold and jewel-encrusted Buddhas, sitting or reclining at leisure, lord it over devout monks and worshipers lavishing their gods with incense, lotus flowers, and food.

5-ton Gold Buddha

Reclining Buddha

Rhongkhun White Temple

Giant bronze statues and ancient pagodas with magnificent wax carvings attest to the richness of the country’s culture and history.

Ayutthaya Ruins

Wax figures of monks at Wat Prasingha

Spectacular palaces, former residence of kings, command respect from those who walk on their sacred grounds.

Grand Palace in Bangkok

Along the way, one gets a glimpse of the country side dotted with rice paddies; a fascinating region where monkeys rule; and famous centuries-old ruins that are a favorite haunt for tourists and school children as well.

Sukhothai Ruins

As one travels to the northernmost point of Thailand, one reaches the GOLDEN TRIANGLE – the meeting point of Thailand, Burma, and Laos.  A boat trip on the Mekong River brings one to the doorsteps of Laos, where one is regaled with a shot of whiskey enticingly flavored with a soaking cobra; and, of course, handicraft hawkers of all kinds.

Casino on the Laos side

Inebriated Cobra

 

In the local hill tribe villages, one is greeted by simple folk in colorful costumes engaged in routine activities and by the eeriely fascinating sight of the so-called long necked Badong women, proudly-clad in coiled brass chokers.

 Colorful local and night markets are a shopping paradise for anything silk – colorful scarves, shirts, sequin-adorned blouses; anything and everything edible, including roasted insects of all kinds; succulent dragon fruit, mangosteen, mangoes, star apples, guavas, and the dreaded durian.

Elephants endearingly give a trunk-hug on cue, or create painted masterpieces on canvas that would be worth 9,000 bahts ($300).

 
 A Kantoke dinner is a feast of local specialties and breath-taking performance of songs and dances by a local hill tribe.

 

Mountain-top temples are a special treat where one co-mingles with locals entreating monks to  offer prayers for an auspicious year on their behalf, or with colorfully-clad children joining in the festivities. 

Wat Doi Suthep

 

Siem Reap in CAMBODIA leads one to the famous temples of ANGKOR WAT, preserved in their pristine condition; and to the upper terraces of an ancient temple for a spectacular view at sunrise and sunset.

 




All the forementioned sights, sounds, and smells leave the traveler in awe, but amazingly, it is the last stop at the floating village on Cambodia’s Tenle Sap Lake that really touches the heart – where barefoot and tanned children sit on the dusty road awaiting our gift of loaves of bread. 

 

If there is nothing else, it would be the image of these smiling little ones, clutching the precious treat of a baked good – some of them taking nibbles of a delicacy seemingly reserved only for festive occasions – that remains.  These are the persons who truly make this part of the world the “Land of Smiles.”   ###

 

GOLDEN TRIANGLE OF INDIA November 3-9, 2011

WHEN LUCY FELL FROM THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS…

… it fell with a grand thud upon Delhi, Jaipur, and Agra – India’s so-called Golden Triangle.  

Delhi is white marble, red sandstone, jasper, towers, and palaces – a jewel box that is grandiose and dizzyingly rich.  In BIRLA TEMPLE, devotees offer namaz (prayers) and garlands of marigold to gods with multiple arms and lipsticked lips.  

BIRLA TEMPLE

The biggest mosque in India, JAMA MASJID, presides loftily from its rocky elevation.  An eternal flame guards the black marbled site of the GANDHI MEMORIAL. 

GANDHI MEMORIAL ETERNAL FLAME

The INDIA GATE proudly stands as a prominent landmark in red and pale sandstone and granite to soldiers of the Indian Army.

INDIAN FAMILY PICKNICKING AT INDIA GATE GROUNDS

KAMIKAZE RICKSHAW DRIVER

But Delhi is also an assault on the senses, as one navigates a rickshawed ride thru a crazed jumble of crumbling city walls and a labyrinth of tiny lanes – getting up close to hennaed goats, roasting naan bread and pakora frying in cauldrons of oil, hawkers of garish bangles by the armful, a colorful array of salwar (womens’ loose pants) and sari, elephant designs on most everything one can wear or drape or sit on – and all amid the non-stop honking of vehicles lined up bumper-to-bumper and jostled at intervals with pedestrians and cows crossing most anywhere and everywhere they could.

                                                                      D E L H I     V E N D O R S

Agra is the site of the ethereally luminescent, perfectly symmetrical, and magnificently proportioned TAJ MAHAL, every inch of its marbled grandeur covered with exquisite detailing, beautiful calligraphy and inlaid precious stones: agate, malachite, lapis lazuli, coral, carnelian, and turquoise, among others.  It is said to be a testament to Shah Jahan’s eternal love to his wife; and who can dispute that?  It took only 22 years of work by some 20,000 laborers to complete the edifice. The wait to view the tombs of these now-immortalized lovers can last for almost an hour, as one circles endless mosques and outer courts.

TAJ MAHAL

RELAXING AT THE TAJ

QUEUE AT THE TAJ

 

















But sharply contrasting with Agra’s splendid sight is the sweat and dust of roaming humanity, broken balustrades and once-ornate facades defaced with rusted signs, piles of garbage, mud-crusted cows lazily shooing off ubiquitous flies with the slow rhythm of swaying tails.  One can close one’s eyes for a moment, but the claustrophobic feeling never goes away.

Clad in terracotta-colored plaster and therefore earning the nomenclature as the “Pink City," Jaipur  stands as a testament to the grandeur of Akbar the Great’ s empire.  Palaces in Fatehpur Sikri are a reminder of the extravagance of the Mughals.  Bulund Darwaza is an architectural wonder consisting of kiosks and domes, turrets and arches, and decorative red sandstone panels.  

Panch Mahal, a five-story summer palace for Akbar’s three wives and ladies of the court, is an edifice straight out of a fantasy book.   













 


Shaik Salim Chisti’s Tomb, a square marble slab inlaid with mother-of-pearl, ornamented with geometric mosaics made of black and yellow marble and peacock carvings, elaborate arabesque patterns and Quranic inscriptions is elegant and splendid beyond belief.

Looking like part a maharajah’s caravanserai, thrilled visitors garbed in a kaleidoscope of flamboyant red head pieces and mirrored parasols ride ornately-clad elephants to Amber Fort, all built in white marble and red sandstone.  Stunningly carved in delicate artistry are its temples, halls, royal apartments, halls, and pavilions.  

WOBBLY PERCH ON ELEPHANT'S BACK

Turns along the way bring the delightful surprise of a coral-saried woman sweeping the craggy street with a twig broom, a nonchalant snake charmer coaching his hesitant ward from out its basket, or even a family of monkeys traipsing on rooftops and city walls.  It is the pure magic of Kublai Khan, Xanadu, and Ali Baba all rolled into one.  In the Rajasthan Textile market, the pure colors of its famous block-printed textile, the attractive designs of patterned bandani, crackled batik, and embroidered fabric boggle the mind. In restaurants, the eternal dahl (lentil stew), tandoori chicken, mint and tamarind chutney, gulab jamon (sweet balls made from saffron-scented chick pea flour), basmati rice yellowed with turmeric, and curried mutton – among others – are like the opium that  heighten the frenzied movements of swirling dance entertainers, some of them balancing a stack of pots flamed on the top.

RAJASTHANI FOLK DANCER

Yet, in all these, there is the  putrid elephant dung, general chaos, pushy traders, a pathetic gaudiness that is passed perhaps for affluence, and always, shoving humanity most of whom have yet to learn the courtesy of an orderly queue.

Lucy could fall off the sky with diamonds on any other part of the world, but it is a sure bet that it would burst the brightest, in its utmost psychedelic best, in a psychotic part of the world called India’s Golden Triangle.

KIA ORA (Welcome to New Zealand): Auckland October 7-10, 2010

Downtown Auckland

AUCKLAND

At the same time Pacific and cosmopolitan in flavor, with a sparkling though wind-blown harbor, scenic hillsides, wineries, boutiques, cafes, and art galleries, AUCKLAND was the perfect synthesis for the last leg of our trip.

It had been a wild ride all along, so we thought, why not cap the experience with an indulgent passion?  Thus, in the Fish Market, past thru the courtyard, and into the new exciting Auckland attraction called Big Picture Wine, we participated in an interactive wine adventure that began in the Aroma Room, enabling us to appreciate the language of wine.  Then, we viewed the 30-minute film that flew us over Auckland’s spectacular landscape and on to six - yes, six! - wineries within the region.  It was a creatively unique way of having the winemakers onscreen to join us for a personalized tasting of their wine.  As the euphoria of enjoying the rich, fruity aromas of the six featured red wines had set in, the rest of this paragraph would be unfinished...

Our final days were spent soberly browsing New Zealand’s collection displays at the AUCKLAND ART GALLERY and viewing rare Maori taonga (treasures) at the AUCKLAND MUSEUM.  We gazed at intricately-carved wood tikis and colorful weaving that covered a hotunui (Maori ancestral house) inside and out.  We ogled at tall pou whakarae (carved stockade posts) that featured the characteristic warrior-stance of glaring eyes and a stuck-out tongue.

Inside Maori ancestral house

Maori warriors intimidating enemy

 We learned a few things from this trip, among other things - that discarded things are thrown in the rubbish (garbage), milk is either full or slim, food ordered out is take-away, one punts in gondola boats and rides the lift (elevator), tap water is potable, Aussies and Kiwis are very friendly people, and that the best souvenirs of a trip are its memories (and maybe a carved shell heitiki pendant).

But as with everything else, all things must come to an end.  Besides, as Erma Bombeck says, it is time to go home once you start looking like your passport picture - so for now we say, KA KITE (goodbye in Maori)!

Wanna rumble?

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