here is a little report from spring break week, which happened just over 3 weeks ago.
3 road warriors (Mom, Dad, and Aunt Leigh - her first time out of the country!) crossed the world and came to meet me in Bangkok for a northern Thailand adventure. we had such a nice time. i was so glad to see my family and grateful that they came so far.
i've posted a few pics below, but there are many more you can see by clicking here.
Dad also took many amazing pictures, including photos of Cambodia where they continued to Angkor Wat when i had to go back to Dhaka - definitely check out his photographs if you get a chance!
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here we are in Sukothai historic park, the first Buddhist capital of the Thai state. The yellow tree called Golden Shower was in full bloom during our Thai adventure.
Thailand is Buddhist, very Buddhist. We went to many temples and saw so many beautiful, smooth Buddha bodies. This pic was taken at a temple/Buddhist study center in Chiang Rai.
We came upon a local hot spot, a field, where people were gathered playing games. Mom volunteered herself to play one game, a super-sized Pin the Tail on the Donkey that took place in the field with a cardboard box and a baseball bat. she was a hit.
One fascinating day we maid it both to Laos and Burma/Myanmar - the day of the Golden Triangle. This photograph comes from the Burmese border town.
Do you see the people pouring water on a truck full of Buddha figures? The annual SongKran (New Year's) festival celebrates spring and new beginnings with LOTS and LOTS of water. Even the Buddhas get soaked. We just happened to be in Thailand for SongKran and we most definitely got soaked. Again and again and again, hysterically soaked - often with buckets of ice water thrown by giddy townspeople. There is a lot more to tell about this... for example, it happened that I developed a real obsession with this one water gun and had trouble NOT shooting every living being for 3 consecutive days.
These girls, SongKran festival revelers, are riding around in the back of a pickup with buckets of water - ready to soak anyone they can - extra points for foreigners
World's best pineapple eaten here, in the middle of this field.
Bangkok market scene.
Bangkok has a sky train that slides through the city scrapers elegantly. Here is the sky train stop near the popular and modern MBK shopping center.
Another temple / "Wat" scene.
And a bike pic for D, who I missed.
A strange thing that I noticed on this trip, through the juxtaposition of my experience with that of mom dad and leigh, is that my eyes have become very used to Asia. Most Asian sights don't seem strange to me anymore... And I have to say that Dhaka sights are so much more intense and challenging than anything we saw in Thailand - though what we saw in Thailand was new and challenging for many of the people in our travel group.
