Chiang Rai White Temple

Leaving India on a late night flight gave me an added bonus of seeing the sunrise over the Bangkok airstrip as I landed and took off again for Northern Thailand. Checking off another thing I have wanted to do, took me to Chiang Rai to see its top tourist attraction, Wat Rong Khun.

Traveling along the peaceful mountain road we stopped to enjoy the “highest hot-spring” in Thailand, then do a bit of silver shopping, and see an incredible unfinished resort styled after Cambodian Temples.
 

 

Arriving at Wat Rong Khun, after a delicious lunch beside the river, left me awe struck just to stand and behold its sheer magnificence glistening brilliant white against the cobalt sky. Chalermchai Kositpipat is the world renowned Thai artist who has spent his own money to build the exquisite and spectacular white temple. 

He designed and built the Wat to make merits and present contemporary Buddhist art with a unique style all his own. Chalermchai has used the white color of the ornate architecture to represent the Buddha’s purity, the glittering mirrors to symbolize the Buddha’s dharma that teaches man to observe his own mind and reflect loving kindness toward humankind.

 After twelve years the complex is still not finished as the artist continues to add to it and paint interior murals. There is even a “golden toilet” building. .

Chalermchai has said, “Money and possessions are insignificant. They are not mine but only make-beliefs. Merits belong to me; there fore, money is of no value to me. Money is valuable only as a way to make merit for further journey of the soul.”

 

 To visit Wat Rong Khun is free and has already been experienced by over five million people. Chalermchai Kositpipat believes work will continue on after his life and someday the “white temple” will become a national art treasure. I think it already is!

INDIA at Christmas

Thankfully I received my passport at the airport with my visa to enter India just a few hours before meeting my Thai Yoga teacher for our scheduled flight. Leaving Thailand from the Bangkok airport on Christmas Eve seemed strange as the normal hustle and bustle of Christmas was somehow lacking… no travelers with big bags of Christmas gifts, but many passengers going to India had BIG flat-screen TV’s that they were checking onto the flight to Kolkata (Calcutta). After a short two hours in the air I was in India for my first time.

A blue Christmas tree welcomed us at the hotel but the rest was not so good as the room was exceptionally tiny and the bathroom very dirty with no hot water, so on Christmas morning we transferred to another, more expensive ($200.00 US) but clean hotel.

So much for India being inexpensive.

There are clearly two classes… poor and rich! Even a contrast in lobby Christmas trees. However I was surprised to see Christmas everywhere. Loud hawking vendors were selling red Santa hats in the middle of the streets and frantic people were buying and wearing them. 
Huge lighted displays of holiday symbols; Christmas trees, Santa, snowmen, carolers, candles and over the top decorations with multitudes of lights covered block after block. The honking horns, screaming cabbies, overcrowded streets and deafening traffic noise felt like New York City on steroids.
 

 Doing the tourist thing, we visited the Indian Museum, an old-fashioned museum with many thousand year old Hindi sculptures and an incredible overview of India’s history. We paid a small fee to enter and another fee if you wanted to take photos. I enjoyed seeing the local people in their brilliantly colored Indian saris almost as much as the varied exhibits.

One of the highlights of the trip for me was the Marble Palace. Built in 1834 by Raja Rajendra Mullick, over 126 different kinds of Italian marble in the palace created an extravagant backdrop to a most extensive and eclectic collection of art. As a compulsive and avid collector of objects d’art from all over the world his trust stipulates that it will be a FREE museum for visitors to enjoy the palatial 19^th century mansion. The palace houses an exquisite art gallery and museum with statues, paintings, bronzes, clocks, and unusual artifacts. Magnificent floor to ceiling Belgian mirrors with carved gilded frames reflected enormous cut crystal chandeliers in the dining hall. Sadly we were not allowed to take photos as descendents still live in part of the palace. So the Raja clearly enjoyed his collecting mania, spending millions, yet it continues to bring delight to others. Most impressive to me was that his trust still feeds over 600 poor people on the front lawn daily.  What a legacy!

Another kind of legacy is that of Mother Theresa who tended to the sick and poor in the streets of Calcutta. I was surprised when our driver stopped and said, "you need to go see the Mother House." Walking down a tiny dirty alley we had no idea what to expect, except our driver had been right about the Marble Palace, so we followed his advice. After a short distance a tiny old gray cement building appeared and it turned out to be the home and final resting place of Mother Theresa. Her tomb is in one room and another room chronicles her amazing life dedicated to helping others. Upstairs was her simple camp cot, well worn sandals and enamel dinner bowl, a moving reflection of her life. No wonder it is ranked #1 attraction in Kolkata.

They call this Temple the mini Taj Mahal

Sending Love, Peace, and Blessings from India

Christmas in Thailand

This year will be my second Christmas in Thailand and I am missing all my family and friends back in the states. However I do have a tree in my apartment and I decorated my bed in red for the holidays!

 

Only in Thailand do you see Holiday lights and decorations right next to Spirit Houses and a Santa made from red and white condoms. Even girls wear bunny rabbit ears instead of Santa hats or reindeer antlers. What a great mix of holidays and cultural variety.

 Although mostly a Buddhist country Thailand is home to people of all faiths and the Thais love to party so they easily adopt Christmas and New Years as another chance to gather with family and friends enjoying yummy food, singing, dancing and exchanging gifts!

Last year I was working on Christmas day because I was teaching in a government school, and we had students in an English story telling competition on December 25^th.  This year I am teaching at a private bi-lingual school so we could learn more about Christmas, and we also have a welcome week of vacation! 

It has been fun “doing” Christmas projects with the students; teaching Jingle Bells, The Twelve Days of Christmas and other songs as well as folding origami trees, carefully cutting paper snowflakes, making glitter encrusted ornaments, and gluing together multi-colored foil paper chains. We even made angels and snowmen from paper instead of snow because it does not snow in Thailand! 

I also did a morning assembly with 150 students singing and dancing. Then we had a huge happy Holiday party. I even arranged for Santa to visit. Now I am flying to INDIA with my Thai yoga teacher for Christmas, then New Years in Chiang Mai.  May you have a joyous, blessed Holiday Season and a fantastic 2012.

            "We Wish You a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!"       

Floods in Thailand

The rainy season this year has created massive flooding in many provinces in Thailand, which is the world's biggest rice exporter.

Sadly the floods have wiped out over a quarter of the country's crop. Damages could top six billion dollars in Thailand's worst flooding in 50 years.

The country's current woes­ include nearly 400 dead and 110,000 displaced. 

This just illustrates the limits of man's ability to control nature's sometimes overwhelming force. With the floodwaters sweeping through Bangkok and overflowing the banks of the Menam Chao Phraya, the government declared a three week national public holiday for Bangkok and the affected provinces as residents evacuated their homes.

 Fortunately Rayong Province where I live has not been affected except for the lack of food and water in our local stores and markets. That is because people from other flooded areas have migrated to our small town of Ban Chang. The shelves in our only supermarket are almost bare. I couldn't even buy cookies for the monthly Birthday celebration I do with the kids.

Here at our school we decided to collect money, canned food, mamma noodles and water, even boats and dog food to help the flood victims, many who are completely homeless and living in makeshift shelters.

The flood situation gave us a chance to help the students learn about charity and giving generously to help others in times of hardship and need. During one of our morning assemblies military officers from the Satahip Naval Base came to school to pick up all the donations. They will distribute them to the needy flood victims.

Since it was November it was also a good time to teach about being thankful for our many blessings. The kids made feathers with their photos on them and then created a THANKSGIVING  TURKEY. 

          I am constantly filled with wonder and gratitude. 

Loy Krathong

Loy Krathong is perhaps the country’s most beautiful holiday. Many hours are spent carefully crafting the krathongs using a wide variety of exotic and fragrant flowers that bloom in Thailand. We even made them in school. Each krathong is a work of art, and it is believed that when set afloat they take ones troubles with them.

Nation wide the Thais honor the water spirits by lighting candles and setting them adrift on tiny baskets along the country’s waterways. 

You can buy one of the colorful magnificent creations handmade by the local residents or you can make your own small boat with flowers, coins, three sticks of incense and a candle, then launch it into the river or ocean in the evening, resulting in thousands of lighted krathongs on the water.

My Kathong floating out into the great ocean of life.   Notice the orbs!

In addition to many spectacular fireworks, Thai families launch translucent paper hot-air lanterns that light up the night skies. The solemn sending off of these lighted lanterns has become a festival highlight. A sight to behold as I stood on the beach watching in awe.

Celebrated on the full moon in November, Loy Krathong, began in the 13^th century, and pays respect to Mae Khongkha, Goddess of the country’s life bringing rivers. 

The festival with roots in Hinduism and Buddhism has taken on an additional meaning; today releasing the krathong symbolizes the letting go of anger, grudges, and bad luck and ushers in a new year of happiness and blessings.  

The November Full Moon and spectacular fireworks over the ocean

Loy Krathong seemed especially appropriate this year to pay homage to life giving water as many Thais have been affected by floodwaters. 

Shanghai and Halloween

The amazing and peaceful view from the Meffords back yard in Shanghai was a much needed and welcome relief. I had recently completed the end of my first semester at REPS www.repsrayong.com. Now I remember how much time goes into checking student notebooks, final tests, grading and hand writing individual reports for over 50 students. Whew, with that finished, I was ready for the two week term break. It was especially nice of John and Carrie to send me a frequent flyer ticket to visit China again.
Aidan and Taylor had requested stuffed toy tigers from Thailand, so I carried a big shopping bag on the plane with pair of very large gold, black and white striped Bengal tigers for two happy boys.

They were in school but we still found time to ride bikes, go to the park and eat yummy ice cream. 

Luckily I got to see them play soccer. Aidan even scored a goal, while Taylor was goalie on different team.

After school we did homework and played dress-up with costumes.

 Then we read books, had a pizza party and watched movies with popcorn. We even made a lemon cake, blueberry muffins and decorated cupcakes with multi-colored sprinkles.  All very American things that I don’t do in Thailand. The time flew by and it was hard to believe the visit was over and I had to fly back to school and teaching. 

I was fortunate to be able to fly into the Bangkok airport unaffected by the flooding, however the cab ride home was a bit scary as we drove through streets with water covering the wheels of the taxi. Then we stalled at one of the freeway toll booths…finally a push and we were off. I was very grateful to get home. On a brighter side, back at school the kids seem to be unaffected by the surrounding devastation, and we were in full swing with preparations for our school celebration of HALLOWEEN, making paper chains, bats, spider webs orange paper pumpkins, scary masks and Kleenex ghosts for decorations. It could have been any school in America… complete with costumes of Spiderman, Batman, Snow White and a wide variety of Witches, including me. We had a big Halloween party complete with games and candy. Happily we bobbed for apples, carried an egg on a spoon and ate cookies with no hands The older students even created a frightfully scarey haunted house for the younger kids to visit…spooky fun for all. 

                                    HAPPY HALLOWEEN