Muay Thai Statues at Wat Bang Kung

The Art of Eight Limbs

The beginnings of Muay Thai are somewhat unclear. It is theorized to have been born out of Muay Boran or Krabi Krabong, or possibly a little of both of the arts.

Muay Thai first became very popular during the ascension of King Chulalongkorn. (Rama V). The King had a very large personal interest in the art. King Rama V is also highly revered by the Thailand people today as is the present day King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The pictures of both kings are in most Thai homes today.

We stopped at Wat Bang Kung during one of our family outings. It is in the province of Samut Songkhram just outside of Bangkok. The wat had statues of Muay Thai fighter in the different strikes.

Here is just one of the statues that where at this wat.

You can see here that there were allot of statues. I guess that there was one statue for every different strike  in Muay Thai.

Dang our friend is taking a good look at all of the different stricks and moves.

An other one of Ning’s brothers checking them all out too.

Ning’s sister in law is making sure their feet are clean!! Well at least do not smell.

Wat Bang Kung is known as the unseen wat because of all of the growth on the outside of the building. Banyan tree roots hold the building up. On the left hand side of the picture you can see the opening to the chapel.

Looking down the side you can see the whole building is covered. People go in and pay respect to the Buddha statue within.

We had a good time seeing all the Muay Thai statues and the unseen wat, Wat Bang Kung. If you are ever in Bangkok, take the time to go see this thai Wat and all of the Muay Thai statues that are there. I do not think that you will be disapointed.

Mae Fang Hot Springs

While we where up in the Chiang Mai area, we stop at one of the hot springs in Mae Fang National Park. As warm as the weather is in Thailand you would not really think of hot springs. Thailand has hot springs through out the country, and most of the hottest ones being up north in the Chiang Mai region. You can contact the park by:  Mae Phang National Park, p.o. box 9, Phang district, Cjiang Mai province 50110. Not only can you see the springs here, you can go to the hot spring pools and soak in the mineral water. They also have Thai massage if you really want to relax.

Here are some of the vents blowing steam and hot water. In the small creeks that connected the springs together, there was green algae growing. The water was still very warm, hard to believe that it still could grow.

Here you can see the algae growing in the bottom of this hot pool of water.

Here is an close up of the water coming out of the ground. This will cook you if you get into it.

It just would not be a good trip to the hot springs with out boiling some eggs. You can see the hot water boiling out of the ground in the middle. As you can see by these pictures, everyone was wearing saddles, so they were very careful not to step in the water.

As the pressure built up the steam would come out with more force. When the mail vent did blow all of the little ones would die down to just a trickle. You had to pay attention or you would get sprayed when the large one stoped and the little ones took off again.

When this went off, it would go about 35 meters high. It also had a very loud hiss. Also when this went off all of the little springs died down to a trickle.

Click PLAY to view a short video of our time spent at Mae Fang Hot Springs.

Amphawa Floating Market

During out last trip to Thailand, Ning’s family and I took a trip to Amphawa Floating Market. This place is not too far out of Bangkok. It is in Songkhram Province. The market is only open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sunday.

The market is located on a canal that flows in to the Mae Klong River. Ning was telling me at night you could see fireflies. We did not stay till nighttime this time, but maybe next time. Ning said that you could rent a room from a lot of the families that live on the river to find out what it is like to do just that.

You can find just about anything you want to eat at the market. You can find some craft type shops there also.

Here in the picture you can see from left to right, a curry vender, desert vender, Grilled Squid vender and a noodle vender.  You place your order on shore and if you wanted squid, they just pass it over for you.

Here is a picture of various food venders. The larger boats are taxies stoping for the people to buy things.

Ning and I are looking over some plants for sale here.

Here is a coconut vender selling young coconuts. The milk is very mild and the meat of the coconut is very soft. You can scrap in out with a spoon to eat it. Very good tast and good for you.

You can find just about anything you want to eat at the market. You can find some craft type shops there also. It was avery nice way to spend our afternoon. If you ever are in Bangkok, you should try to get to one of the floting markets that are around. There are alot of them, so you should not have any trouble finding one.

Thai Orange Grove

During Ning’s and my 2008 trip to Thailand, we went to and stayed at a 40 acre orange grove owned by Ning’s cousin. It was about and hour or more north beyond Chiang Mai.

Chiang Mai is about 435 miles north of Bangkok. So we had a fairly long drive to get there. It is always good to get out and see the countryside in Thailand. There are a lot of sights to see and we stopped at various places on the way for some sight seeing. But that will be another post down the road.

The weather there was really pleasant. During the day it would get up around 85F and at night it would go down to the mid 60’s. Very good sleeping. The morning would have some fog till the sun came out and burnt it off. I like the coolness at night but most of Ning’s family was cold. They all come from around Bangkok that is fairly warmer then up north.

Where we were staying was out in the country far enough that were was no commercial electric. They had solar panels with 12-volt batteries setup. We also had a generator for lighting for where we prepared our meals.

We sleep in the housing used by the orange pickers during picking season. It was just basic shelter with running water and bathrooms. The showers like a lot of Thai Homes had just very cold running water. So you did not take long showers.

We cooked all of our meals on propane burners. But we as always ate really good meals. Thai food tastes even better out in the country too! Every buddy help and we all had a lot of fun.

Meal times were allot of fun. We all pitched in and helped make the food.  This is truly Thai Food at its finest.

Here they are getting vegetables ready and grinding up ingredients for curry.

This is looking on to the Thai Government land that borders the orange grove. They have planted acres of Teak trees. The tree line in front of the Teak is Bamboo. The water in front is a holding pond to water the orange tress with.

Here is a slide show of one morning going out and picking oranges.  All of the people here are our family and friends. We had a very good time.

When Ning and I do finely move to Thailand to retire, we are very seriously thinking of staying up north in Thailand. It is not as hot as down south and the people there live a more laid back life.

Thailand Three-Headed Elephant

Chang Erawan Museum in Samut Prakan Province

The Three Headed Elephant is 29 metres high and 39 metres long.  Add another 14.6 meters to count the building that it is standing on.  The elephants weight is around 250 tons. You can not miss seeing this from Sukhumwit Road on your way to Samut Prakan from Bangkok.

Construction started in 1994 and the finishing work still goes on today.  This was built by a very successful Mercedes Benz dealership owner named Khun Lek Viriyapant.  He wanted to preserve his collection of antiques as a contribution to Thai culture heritage.  Many pieces of his collection are priceless objects of art.  Most of these are in the basement and taking photograhs is not permitted.  

The size of the elephant is phenomenal.  If you look closely, you can see the people standing at the base of the building to the lower left in the photo.  On the inside, there are stairs or a lift leading up the rear legs.  The stairs are the small spiral type and the ceiling is very low.  Watch your head on the way up!

 

On the ground floor there are four pillars with tin plated designs.  Each pillar represents one of the four major religions of the world:  Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam.  This photo shows one of the pillars going up to the ceiling.  The ceiling is a stained glass window of a world map.  If you could look out of the window you would be looking straight up at the belly of the elephant.

 

 

 

Bowls and spoons are some of the things used to decorate the place inside on the main floor. As you can see by the photos, it was very labor intensive to put this together.  The bowls were broken up into pieces and then arranged in patterns.

 

 

 

 

The photo on the left clearly shows the spoons used for the ears on the elephant.  The rest of the elephant was decorated with pieces of broken bowls. 

 

 

 

This photo contains the Stairs to Heaven.  If you climb the Stairs to Heaven,  you will arrive on the first landing which has access to the lift of the stairs leading up the inside of the elephant statues rear legs.  

 

 

 

 

 

Taken in the belly of the elephant, this photo depicts heaven to the Thai’s.  It is like entering a temple and there are celestial stars painted on the ceiling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These photos only give a small sense of the sights to see.  The museum is definitely worth the trip if you ever travel to Bangkok Thailand.

 

 

 

Next Page »