A temple, a palace, a massage, and a sorry goodbye

The Grand Palace

On the way home.  We’ve got a 5 hr layover in Frankfurt- a long stretch after an 11 hr flight, but not enough time to go out into the city, so the girls are catching up in their travel books and I’m finishing up each of the last 5 or so blog posts that I began but never finished.  In Ireland I had the time and energy to write for a couple of hours most nights.  In Thailand I was so exhausted at the end of each day I barely had the energy to brush my teeth- a sign that we didn’t waste a minute, and I don’t regret it!  But I also don’t want to forget what we experienced, so I’m finishing the posts now, even though it’s so far after the fact.  I’m going to post them in order, as if I wrote them in order, so I suppose you are reading this post last and have had no idea I was tricky and wrote it before many of the preceding entries.  Sneaky, sneaky.

    Our flight didn’t leave until 11:30pm last night, so we had a full last day in Bangkok with Bonnye and Greg and it was pretty much perfect.  We got up early (extra early, in fact, since Michael, or, rather, Siri, as he insists, didn’t cancel the early alarm that had been previously set.), got ourselves ready, and walked to breakfast. 

After breakfast, we took our first tuk-tuk ride, and a good thing, too.  Tuk-tuks are one of the primary modes of transportation in Bangkok, and it would have been flat out shameful if we came home never having ridden one.

We headed out to a Hindu temple that Greg and Bonnye said was worth visiting, if for no other reason than because it was so different from the other temples we’d seen.  

flowers for offerings, sold right outside the temple

The temple is dedicated to Uma, consort of Shiva.  It was beautiful, fascinating, and pretty much encapsulated one of the defining dynamics (for me) of this whole trip- being simultaneously drawn in by what I was witnessing and experiencing and kept out by virtue of the fact that: a) I was a foreigner and non-native speaker, b)usually an observer and not a true participant (even if I was technically participating), and c) had no way to make sense of what I was witnessing.  In Ireland my ability to pick up on cues, both verbal and non-verbal, helped me to quickly figure out what was going on.  In Thailand, that same ability only confirmed and deepened my realization that I had no context within which to place my experiences and no way to make meaning out of any of it. 

 We happened to time our visit to the temple, which is open to tourists, with some type of prayer ceremony.  They appeared to be blessing the statues of the various deities with prayers and incense and also blessing individuals.  It was absolutely fascinating to witness and renewed my appreciation for embodied religious rites- practices that engage not only the mind with words but also the body with smells and sights and rhythm and music.  

    Tess had less patience with not understanding what was going on and lost interest pretty quickly, So we slipped out of the inner temple and prepared to leave.  But then I decided to buy a picture of Shiva and Uma.  I thought I’d pay and go.  But for reasons I don’t understand, they insisted that the picture must be blessed.  (We noticed that the statues in nearby shops were also dabbed with the red paste). 

So back into the inner temple I went, where one of the priests put a dab of red paste on the picture…..and my forehead.  Then out I was sent.  So…….now what do I do?  One the one hand, I’ve just received some type of blessing from someone charged with such work- a sacred gift.  On the other, I looked a bit like Julia Roberts in “Eat, Pray, Love” – a non-Hindu Westerner with a Hindu mark on my head.  Should I leave it?  Remove it?  Which was most appropriate?  Less insulting?  I decided to leave it until about half way through the day when, having sweat most of it off, my brother said I just looked like I was bleeding.  Off it came. 

A shawl wasn't good enough here, so I had to buy a T-shirt.  I was told that, translated from the Thai, it reads something like "smile at the King until his death" I'm pretty sure that isn't intended to sound as grim as it does.

After the temple, we headed off the Grand Palace which was, in fact, very, very grand.  We wandered around admiring the complex, which is huge and gorgeous. 

As with Wat Pho, the geometry of the space was different- all points and spires.

Many of the structures were covered in gold leaf and mosaics made of millions of pieces of various colored mirrors.

I literally cannot imagine the time and energy it took to create such a space.

 While at the palace we went to see the Emerald Buddha, one of the most sacred Buddha figures in Thailand.  We weren't allowed to take photos, though. (The photo above has nothing whatsoever to do with the Emerald Buddha. But aren't those guys great?)

Running along the wall surrounding part of the palace complex was a mural- an enormously long and incredible mural, depicting the Ramakien, the Thai version of the Ramayana- a Hindu epic tale.

The Ramayana (and the Ramakien)  isn’t considered a sacred text, but it holds a very powerful place culturally- particularly in India, but apparently in Thailand, as well.

After a couple of hours of absolutely flooding our senses at the palace, we took a breather and ate our last lunch in Thailand. 

 But we still had hours before we had to pack!!  So, we headed out to one last market to wander for a few hours and take in the sheer, wonderful chaos of it all: the fruit and food carts, the endless stalls of everything and anything you might want to buy, the crowds of people barely parting for the motorcycles and cars pushing through, and the fine art of haggling over prices (never got a hang of that one).

 Finally, to top off the day, we all lined up for a foot massage and then headed back to the apartment through the lights of Bangkok at night.

And with some quick packing and very sorry goodbyes to Greg and Bonnye, who were so fun to spend time with and such great hosts, we headed back to the cold and the snow, but also our friends and our home, choc-full of new experiences, incredible memories, and really, really good food.

Within a few days, we might even be over our jet-lag induced fog to think back on it all coherently. 
    For now, I'll simply end by saying that this was a trip of a lifetime- beautiful, joyful, nourishing, inspiring, provokative, and a wee bit exhausting, as it should have been, and I'm grateful for it all.