Maartje, Eelco, Rick, Kaat & Duuk: March 2015

One of the afternoons we entertained ourselves in Bangkok we went to see the reclining Buda at What Po. From the hotel we were staying at we could take a water taxi/bus to get there which added to its attraction.

The water taxi pontoon was right in front of the hotel.

All kids loved the water taxi

Despite it being super crowded. I guess India prepared them for that.

What Po is a big temple complex, with a super sized golden reclining Buda

The building the Buda is placed in is fabulously decorated

And yes that Buda is crazy big

Fortunately some of the worship rituals are not that different from Hinduism, so we had the coin buckets sorted. Not sure Rick's chanting of Ohm-Na-Shivaya was much appreciated -;)

Kaat had clearly studied the prayer poses quite well. But was not actually praying but making a wish everywhere.

It was busy, hot and sticky and Duuk wa snot allowed to scream much. So not the happiest bunny.

Lots more wishes to be made, as there were at least another few hundred Buda's and at least another 10 or so large sized golden ones in their own temples to do such at.

The paintings on the walls reminded us much of what we could fine in India also

Nevertheless, inside in the shade Duuk was enthusiastic and said 'wow' a lot.

The to us also familiar way to offer money (opposite the Buda's but?)

The fabulous mosaic towers are not something we see much here though

A lovely and big complex to wonder around in.

With something to see in every corner

Can I have a roof like this on my house please?

More golden Buda's

Fortunately the shoe ritual for each is not alien to us at all

And more

At some point we were all Buda-ed out. And Kaat had no more wishes to make. So time to take the water taxi back.

Fabulous site for a few lovely hours.

So we had 5 days in Bangkok with Jonas & Co. Henny, Jonas's mom, remembers when Eelco was born, and so Eelco's first memories of life involve Jonas. Since Eelco and I are together we have also spend some precious time with Jonas & Tjitske and their two boys, and although we don't see them often enough, they are very dear to us. So when they planned a month's trip to Bangkok, we all thought it too close to give up on the opportunity to see them.

We spend 5 glorious days together, with little time for camera's so we only have a suite of very bad quality pictures of five very very happy days together.We tried to perfect the art of taking selfless in a yuk yuk, at night, on bad roads,…unsuccessfully.

Olaf & Hadde showed Rick and Kaat how to work the photo apps on our iPhones, so we have loads of this kind of material.

Kaat was happy we had a real Olaf, and used him for everything, and Rick was happy to hang out with the big boys

We ate copious amounts of good food, in weird combinations, for next to no money. Three more please, says Kaat!

Duuk tried to meet some friends his own age

And was not forgotten by his big 'bro' and 'sis'

Of course Jonas taught Rick how to eat with sticks

And we did the weekend market

Had some food there for the 10 of us for 250 Bhat (8 Euro, 9 USD)

Of course Jonas also tried to source some wood for a project in NL and showed up at the market with a sample, which Rick then happily carried around for the next 6 hours.

Slightly better yuk yuk selfies at speed

At a fish restaurant

debating on whether this was the ugliest ugliest or prettiest ugliest party ship in Bangkok. Kaat voted for the latter -;)

Cheesy grins

At birthday Sushi dinner for Eelco (and Hadde)

We also did on a weekday a watermark with just the boys on the roof of a mall. NOBODY THERE?!?! For the full 2 hours we where there. So we did all sorts off races, and Rick won of course, and then did the typical Asian arcade. Hadde was paying for all the rides, which were dirt cheap, w=so we had to stay quite a while as Jonas had told him to finish the money -:)