Computer Challenged

Hello! As you can see, I've managed to upload some pictures on this blog but as you can also see, I am having issues formatting them so I have just limited each post to one small picture. I don't know why I'm having such a hard time with it, it's not easy to pick just one picture to summarize one destination!

Haji just got into Bangkok last night so I am excited to explore Thailand with him. I took him over to the Grand Palace (he went in while I read a book in a cafe) and we also saw the largest and heaviest solid Golden Buddha at Wat Traimit. We ended our day with a visit to Jim Thompson's House, Thailand's most loyal American expatriate who mysteriously disappeared in Malaysia in 1967. He left behind an authentic Thai architectural charm of a house with gorgeous works of Thai, Chinese, and Burmese art displayed in each room. I loved the silk paintings the most, as he was interested in the Thai cottage silk tradition. We will be leaving for Chiang Mai tomorrow on a sleeper train so if it's anything like the train ride from Hanoi to Hue... well then this should be interesting.

I also wanted to elaborate why I enjoyed the Muay Thai Fighting so much. I felt like I was actually getting a glimpse of something very important in Thai culture and it definitely helped that I love watching sports in general. Even as what appears to be a brutal sport, there was something artistic about the kicking and blocking movements and I loved the live Thai music that accompanied the fights. I also found the rituals the fighters performed before their match to be really interesting. The whole atmosphere in the Lumphini Stadium was a hit overall.