De wereld rond in 70 dagen

vrijdag 23 oktober 2009

Angkor Wat

In one of the temples there was a "small" replica of the largest temple in Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

We will be there (Deo volente or insh'Allah or so) in a week.

You can see here what we are up to.

The temple of the walking Buddha

One of the temples we visited was the temple of the walking Buddha. Usually the Buddha's sit, lie down, stand or sit being very fat (lots of Chinese Buddha's are fat).

A walking Buddha is seldom seen, so...........................................

here he is.

As far as I can see it is just a standing Buddha with his legs apart.

As with almost every Palace, it is guarded by soldiers.

This one didn't want to look up, because he didn't want to be photographed. I had to bend my knees to look under his helmet. It seemed he was asleep.

In the temple of the golden Buddha there are lots a stuppa's. The stupa on the left resembles one of Shri Lanka.

The stupa on the right hand side has the typical form of a Thai stupa.

Ankies legs

I made a small mistake. Ankies legs were in the last picture.

Ankie (partly without legs) in a small gate in the temple of the large golden Buddha.

She looks happy and she is!!

This is one part of the "paintings" in one of the temples. Lots of temples have these sort of paintings made umongst other materials from silver and gold.

The painting shows a king. The monkeys are his army and the bigger the army of monkeys the better for the king.

The official Royal palace.

This palace is not really old (only 180 years or so) and it is only used for official purposes.

The king and his family live in some other palace and even there the king lives not there (here they hope only temporarely) because he is in hospital.

The king is 83 and rather ill.

We wish him good health and whatever.

The large golden Buddha.

In all the temples there are monks and every time they make a great picture.

On this picture you see chinese statues and they are just for decoration.

To be allowed in a temple you have to take off your shoes.

Today we went to three different places.

The Royal Palace (King Bhumipol's official Palace), the temple of the walking Buddha end some other temples.

In the last templecomplex there were lots of Stupa's, lots of buildings with buddha's in it and lots of praying people.

There is also a large golden Buddha (see the picture of the last message on this blog) which is so long that it is almost not possible to get it in one picture except on a picture taken from the feet to the head.

Bangkok

Yesterday we arrived in Bangkok from Amman.
The flight was uneventfull and we landed right on time.
A guide was waiting for us and brought us to our hotel. The hotel lies in the middle of an area with lots of small shops, so there is lots to see.
We walked around for a few hours and lost our way now and then. Ankie went for a footmassage and I read something (The new Dan Brown and I don't like it because it is too unreal).

We ate in a nice restaurant (Gullivers Tavern) and the food was good.
We went to bed èarly because we suffered a little from jetlag and because we flew during the night we were tired (moreless).

woensdag 21 oktober 2009

Women in Jordan practicly always wear a shawl.

The more religious ones wear a niqaab. Here you see one and she looks very happy. It was very difficult to photograph women because this is not allowed for religious reasons.

If they see you trying to make a picture they turn around so you don't see there faces or what you could see of them.

In the middle of Amman there is a part called "Al Balad". It is, as far as I know, the oldest part of Amman. You can see here a Roman theatre, bigger than the one in Jerash (see a few days ago), the Al Husseini Mosq with two minarets and all sorts of shops. Like in other eastern cities, the same craftsmen are next to each other.

There is a part (of a large street) with all the shops which sell charcoal or jewellery or ladies dresses or books or whatever.

Ankie in front of a jeweller in Amman.

Today we were in Amman.
The city is busy and looks like other eastern cities.
For instance Delhi came up again and again in our minds.

The last picture and this one we made on our trip from Wadi Rum to the Dead Sea.

On this picture you can see (barely) the Dead Sea in the right hand topcorner.

It was very hot so the picture could'nt be sharper than this.

On the way from Wadi Rum we passed a medieval castle in a place called El Karak. It is a former place on the Silk Road. It is known too for its role in the history of Jordan, during the crusades.

No crusaders today.