Thursday, July 20, 2006
[837] Of majestic Wat Pho, Bangkok
A week ago, I was in Bangkok and I'm missing it greatly . The last time I felt like this was when I had to leave the Sierra Nevada behind for Los Angeles and eventually Ann Arbor. Minus a dose of "I'm famish", definitely.

While Bangkok is dirty and congested, the city impressed me greatly. The city is blessed with eye-pleasing structures unique to this part of the world. Not to forget, walking angels too!

If I were a god and Bangkok was built to please me, I'd be a satisfied supreme being. I'd live in Bangkok and leave heaven behind in shamble.

One of the places that I'm so much in love with is Wat Pho. I love it so much because I had never seen anything like it with my naked eyes. Its halls, its stupas, its doors, its floor and ceiling, everything - I'm lost for words to describe it. A picture worth a thousand word and so, I'll stop writing and show you Thai's gift to the world instead:

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved


That's one of the main spires at Wat Pho. Works on Wat Pho itself was initiated by Rama III over 200 years ago, in 1788. The complex itself is huge and I wish I had spent more than a day there. I wanted to scrutinize every little bit of it but alas, time was of an essence; an unfortunately rare commodity. This is a map of the whole complex:

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved


Since it's a working Buddhist temple, there are lots of statues all over the complex. There's a huge reclining Buddha there but I didn't take a peek at it. Instead, I saw this:

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved


Majestic, isn't it?

I'm sure some intolerent conservative Muslims would disagree. I've no doubt that some far rightists here in Malaysia would like to torn it down to pieces and sell them as scrap metals. Barbarians know nothing of art; they value art pieces like monkeys value flowers. Still, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved


p/s - Viacom to buy The Onion:

It almost sounds like one of The Onion's made-up news items: Variety is reporting — without even mentioning sources, much less identifying them — that Viacom may acquire The Onion, the satirical newspaper and Web site whose headlines made "Area Man" into a minor celebrity. Other sources, including the Huffington Post, Paidcontent.org and Gawker, have also reported on a potential Viacom-Onion connection, even as they played up the speculative nature of the story.


Ha ha ha...?
23:05 EST | Permalink | (0) Comments


                   

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