Then and Now
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| Peering between the feet of the guardian demon, Grand Palace, Bangkok, 1970 |
As I said in an earlier post, I may be in Thailand at the moment, enjoying the sunny days, tropical temperatures, and sipping cocktails on the balcony with MrLogical. It is equally possible that I might also be shivering in our apartment in Seoul, suffering even more keenly from the snow, ice, and sub-arctic wind gusts after almost two weeks in the steaming tropics. In either case, I'm not ready to give you a blow-by-blow of my trip, but I will say that the Asia Vu family did enjoy at least a few days in Bangkok, where MrL and I had the opportunity to re-visit some old haunts,
MsCaroline and a gibbon at the Bankok Zoo, ca. 1969.
MsCaroline and baby monkey, Kanchanaburi (outside of Bangkok) 2011:
Visiting the Grand Palace in Bangkok:
MsCaroline, posing nicely at the foot of one of the guardian demons at the Grand Palace, ca 1970:
MsCaroline, fed up with the Palace, Demons, posing, and sightseeing in general, ca 1970:
Same demon, different angle, new paint job, older MsCaroline, ca 2011:
Elephant encounters:
MsCaroline atop baby elephant, ca 1970, Bangkok:
Elephant trek, Kanchanaburi, MsCaroline & MrLogical, 2011 ((note: I had a certain amount of reluctance about doing the elephant trek, having read so much about the abuse of elephants in Thailand, and I have to say, I would rather watch them than ride them; I deluded comforted myself with the thought that the elephants at this small and fairly remote kraal seemed well-cared for, didn't appear to be overworked, and were treated humanely by the mahouts. That being said, I probably wouldn't do it again.)
Comments
Wilma- it has definitely been a walk down memory lane! Happy New Year to you and yours as welll!
Circles- I highly recommend- we've had a lovely time-pm coming, met someone who thinks she knows you...small world, eh?
Trish - I think most of us can relate to cranky MsC...I hope to see lots of 'then and now' posts...so enjoyed doing my own!
Elizabeth - I don't think it bothered the elephant at all - in fact, I think she enjoyed being loose from her chain; what I've read is that many of the establishments are abusive to the elephants or don't care for them properly (overwork, not enough food, no shade, no medical care, etc.)and the idea is not to support any enterprises that treat their animals badly. I found the elephant ride to be uncomfortable in a jolting, jarring way. I don't know if Hannibal actually rode on the things while crossing the Alps, but I wouldn't have lasted for one day myself. It was a life experience, but not one I would care to repeat!
NVG: The clothes are so much fun to look at! Will have to do a whole post about my mom's clothes sometime - they're all terribly chic! As far as the monkey goes - I was deeply in love and would have gladly spent the whole day holding that little baby monkey...he cried and climbed up on my head to get away from his handlers when I had to leave! That facial expression in the photo was my 'aw, come on, MrL, can't we take the baby monkey home?' face...sigh.