Back in Thailand

Back in Thailand, for the second time of four visits, I believe? We landed in Bangkok and quickly hightailed it out of the city on the first train north to the cultural hub of Chiang Mai. Surrounded by an old brick wall the city is a lovely place to get lost and eat as much Thai food as humanly possible. While the city is pretty amazing, you would be missing so much if you didn't venture out. One of our days we hopped on our motorbike to explore some caves in Chiang Dao National Park 70km north of the city center. 

The next day we ventured out early in the morning to the Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep. Easily the cities most famous temple built in 1383. Some how we woke up early enough to watch the sunrise above the city far below this lovely temple. 

Millions of Buddhas

The small town of Hpa-An is nothing to write about, but what is worth writing about is the countryside around this village: dotted with temples, caves, rice paddy fields, and ​limestone mountains it is eye candy beyond belief. The first temple we explored on our all day motorbike ride was a temple perched on a limestone rock. The views were breathtaking and a good start to our day. 

Knowing this was only the first stop of many we pushed on to a stunning buddhist cave of an exiled king. I was floored when I saw it, not only was it something we had never seen before it was beautiful. Little intricate carvings 40 - 50 ft up of buddhas. Thousands, no millions of buddhas were on display. It was beautiful in a painstakingly holy crap that king had a lot of time on his hands way; not in a tacky pile as many buddhas as possible kind of way. ​

Neon Buddha

Just outside downtown Yangon is the heart of Burma, the Shwedagon Pagoda is the most sacred Buddhist pagoda in the country. It's believed to hold four relics of the buddha enshrined within, including eight strands of his hair. Standing a whopping 99 meters above the city this gilded pagoda shines like the smile of the 14th Dalai Lama. According to legend, The Shwedagon Pagoda was first built 2,600 years ago. Making it the oldest pagoda not only in Burma, but the world.

The most fascinating thing to us was the surprising Vegas-style lights behind all the Buddha statues glowing in heavenly enlightment. Defenitly makes for some of the most entertaining buddha statues we've ever seen. Although I wouldn't think it would be very conducive to meditation. 

Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma, oh my!

Just around the corner from Borobudur, is another fascinating temple called Prambanan. This Hindu temple was built in the 9th century, and is the largest temple in Indonesia dedicated to Shiva. The complex consists of 240 temples; however, a lot are in ruins because of earthquakes and volcanoes. The carvings on the three of the tallest temples are details of the epic: Ramayana. It was dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu, and Brahma, all great Hindu divinities.  

One of the things we missed at this site was the nightly performace of Ramayana performed by live actors. At night they light up the remaining temples and perfrom with it in the background. I'm sure it would have been the ideal way to see this show but we saw the show in downtown Yogyakarta the day before, which was fantastic. 

Ubud Palace

After a few days attempting to surf in Kuta and Seminyak in southern bali we headed north by taxi to Ubud, the cultural hub of Bali. Surrounded by rice fields and rolling hills it's a picturesque town ready for tourist. While the major sites are lovely, the boutique shoppes and cafe's will most likely fill your days here. When I had my fill of Kopi Luwak, we ventured to Ubud palace, a baliense hindu temple on the main road through town. 

A stark contast to the Hindu temples we had seen in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore these had a touch of class and style that the balinese folks do so well. While this temple wasn't huge or elaborate the relief carvings we're meticulous and had every visitor in awe. I threw in one smiley face as well since I realized our blog was missing one of my favorite things about traveling... The local people you meet.