Tuesday, December 30 2014 Last Day in Bangkok Today is my last day in Bangkok. And the goal is to see the Vimanmek Palace, a former royal palace of King Rama V, and the world’s largest golden teakwood mansion. It was built in 1900, and after the current Grand Palace was built, became a storage facility for the royal household. In 1982, on the bicentennial of the founding of Bangkok, Her Majesty Queen Sirikit asked […]
Monday, December 29 Part 3: Wat Pho (the Reclining Buddha) Was Pho is a large complex of viharn (worship halls) and chedi (pagodas). Many of the viharn are not open to the public. The large crowds here are oppressive and tiring. This is the high tourist season, and it is always especially crowded before New Year’s Day. I fell into line with the crowds of tourists to see the reclining Buddha. Wat Pho is guarded by these […]
Monday, December 29 Part 2: Wat Benchamabophit (The Marble Temple) After Wat Arun and feeling the need to get a fresh camera battery (not sure why I left it in the hotel), the journey continued, across the river on the ferry, down the river on the boat, back to the hotel on the sky train. Replaced the camera battery (put the other in the charger), and set off in a taxi to see the Vimanmek Palace […]
Monday, December 29 Part 1: Wat Arun A favorite sentiment is well-said by the following, the last line in the book Up Country by Nelson DeMille: The journey home is never a direct route; it is, in fact, always circuitous, and somewhere along the way, we discover that the journey is more significant than the destination, and that the people we meet along the way will be the traveling companions of our memories forever. “The […]
First full day in Bangkok, Sunday, December 28, 2014. This is a high energy city! I am still tired from getting here, 20 hours of flying and losing 15 hours of time to the international date line. This is destined to be a low-key day with two goals: (1) get a SIM card and phone number for my Thai phone, and (2) visit the Jim Thompson House Museum. But first, breakfast. The breakfast buffet at […]
Friday, December 26, 2014: I am off to Thailand! Arrived at the Los Angeles International Airport International Terminal at about 8:15 AM for the Korean Air flight KE18 from Los Angeles to Seoul’s Incheon airport, scheduled to leave at 11:00 AM for the 13 hour, 40 minute flight. This is same flight I took last year, on an Airbus A380-800, the largest passenger airplane made. The model 800 is the largest of the A380 airplanes, […]
I am deliberately not doing much detailed planning for my short three days in Bangkok. Some of the sights I want to see are, in no particular order: Jim Thompson House I have been to the Jim Thompson House twice before. It is a great museum and representative of Jim Thompson’s legacy of stimulating the Thai silk industry and other international trade for Thailand. Teak Palace (Vimanmek Mansion) Wat Arun, the Temple of Dawn (formerly […]
My plan for this trip is to spend a few days in Bangkok before returning to Chiang Mai. Bangkok is a large city, approximately the size of Los Angeles with twice as many people. Bangkok is hot and humid, the traffic is almost chaotic and seemingly always in a frenzy, so it is noisy on the streets, and it is crowded. The negatives are in your face, and it takes some of your energy just […]
I first visited Chiang Mai, Thailand in 2003 as a side trip while in Thailand for the Bangkok International Film Festival. I visited in 2006, again as a side trip from the film festival in Bangkok. In 2010, I injured my right arm, causing a dramatic reduction of my yoga practice as well as completely stopping cycling, something I had been doing for many years. In mid-2011, my arm seemed better, and I attended a […]
Further Reflections and Another Winter in Chiang Mai I have been home from Chiang Mai for eight months. Reflecting on last winter in Chiang Mai, I have similar thoughts to those I posted six months ago: (1) it was quite different than I had expected, and (2) unexpected things occurred that changed the experience; not making it better or worse, just presenting different paths and experiences. I did not have firm expectations; my expectations or […]
Introduction and Background Greetings! I am Jim Geier. This blog is about my return to Chiang Mai, Thailand in late December 2014 and January 2015. The intent is to discuss what I did each day and post a few pictures of what I saw or places visited. These first posts cover the evolution of the actual journey to Chiang Mai (with three days in Bangkok along the way), some background and events leading up to […]
Some Reflections and Impressions on my Winter in Chiang Mai I have been home for six weeks now, and as I reflect on my winter in Chiang Mai, the first thoughts are that (1) it was quite different than I had expected, and (2) unexpected things occurred that changed the experience; not making it better or worse, just presenting different paths and experiences. I did not have firm expectations; my expectations or hopes were that […]
James the Intrepid Pilgrim 