We got an early Monday morning start on the 10:00 train to Ayutthaya.
As the Thai saying goes we found this little town to be "same, same but different". We took a little stroll around to get our bearings & happened upon creepy stuffed animals tacked to a (???) & an unimpressed cat in a dress.
We've been mulling over our experiences in Bangkok - mostly the Forensic Museum & the contemporary pieces at the Arts & Cultural Center. The shared themes of mortality & dystopia are so strikingly antithetical to the American experience & discordant with the American dream. In America we would turn away aghast and offended at such ugly truths - the vivisections of diseased & mutilated organs, a plastic encased cyclops baby with probiscus whose skin was flayed and crudely sewn back together with a thick white thread, & the rotting naked bodies of executed criminals on display. We refuse to embrace let alone acknowledge suffering & death. In Thailand small children are brought to such museums - with no consideration that they should be shielded from the harshness of life or protected form the inevitability of death.
Here - the impermanence and pain is woven into the very fabric of society. It's the foundation of the Buddhist religion and the conscious knowing that drives daily motivations.
But it's not good to always be so somber & serious on vacation. So, we spent an evening on the river and began what is sure to be just the start of staring in awe and adoration at so many Buddhas.
We leave here tomorrow - taking the long train to Chiang Mai - relishing a day to read and relax - to make each other think and hopefully make each other laugh.
As the Thai saying goes we found this little town to be "same, same but different". We took a little stroll around to get our bearings & happened upon creepy stuffed animals tacked to a (???) & an unimpressed cat in a dress.
We've been mulling over our experiences in Bangkok - mostly the Forensic Museum & the contemporary pieces at the Arts & Cultural Center. The shared themes of mortality & dystopia are so strikingly antithetical to the American experience & discordant with the American dream. In America we would turn away aghast and offended at such ugly truths - the vivisections of diseased & mutilated organs, a plastic encased cyclops baby with probiscus whose skin was flayed and crudely sewn back together with a thick white thread, & the rotting naked bodies of executed criminals on display. We refuse to embrace let alone acknowledge suffering & death. In Thailand small children are brought to such museums - with no consideration that they should be shielded from the harshness of life or protected form the inevitability of death.
Here - the impermanence and pain is woven into the very fabric of society. It's the foundation of the Buddhist religion and the conscious knowing that drives daily motivations.
But it's not good to always be so somber & serious on vacation. So, we spent an evening on the river and began what is sure to be just the start of staring in awe and adoration at so many Buddhas.
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