Today is the beginning of our half term break and also the week of the King’s funeral here in Thailand We are going away on Monday but decided to a bit of exploring in Bangkok today. We wanted to visit a famous temple so we got on a local ferry. (The fare is approx 30p wherever you go on the river!)

Our destination was quite a long way up river but half way there the boat terminated and the rest of the river was closed for a funeral procession practice. So we were turned off in Memorial Bridge and decided to look around. This area is not somewhere we would have chosen to go to. It’s not on the tourist map as such. But as we walked along we saw a sign which said ‘flower city’ so we went in. It was like a huge warehouse of what I think were wholesalers. There were flowers everywhere in heaps and piles and bags. Loads and loads of them. The air was beautifully perfumed and the colours so vivid. There was a preponderance of yellow flowers as these are the King’s flower and everyone is paying tribute to him using them. 

We walked through this market and on the other side we found ourselves quite by chance in the street where the floral tributes to the king were being prepared. I have never seen anything quite like it. The arrangements were street- sized and absolutely stunning. There were whole walls of the orange blossom on strings, there were carpets of lotuses in beautiful patterns and a huge wave of white flowers which gradually changed colour to become the Thai flag. The pictures don’t really do them justice but I hope that you can get an impression of the spectacle. 

The route of the funeral procession will be rammed on Thursday but we feel privileged to have seen some of the preparations. The Thai clearly valued their monarch and all that he did for them. In a couple of pictures you can see the Thai symbol for ‘respect’ once is shining metal and another in white flowers. King Bhuminbol was much loved and greatly respected by the whole nation. It is very moving and humbling to witness this event. 

Some of the titles on the long list …

Today is the anniversary of the King’s death. We have all been given the day off work (which is nice)

Everywhere you look the locals are wearing black out of respect and the depth of feeling from the ordinary Thai towards their monarch is astounding and quite moving. Tributes to the late King are everywhere and for this whole month there is solemn music being played on the Sky Trains.

Here you can see people laying the King’s special flower at a shrine set up outside our local supermarket. The flowers are stunning and there are many displays such as this one which I came across in the street outside a small office building. 

Lotus flowers have been influential in cultures across the world from ancient times to today. The meaning of a lotus flower ranges from divine purity and enlightenment in Buddhism to wealth in Hinduism and rebirth in ancient Egyptian religions.

In Thailand lotus flowers are used in religious ceremonies to denote purity of speech, mind and body. Different colours of lotus flowers are symbolic. There are four colours.

White is for spiritual perfection

Red represents the heart

Blue means wisdom and knowledge

Pink represents the Buddha and is the supreme lotus.

Thank you to Philippa Hope for the gift of this blackwork lotus kit. It is now completed and ready to be hung on the wall. I have to say that FINDING a picture framer probably took as long as it did to stitch the piece. Thai directions are not always very accurate and the shop we did find was disguised as a photo developing establishment. Still we got there in the end and I am very pleased with the result. Thank you.

Having a sore throat and streaming cold in a tropical climate is no fun. Inappropriate bodily thermostat regulation in extreme heat & air con is quite challenging. How on earth did I get a cold for heavens sake- it’s sweltering here!!! Anyway the good thing is that the school has a nurse on site and a GP visits weekly for more serious illnesses. Appointments are always available (unlike the NHS) I popped in & the nurse sprayed my throat & gave me lozenges which have really helped. It’s brilliant & I’ve managed to carry on working.

One of the nice things I did at the weekend was a story time session at the Neilson Hays Library which is an international library established in 1869 and run by an all women’s committee. I am pictured here with Lori from San Francisco who organises the sessions. It was great fun. Boat themed stories finishing off with my T Shirt oral story which always gets a wow. (I have no idea why some pictures have duplicated here… or how to remove them!)

Slightly boring day as we have had an early start to ship all of us newbie staff off to another school. We are waiting here for the ministry of Labour to come and process our work permits.

The new Head is away at a conference so his family had to go to the visa office to complete this part of the process during the week. A member of staff from school went at 6.30am to start queuing, they got there at 8.30, in at 10.30 and then the computer system crashed so everyone was sent home!!!

In the absence of anything more interesting I am posting some pictures of the beautiful flowers we have seen here. As with any tropical country the flora are particularly brilliant hues and usual shapes. Enjoy. 

Because Shrewsbury starts its school year so much earlier than schools in the UK it means that all the new teachers have only a very short summer holiday in the year that they start. In actual fact I didn’t get a break at all as it was all go packing up and sorting out the house and then it has been straight here for induction then the start of term. So the school gives everyone a long weekend in the third week of Sept and very welcome it is too!!

Kevin booked us a weekend break on the Island of Koh Samui, which has a reputation for being less touristy than Krabbe or Phuket. It was only a short 45mins flight from Bangkok and flights are so regular that it is more like a  bus service really. Bangkok Airways were fantastic, they have a lounge for all travellers with drinks and snacks freely available. Then they fed us a proper three course meal when we were in the air!

We stayed in the Banana Fan Sea Resort which was direclty on the white sandy beach. We had a marvellous time resting and relaxing with a Thai massage on the beach for only £6 (bargain) on the first day. 

We did the ‘tourist’ thing and went on a full day Safari Tour of the interior of the island. The first stop was the temple (Wat) Plai Laem which is new, being finished only in 2004. This Wat has a colourful giant ‘Happy Buddha’ who represents wealth and prosperity and so is a popular one to pray to… Next door is a huge statue of Guanyin a Chinese goddess of Mercy and Compassion who has 18 arms. She has so many arms because she is said to protect children, women, the sick and the poor (and of course, there are lots of them who need her protection.) In another legend she was the daughter of a king who was at war and she was forbidden from fighting (being a girl) so she prayed to be able to assist and the gods granted her the extra arms so that she could help in the battle (which her father then won unsurprisingly!) Either way in a religion which depicts males over females in much of its culture and iconography I was please to see a strong and powerful woman being revered. She is known locally as the ‘Lady Buddha’ although technically only men can attain Buddha-hood.

We then visited a Big Buddha which was golden and sat serenely surveying the landscape around him. I was delighted to see the steps which are adorned with colourful dragons for protection. We have been warned that if we encounter a monk here that we are to shown respect by stepping aside and under no circumstances whatsoever are women allowed to touch a monk! I kept away from them when they were receiving offerings from the villagers. I did however love the golden statue of a priest for its depth of expression and the cute little golden monkey making it’s own offering to his Master. It wasn’t a baking hot day (to our immense relief) but this meant that the photos don’t look too bright as it was quite cloudy.

After that we had a white-knuckle ride in a 4 wheel truck up some very rutted and steep mountain tracks in the interior of the island. It was quite a bone shaker experience but the waterfall we visited was very calming and Kevin was even brave enough to have a dip in the rock pool.

After lunch we were given a demonstration of rubber collection which took me straight back to my GCSE Geography days. I remember learning about how rubber is collected but never thought that I would actually see it.

The highlight of the day has to be TaLim’s Magical Garden. Ta means ‘Grandfather’ so this translates as Grandfather’s Lim’s magical Garden. Buddhists believe that you should do good things in this life to help you with future re-births so Ta Lim created a garden on the hillside. After his death it was opened to the public and it is a place of peace, beauty and mystery in the shade of the trees. Delightful. All topped off with the creamiest coconut ice cream ever!

It was nice to have the opportunity to see more of this country’s wonderful and varied culture and to share some of the images with you. We still can’t believe how fortunate we are to have this opportunity to experience another land and another people. And we got to have breakfast on the beach… what more could you ask.