TOKYO SAUDADE-Asakusa Temples

Asakusa is one of the old districts in Tokyo, famous for its temples and more of a traditional atmosphere then any other neighborhood in Tokyo. It is considered that this district existed during edo period. This is as well the oldest geisha district, where you can still find about 40 working Geishas,as well as old kimono stores with new and vintage kimonos just off nakamise shopping street.

Kaminarimon ('Thunder Gate) leading to the temples through Nakamise shopping raw

Koh Samui- Names on a Brick

Fisherman's village is situated on Bophut beach and is one of the most preserved areas in Koh samui.
Serving in the past as a french outpost of the island the village shows off its old wooden shop houses, mixed with some modern architecture and beautiful ocean vistas in between them. Here you will find romantic dining nooks overlooking the water, boutique stores for jewelery and clothing, as well as traditional souvenirs and knock offs of famous brands.

Koh Samui in One Day

One of the days on Koh Samui, we took a scooter and went to explore the island on our own. Being one of the biggest islands in Thailand, Koh Samui is much more natural in its character then Phuket and can be circumnavigated by car or bike in just couple of hours. We didn't have any particular plan, and went where ever the road would bring us :)

 Early morning, looking at the Big Budda from Bang Rak beach.

Doi Suthep or Know what you eat!

Our next day in Chiang Mai was a cultural journey to Doi Suthep, one of the most important temples in the North, meaning when you tell a monk that you went to Doi Suthep, they all get super excited and look at you with a lot of appreciation. So the temple is located on the hill and opens up to beautiful views of Chiang Mai. Getting there was a little work out-306 steps up ,but the effort was well paid off by the beauty of the temple and its tranquil atmosphere.

On the way up, we have noticed multiple food stalls with fries, fried bananas, strawberrys and lots of other local food. Hunger was approaching, and going all the steps up on empty stomach didn't feel right...Hmm smells good, we said and decided to have some snacks. Strawberrys with sugar, salt and chilis looked interesting and some fries with chilis nearby. These were not regular fries, but they looked plain enough and nothing to worry about. Eating and wondering around a little more, we met a thai man, who happened to work in the states long time ago. Chatting a little about Thailand and New York, out of curiosity I asked what is the name of the thing that i'm eating? The answer was:"Ohh,, this is really good! It is fried pork skin!!!"""....
The following picture was taken right at that moment- my reaction was predictable...sh..t..what the hell??? as i was almost puking out all this fries i just ate. The lesson learned the hard way-Know what you eat!!
and never ever I ate without knowing what it is.....

Thailand- the land of smiles or the land of smells?

Rudyard Kipling, "The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it"

Yes Thailand smells. No matter where u go, u will smell it. The smells can differ from the most wonderful ones like orchids and lemongrass to food smells( which can be also very different) to literally garbage. And it is not hard to imagine that money smells like orchids and poverty like a dried salted fish. Though there are some rich people in Thailand (about 40%), there also some poor ones that in a good case live with 200 Baht per day(6$).

:(

this smells!

Bangkok continued...

After visiting the grand palace we proceeded to Wat Pho-The reclining Buddha or the "Chilling Buddha" (Donny's invention). Gold Plated Buddha is 46 meters long and 15 meters high, and is designed to illustrate the passing of the Buddha into nirvana.
So here it is- pretty cool:


An Observation: Thais love their king, no matter what they do or how they live, everybody talks about their king with a great appreciation and love, phenomenal.

Fried banana stall-we love the king:


Wat Arun-the Temple of Dawn, a representative of Cambodian style architecture was the next stop:


the view from the temple:

after visiting the temple, we got nicely accommodated at the Deck cafe on the other side of the river, sipping cold drink and enjoying the view.
The Deck,
Arun Residence,
36-38 Soi Pratunokyung Maharat Rd tel: 02 221 9158

in btw the temples we have passed by the amulet market where u can find an amulet for any occasion in life!!! they are sold in different sizes, colors,shapes and supposedly will protect u from anything u need. We didn't buy any as we are an amulets of each other :)






exhausted after a long day, we headed to a local spa place and got an amazing one hour massage for literary 15$ each.

An Observation:

after all these and another temples to come, we were amazed by the level of detail and ornamentation they include! Dear fellow designers and architects, it is incredible! Today we are in a new age of design when minimalism and simplicity ,technology and systematical approaches prevail everywhere, but this ones are unbeatable! And sadly or not, no technology can beat a cheap labor. this elaborated designs represent an enormous,incomprehensible,tedious work that is done by human hands, and it proves again, THE GOD IS IN THE DETAILS!

Buddah exhaustion or the God is in the details

Four days in Bangkok passed momentarily, we came out to conquer the temples and visited floating markets. Exhausted from the extensive day wonderings, evenings were spent in between high class bars for drinks and street markets for food. Occasionally passing by Patpong market-the red light district of Bangkok, we got to know about all the possible tricks one can do with his male/female distingwishers................................We escaped right away!

taking boat express to the temples:


The Grand palace and the Emerald Buddah .

Emerald Buddah is the most valued temple in Bangkok located on the grounds of the grand Palace which history dates back to 17th-18th -the fall of Ayuthaia kingdom and the rise of a new one by Rama I at the location of a nowdays Bangkok . The Emerald Buddah temple was purposely build by king Rama I to house a Buddha image carved from a large solid piece of green jadite (jasper). Too small to see on the pic ,but this is what it is about.



Indian Style Stupa, all gold!



oh yeah...by the way it is all bare foot



were caught by the rain , which can also be very romantic!!!

there is so much more to show, but have to escape to the silk factory, to be continued....