Spatafora Family - The Thailand Sabbatical

(by Nick with typing by Mom)
Today we went to church at the Assumption Cathedral. We go there every Sunday that we are in town. It takes us about 45 minutes to get there from our apartment because we have to walk to the sky train station, switch at the Siam Station, ride to the end of the line at the Thaksin Bridge, go down the stairs to the pier, take a water taxi to the Oriental Hotel pier, and walk down the alley to the church square. That is the "easy" way that we have now learned. The first time, it took us much longer and we walked miles and miles it seemed. Now we get there on time and are even early enough to get a seat by a fan. As you can see, the church is very big and has lots of different styles mixed together. It is in a hidden location to most people. The holy water is held in real giant clam shells fixed to tiled pedestals. It is a pretty cool church and the Mass is in English. Sometimes we even sing songs that we know from St. Mary's.

After church, we went back to the pier and got on a tourist boat headed north to Wat Arun (The Temple of the Dawn). Wat Arun is the biggest and best known temple on the west side of the Chao Phraya River. When the capital city at Ayutthaya was destroyed by the Burmese, the king brought the Emerald Buddha to be kept safe in Wat Arun. This became the capitol city for fifteen years before it was moved across the river to Bangkok. This nice temple was built up quickly over a smaller one as a temporary house for the Buddha. As you can see, it is decorated with little bits of ceramic dishes cut into shapes. Local women donated pieces of their china, both from Thailand and Europe, to help make the temple pretty. I guess that made them feel better to help out after their capitol had been destroyed. Some of the china looks like dishes we use even now. The temple was built in the 1780s and some of the china patterns are still made today.
It was very hot and humid so we had to drink lots of water. We were also hungry after climbing all those steep stairs, so we looked for a restaurant for lunch. We ended up at a place that even though it was only two blocks away from this major tourist place did not seem to ever have any Americans eat there. We were very entertaining for them! Luckily, it was a noodle soup shop so all you had to tell them was whether you wanted pork or beef. Both were very good and had yummy skinny rice noodles, slices of meat and meatballs that are grilled first before being put in the soup.
After lunch we walked back to the boat and rode back to the sky train pier. We took the train home and were glad to hit the pool for a swim with our friends from upstairs. We decided to wait for another day to visit the Royal Barge Museum, so stay tuned for that report.
******Note to readers: In case you did not know, you can click on any pictures on the blog and they will open to full screen size. This picture of the dishes looks really cool when you can see the details of the china.