Very Good Quote

"Your assumptions are your windows to the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or light won't come in."

Monday 16 March 2009

Elephants and Things

Had quite an amazing day on Sunday. We went out mainly to have trip in the country and so aimed for Buddha Mountain as it is called locally. I reckon it actually is an old quarry site which had been converted to be Buddha shrine. The old quarry face has been wonderfully transformed with an outline of Buddha all in gold colour. Offset against the rock it is truly a magnificent sight. If you notice in hte pictures the people sitting at the edge/base of the Buddha. So it must be 80 to 90 meters high. Long way up. Surrounding this are the various covered seated areas and of course the ever present food stalls. After all it would be Thailand otherwise!
We wondered about the place doing the usual tourist things including feeding the elephant and taking pictures of everything. And yes, we did have some food. Just a little rice, sliced pork and salad.

The elephants were just standing around waiting to be fed. I gave them some sugar cane shoots which they seem to live on most of the time. Managed to get a picture of me with them. Actually once you stay around them they are not so big. I had always had this idea they were simple enormous but really not so big bit if you follow me. Also these ones seemed quite docile. You read stories of elephants gong wild in some villages and damaging crops, homes and in some instances people. Well not these ones. If anything I was the one slightly nervous. The elephant handler (กวาน pronounced qwan!) was telling Wanna that they are about Baht 500,000 to 700,000 to buy. Thats a lot of cash for something that keeps eating....
The whole area is set in a garden type environment suitable for meditation. I think during the week it would be great without the usual loads of bussed in local and foreign tourists. Might even be good to go early morning or late at night. We’ll think about that one.
During my wonder around I noticed some really lovely trees and their roots. They are like the baobab trees having hanging roots. The effect is really interesting and made for some pictures which make you realize just how wonderful our ‘Maker’ is, who put us all here on earth in the first place. Maybe it's the place thats affected me to make such a comment. But please, take a few minutes and look at the shots. How could anyone design such beauty and symmetry all in a living plant?