Collision Of Cultures

From my recent Journey in India
Jaipur India, January 13 2007
We climb to an upper courtyard in the Maharajah's Palace. We look through a 500 year-old window opening to this view of downtown Jaipur. Here's what we see.
This is India in a nutshell. If you can figure out which lane is which on this road, you're doing better than me. It's chaos. I'm not joking when I say that you cannot drive on the road unless you have a working horn on your vehicle. And you want to get from here to there? That is just an act of will.

My Final Day In Thailand

Bangkok, Thailand, May 4, 2005

I spent my last few days here in Bangkok, where I began.

Here's Khao San Road as I saw it while eating my 'American' Breakfast. It was 37 degrees on this morning. I shall miss this country very much, but not the heat. It's like being in a low grade oven. The weather reports showed this to be the hottest place on Earth right now.

The one place I hadn't been was the Grand Palace so I braved the intense heat and went for a visit. The King does not live at this Palace but it is his symbolic home. It is modelled after the first Capital, Ayutthaya.

I wanted you to see the intricate workmanship of the ceramic materials that decorate the Palace buildings.

I spent several minutes in this Temple inside the Palace grounds. There is a magnificent Temple here that I couldn't take pictures of.

Ever since I arrived in Thailand I wanted to get this picture; Budhist Monk with a Cell phone. This is my answer to Melba Toasty's 'Pioneer Woman With Cell Phone'.