Ayutthaya - ancient city of Wats, stupas and Buddhas

About an hours train ride north of Bangkok is Thailand's formal capital city, Ayutthaya complete with the runes of wats, stupas and buddhas. It's a photographic dream with the runes set in amongst trees with a beautiful blue sky backdrop. Rob and I hired bikes so we could cruise around and visit the sites.

Enjoy the pics!

Wat Po - Thailand

Whilst in Bangkok we visited Wat Po. Wat Po houses a 46m long and 15m high statue of a reclining Buddha. It was in this position that the Buddha manifested dying and past into paranirvana as a final teaching.

The Thai's really know how to do Buddhism with great devotion, beautifying their temples with gold, mother of pearl and other precious materials. It's really stunning.

Outside we saw another unusual rainbow. This time it was circular.



This stupa is covered in many colourful tiles.

Even the roof tiles are coloured. They are in the process of building new temples at Wat Po and you can make a donation to 'sponsor' a roof tile. We sponsored a tile and wrote a dedication on the tile for people that we know that have recently passed away.

Kalpa, Shimla, Delhi

Now we were ready to make our way to Delhi and on to Thailand. The trip becomes greener as we descend but the roads are still narrow, though largely sealed.

Tabo to Dehli is a long trip so we decided to stop in at the 'green' town of Kalpa. 'Green' in the sense of many Himalayan towns refers to one plant in particular. This one plant is a major draw card for many a tourist over the decades (not us though). Like Vashisht the green is growing in the streets.....

...... literally everywhere!

And sometimes they even use it as a garnish on the dahl! Ha, ha, not really....

Kalpa is most famous for its beautiful views of the surrounding mountains, that can be seen when the monsoonal fog lifts.

After an overnight stop we were on our way to Shimla where internet access would be bountiful so we could organise our flight from Delhi to Bangkok.

Shimla was the summer capital for the British Raj back in the day and still is a popular holiday destination for Indian's looking to escape the heat of the plains.

The British influence is noticeable and Shimla seems to cater to those with money (so we had a bit of trouble finding a reasonable place to stay). On the up side there are lots of great coffee shops!

And finally, our flight was confirmed to Bangkok so we were on our way to colourful, crazy Delhi.

Backtrack to Tabo

The time had come to (sadly) depart Nako. We decided to back track to Tabo which is home to an amazing 1000 year old monastery.

The scenery back was just as spectacular.

There is kilometers and kilometers of bumpy road and I manage to snap what is probably the only sign on the whole road!!!

I was trying to get a pic of the moon. It was so beautiful but I don't know enough about my camera to snap it properly.....

We stayed at the monastery and woke up to a beautiful sight in the morning......

.....Tabo monastery!! A stunning 1000 year old living monastery made of mud. Inside are the most beautiful fresco's of just about every buddha you can think of (and some you can't). Photography is not allowed inside so I can't show you any pics but they were so finely painted by masters 100s of years ago. The more recent restoration is quite clumsy so if this is what you are into, come and see it before the Indian Government 'restores' it!!

The entrance.

The buildings are various gompas (meditation halls) and the other 'mounds' with the bulbous tops are stupas which house ashes of great mediator's and/ or mantras and other holy stuff.

Rob next to a stupa.

Me next to some stupas.

Yes, they do apply new mud each year. This monastery is still used by monks (and nuns) and so they need the walls to work...

The town (and monastery) is in a valley surrounded by looming mountains.

I was kinda happy to come and see Tabo monastery....

The main lama of this monastery is Tsenshab Serkong Rinpoche. He died in 1983 but before he died, besides being an amazing practitioner, he was the inspiration for Yoda in Star Wars. His reincarnation looks remarkable like the young monk that showed us around (see below). I guess its because they were both born in this area.... When I mentioned this to young Venerable Sonam (below) he was embarrassed but couldn't help smiling!!

There are some caves a short walk up the mountain. Unfortunately, we couldn't go inside (it seems the whole town was still in Nako) but the view was beautiful.

These cute kids built toboggan's out of plastic water bottles and other discarded bits. They had so much fun!!