Temples, Buddhas, and Family By David Glover

1. Temples, Buddhas, and FamilyBy David Glover I’d done some traveling in the past, but this was the first time that I had brought my son, Sage, with me, or had any responsibility on a trip, for that matter. Our destination was Thailand, a 24 hour flight spanning the entire pacific between us and a beautiful vacation on the beach and the hills of northern Thailand. The service was great on our Korean airline, but my wife, Taylor, and I were worried about how our son would do on the flight. Lucky for us we had a bassinet bed for Sage and he slept almost the whole way there!

2. When we finally arrived in Bangkok we got a taxi to our hotel and got some much needed rest. But it wasn’t long before we were off to explore. We visited temples around the city that were so plentiful they seemed to sprout out of the ground. Large, gold shrouded Buddhas waited for us behind every corner, radiating peace and calm. The heat of the city is oppressing though, and Sage was covered in sweat. We had to get back to the hotel and cool him off every hour or so. One of the coolest places we found though was an amulet market where, they sell Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim religious items. They were also selling many other things, even used dentures! We met some interesting characters while there and enjoyed the tasty treats that steamed up with delicious smells from street stalls.

3. After A couple of days in Bangkok, enjoying the sights and the food Taylor, Sage and I packed up and took a train to Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand. The train was part of a system that hadn’t been updated since the 1950’s, when it was established. The view from the train was incredible and the staff loved playing with my Sage. Unfortunately it took 14 hours to get there, 5 more than our tickets had said. Sage was practically running laps around the train car, anxious to get off.

4. We arrived the next morning in Chiang Mai, but none of the taxi drivers knew where our hotel was. After employing a few other people to help with the translation we found our way to our beautiful hotel. My wife would be doing a Thai massage course down the street from where we were staying for one week so sage and I would be exploring the city together. Chiang Mai is the ancient capitol of Northern Thailand and is surrounded by the original wall and moat from 500 years ago. Ancient temples dot the city, over 200 in all. It was very humbling to be staying in a city that was twice as old America. After getting situated we went out for a night on the town.

5. When we got downtown we were lucky to find that we had arrived during one of the biggest festivals of the year, called Loy Kratong, or the festival of lights. Fireworks, floats with dancers, and vendors filled the streets. The spicy smells of curries wafted up from roadside stands and lanterns filled the sky. It was like the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade, Christmas and Halloween all rolled into one. Sage enjoyed up, but was a little scared of the fireworks

6. Sage and I spent the next week looking at temples while Taylor was in massage school. We enjoyed good food and saw the sights. My son was like a celebrity, everyone wanted to hold and play with him. It was very different from America, where people are much more reluctant to interact. Everyone was happy and genuinely excited to meet us. We literally couldn’t go 100 yards without someone trying to take him out his stroller to play with him.

7. After a week in Chiang Mai we went to visit my father in Southern Thailand. He lived just a half mile from a beautiful beach that stretched as far as the eye could see. The water was a lukewarm temperature and the biggest waves barely passed my knees. It was perfect. My son however, had never been to the beach and although he enjoyed it, after a couple larger waves and the intense tropical sun, it cut our beach time short.

8. The south of Thailand is mostly rainforest and we didn’t waste our time finding beautiful waterfalls and driving our motorbike through the jungle. Sage rode between us on the bike and none of us were wearing helmets! I thought it was pretty crazy, but none of the locals were either. At least Sage was strapped to my wife; the Thai babies would ride in front of their parents just holding onto the bike’s mirrors!

9. We visited some other beaches and then bid Farwell to my father, this time taking a plane from Phuket Island, in the south of Thailand, back to Bangkok. We checked back into our hotel and explored some more of the city, visiting the famous Golden Mountain Temple. The temple is topped by a giant golden stupa and gives a splendid view of the downtown area of the city. Sage enjoyed it immensely and even played the lucky gong with some Chinese tourists. Beautiful lotus flowers bloomed all around the temple

10. I don’t know if you’ve ever played a gong, but it is pretty cool. In Thailand people play them at temples for good luck. What is even cooler is that you can rub a gong and it will make a sound too.

11. After checking out all the sights in Bangkok we decided to go to another city, Ayutthaya, just north of us, which had also served as the capitol in the past. It was filled with huge ruins up to 600 years old. Sage loved exploring the area my wife really enjoyed the ruins that were being reclaimed by large vines and trees. We had to chase him across the temple complexes that sprawled for whole city blocks.

12. We took the train back into Bangkok and prepared to see the city a little more before we headed back to America. It had been great visiting a new country and it was so nice to the beautiful environment, people and religion. It had been difficult traveling with a one year old, but I don’t regret it. I had a great time and so did my family.

13. We did need to see one more temple though, and that was Wat Pho, which housed the famous Reclining Buddha. He is huge, almost 150 feet, and on his feet is a beautiful mother of pearl inlay that depicts a Buddhist story. The grounds themselves house many other smaller buildings and Buddha statues. We paid our respects to the Buddha and the wonderful country that accommodated us for a one month.

14. We packed up and made our way home. A taxi driver took us through a torrential rainstorm to the airport and we shuffled back to our normal lives. After two delays and an eight hour layover we made it home 36 hours later. Amazingly, Sage slept almost the whole way home, which was good because I didn’t! We all got back to our beds and had a much awaited and needed sleep.