Category Archives: Architecture “Did you kiss the stone?” my daughter asked me by phone from London. “No, but I kissed someone who did,” I replied, laughing. “They say that that is the next best thing.” Now, I could tell you that I didn’t kiss the Blarney Stone because, as I end my second year of Weekly Wanders, I […]  Thailand is rich with the textures of life and history. I’ve talked before about our recent visit to Sukhothai, or more properly, the UNESCO-listed “Historic Town of Sukhothai and Associated Historic Towns”. One of those “associated towns” is Si Satchanalai (or Sri Satchanalai, depending on whose transliteration you follow). Fifty-five kilometres north of Sukhothai along country roads […]  The beauty (and frustration) of living in Thailand lies in the ability of people to hold mutually incompatible ideas at the same time, and to never speak about some things which everyone knows. Take Sukhothai, for example: that most revered of ancient Thai cities. Sukhothai was originally a trade centre, enjoying a degree of autonomy […]  The temples of Thailand are extraordinarily diverse; nowhere is this more true than in the north. From the black and white expressions of modern Thai artists (Two Artists: Contrasting Visions), to Golden Buddhas with their backs to casinos and drug trade (Golden Ratios and the Sublime); I’ve said before that Thai temples are not all the […]  It is off-season here in Eden. The days are very quiet, and the evenings are even quieter. The kids are back at school and the humpback whales are feeding in Antarctica. The local caravan parks are almost empty of visitors and it’s easy to get a parking space on main street or an outside table […] |
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