Enso sail

Interesting holidays here…

We’ve been busy with boat projects and the procurement of supplies and provisions in Pattaya until today, when we took a break, caught a Grab and went to The Sanctuary of Truth museum. 

This temple-in-process was the brainchild of a local entrepreneur and businessman. (See Wikipedia for accurate details.) He has managed to keep the local art of woodcarving alive by monetizing the building of a temple/castle entirely of wood sited on a promontory on the bay. Many workers are on site building, carving, sanding and staining beautiful depictions of Buddhist, Hindu and Thai art, mythology and doctrine into striking and somewhat unfinished works of art. 

Tours are led through the ongoing project (hard hats issued for everyone) in many languages—we had tours in Chinese and Japanese just behind ours. They point out illustrations of the “seven truths” described by symbolism from an interesting mix of East Asian religions. Tickets are 500 baht or $15, which helps keep many woodworkers, guides and souvenir peddlers employed, a worthy cause imo. It was well worth our time

The tour was a little crowded but it turns out today is a holiday (the anniversary of the 9th king’s death) according to our Grab driver.

We were in Bangkok during the king’s birthday in August and everything was decorated with flowers. There were big community celebrations at the parks and temples with lots of people wearing fancy traditional Thai clothing or yellow shirts. Set up in the park were traditional dancing and music and handicrafts demonstrations. We were on the river ferry that day and there were huge numbers of people at the temples and the palace celebrating and hoping for a glimpse of their king. 

We’ve enjoyed Thailand but in just 4 days we head South to join the rally up to Langkawi (starting in Puteri Harbour West of Singapore) This will be our first long passage including overnights with Enso. We’re really busy with finishing boat jobs, provisioning and checking we have spares and essential items. Then it’s Malaysia, here we come! 

Dana