The Erawan Museum

Founder Lek Viriyaphant who was responsible for at least 3 of Thailand's big attractions including The Sanctuary of Truth in Pattaya and Ancient Siam also founded The Erawan Museum. He wanted it to be a showcase of Asian people and it's 4 major religions.

A giant 3 headed elephant atop a rotunda stands out for its sheer size (17 stories high). You can get to the top by elevator and as the pictures reveal, a very beautiful structure inside. The structure began building in 1967.

The grounds outside were very beautiful and worthy of a visit alone.

This very unusual flower growing on a tree about eye level I could not identify. My friend thought it was an insect eating plant.

A beautiful lotus flower...

The Thai Lottery

The father and son lottery salesmen show how Thailand finds employment from everything. Sellers are everywhere in the country. Individually they sell millions of tickets chosen with great care based on a number of factors from popular monks to 2 headed cows. The winnings are based on a fairly complicated system of betting. A great website explaining it all is at learnthaiwithmod.com

Let's hope we have a winner! My friend picked the tickets and we both paid about C$3.50 with the draw on April 1st April fools day. I wonder .....

Chatuchak Market ... Part 2

As I mentioned, we stopped at a great little restaurant somewhere in the maze of shops. You sit at tables made out of old Singer Sewing Machines. The food was good and noted for great presentation.

A coconut water drink on a bed of flowers at top. A Thai salad above and a chicken with cashew nut dish in an edible nest below.

Cultural dancers entertained us while we ate ...

Some of the other scenes from this incredible market.......

Chatuchak weekend market

I visited this 35 acre monstrosity in all it's glory on a Sunday. We walked for about 4 hours, ate lunch and bought a few things. What I really wanted to do was see the animal part fully open. What a sight! This time I was able to take more pictures. I must say it was somewhat depressing. The cats and dogs were generally in air conditioned shops but many of the birds were kept in very crampt cages. Some of the birds were just hatched and very young. The fish were sold in big plastic bags by the hundreds. I saw many unusual pets such as squirrels. The sign I saw was still there .... Do not touch ... You can read the rest. I had a finger waved at me a few times to not take pictures.

The infamous sign above and the glass containers containing various reptiles...

The tanks below contain the world famous Siamese Fighting Fish....