On the Road and In Your Backyard

Good Morning All,

On The Road and In Your Backyard is a weekday feature spotlighting reader submissions. From the exotic to the familiar, please share your part of the world, whether you’re traveling or just in your locality. Share some pictures and a narrative, let us see through your pictures and words. We’re so lucky each and every day to see and appreciate the world around us!

Submissions from commenters are welcome at tools.balloon-juice.com

Have a wonderful day, and enjoy today’s outstanding submission. It is a series of wonderful pictures that are part of a courageous and inspiring story.

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I have a few more days of old content lined up and some new content – yay – but we need lots of new submissions for soon and for “rainy days” – get cracking!

Note – I’ve gotten a few submissions, so unless I’ve emailed you or you encountered an error, your contribution should show up soon. We’re hoping to improve things, so do give feedback – thank you so much!

Troubleshooting  We have an improved setup and plans for further development. I hope the new setup works as well for you as it has in testing, but should you have issues, please email [email protected] This new submission tool is one of many more we’ve got planned, and your feedback helps us craft them to your needs.

 

Today, pictures from valued commenter Sister Golden Bear.

Before surgery, my traveling companion and I were able to spend the weekend in Bangkok for a some light sightseeing. When got in a little two late on Saturday to see the Grand Palace, but fortunately we were only three blocks from Wat Pho, one of the major temples in Thailand (and unlike the template complex at the Grand Palace) Wat Pho is still a working temples with monks living there.

Despite being only a 10 minute walk from the Grand Palace, it was surprisingly uncrowded and serene. The temple complex houses the largest collection of Buddha images in Thailand, including a 46 m long reclining Buddha, and also. houses a school of Thai medicine, and is also known as the birthplace of traditional Thai massage.

The garden was comparatively tranquil compared to the Grand Palace.

The temples has one of the largest collections of Buddhas in Thailand.

As well as numerous other interesting statues.

The Giant Buddha is impressively large, 46 meters long and 15 meters high.

The feet give you a better sense of scale.

From our hotel room we had a view of another icon sight, Wat Arun, (or temple of the dawn), although it’s much more scenic at sunset.

One last look at Wat Pho from our dinner on the hotel rooftop.

 

Sunday before surgery, we got a chance to see the Grand Palace in Bangkok, which also contains a temple complex, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. Neither is actively inhabited these days and only used on ceremonial occasions.

Fierce statues are common on the grounds.

The general theme to the decor is “more is more” with generous helping of gold leaf and embedded mirrors that make the building shine brightly.

Elephants are a national symbol of Thailand and frequently seen in statues and amulets.

The breeze was good for keeping things temperate, not so good for selfies. Messy hair, don’t care.

When in doubt, add more gold leaf.

I liked the expressions of the numerous guardian statues.

 

Thank you so much Sister Golden Bear, I hope you are well, and do send us more when you can.

 

Travel safely everybody, and do share some stories in the comments, even if you’re joining the conversation late. Many folks confide that they go back and read old threads, one reason these are available on the Quick Links menu.

 

Submissions should be sent via the all-new form at https://tools.balloon-juice.com

 

Final note: I’m not currently manning the email address previously used as an alternate submission tool. Submissions I find there will be published over the next few months as I see fit; the form submissions are the primary content driver for now.