This page features the videos from the Thailand pages of globalwanderings. However there are also some vids which don’t appear on globalwanderings at all and also a few more which are from www.podcastsinenglish.com. This is a site which Jackie and I have set up to help learners and teachers of English – so the commentary is specifically simplistic but the videos should be quite fun to watch.

The first two vids are our first forays into recording and editing for the site www.podcastsinenglish.com The first is a day trip to Ko Kred which is a small island in the middle of the Chao Praya river just to the north of Bangkok. The island has remained remarkably rural and is famous for a number of pottery kilns. They dig up the mud on site and turn it into beautiful pots. This video is of a potter in action.

Next up is a trip to Chatuchak Market, one of our favourite and oft visited spots in Bangkok. It’s a famous market to the north of Bangkok which is absolutely huge and contains everything from second hand clothes to garden ornaments to cock fighting arenas to Christmas decorations.

Not long after we moved in, I took this video of our apartment – looking fairly bare at this stage!

Holiday to Southern Thailand. This is a holiday we took in April 07, staying at a quiet beach in Southern Thailand (yes there a few still left!) not far from Nakon Si Thamarat followed by a few days in the jungle at Khau Luang National Park.

Of course most holidays for us start with an overnight train journey. I’ve posted pics of the inside of Thai trains before, so here’s a film of the world going by outside.

And here is a little vid of our beach cottage.

Island in the Sun

A video of our favourite place in Thailand – the island of Ko Samet. We used to go to Samet for relaxing weekends away from it all. And you can probably see why.

one last look at that beach…

Monk Ordination

We weren’t sure what these two events were until well after we had videod the first – they are both in fact part of the same ceremony. It is the inauguration of a Thai man into Monkhood -or at least his journey to the monastery. I’ve stitched the two videos together. The first – the more rudimentary event was taken in the countryside of Kanchanaburi province – not far from Bridge over the River Kwai. The second was taken in the north east of Thailand. Actually a much more rural area but a slightly less traditional occasion

Initiation rites in Buddhism take the form of initiation into the monkhod; that is, ordination. Ordination gives the opportunity of education and preparation for adulthood. Every Buddhist male intends to become a monk at some time in his life. In Thailand the most popular time to enter the monkhood is before the rainy season (Vassa). During this time the Buddha ruled that all monks should stay in their shelters and study the doctrine. The ordination ceremonies cannot take place during Vassa, but are allowed at any other time. The time spent in the monkhood is not fixed, but usually those who enter the monastery prefer to stay for about three months i.e. the duration of the rainy season. However, some monks stay for several years and others devote the rest of their lives to the Sangha. A monk who breaks serious vows will be expelled from the order.

On the day of the ordination the monk is brought to the monastery in joyous procession. A musical band and group of dancers usually lead the procession while the young man is followed by relatives and friends bearing ordination gifts. When the procession reaches the monastery the ceremony begins with the ordinand bowing down to his perception and other senior monks, then chanting a request to be ordained. He then change his white clothes for yellow robes, takes ten vows and is ordained a novice. The next part of the ceremony involves the novice being questioned by two monks who examine his qualifications, ensure that he is in good health and has received permission from his parents and so on. When these queries have been satisfactorily answered, the novice will be accepted as a monk and will then take 227 vows.

The new monk then presents his preceptor and other monks with flowers and gifts, while he himself will receive ordination presents from his family and friends. These usually consist of a monk’s basic necessities: yellow robes, alms bowl, medicines, candles, incense sticks, sandals, umbrella, tea, mat, toiletries, Buddhist literature etc. At the end of the ceremony the monk will go to his new lodgings in the monastery.

Dragon Dance

Taken in chinatown around Chinese New Year.

Loi Krathong is a festival celebrated annually throughout Thailand which usually falls in November. “Loi” means “to float”, “Krathong” is a raft about a handspan in diameter traditionally made from a section of banana tree trunk decorated with elaborately-folded banana leaves, flowers, candles, incense sticks etc. During the night of the full moon, many people will release a small raft like this on a river. Letting go of Loi Krathong rafts probably originated in India as a Hindu festival similar to Divali.

On this video we set our Krathong free on the Chao Praya River along with everyone else.

Fireshow is simply a video of the same name featuring jugglers both young and extremely young juggling with fire on the beach at Ko Chang on another Thai holiday

“Come rain or shine”. Another podcastsinenglish video but quite fun – I describe my best and worst holidays with some footage from Malaysia, Thailand and Italy.

For part of our holiday near Nakhon Si Thammarat in Southern Thailand (the post entitled Coconut Paradise) we stayed at a bungalow in Khau Luang National Park near Karom Waterfall where there were some amazingly noisy insects.

“Special Treat” and “Arriving at the Oriental” are two videos we did for podcastsinenglish.com We were coming to the end of our time in Thailand and we went for a special treat at one of the poshest restaurants in Bangkok at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. The video starts with us getting a river taxi near where we live and ends at the restaurant – tucking in.

 

“Trader Vics”. Another of our leaving dos – this time a rather alcoholic brunch at Trader Vics restaurant in the Marriott Hotel in Bangkok – a top afternoon!

“Goodbye Thailand” is another video for podcastsinenglish.com describing the highs and lows of two years in Thailand – made for lower level learners of English.