Bangkok

January 29, 2007

Dear Family and Friends,

This past Saturday, my friend Noi and I visited one of the most unusual museums I have ever seen.

Just outside Bangkok, The Erawan Museum is located in an unlikely place - an industrial area of factories and busy towns and road construction.

I spotted the "museum" from the taxi - an elephant towering over everything!

Now this is no ordinary elephant. Actually it is a three-headed elephant standing more than 50m high. What a shock!

Erawan was the brainchild of a successful industrialist who had collected priceless Asian and Western art; I'm talking about Ming vases and Italian marble statues.

The elephant is surrounded by lovely gardens and fountains and mythological creatures.

The museum is INSIDE the elephant. The lower floor houses the art collection; the middle floors, really a spectacular atrium; and the upper floors, (yes we took an elevator up and through one of the elephant's legs), the upper floor houses a mysterious temple with golden Buddha images bathed in an eerie blue light.

For more details:

Type or copy/paste into your address bar: thailandforvisitors.com/

Then click on Museums/Monuments and then scroll down to Erawan museum.

Or Google: Erawan Museum.

Bangkok. I love it here.

Have a great week.

Cheers,

Jan