Siddhartha

Where to be driven?  I'd gone to the grocery store, then back to TukCom for a curling iron.  I didn't bring mine from home because I figured I needed one with the Asia-compatible plug.  To my surprise, the curling irons here were very expensive - $70 or $80, much more than at home.  Well, the last time I was in TukCom, I noticed a kiosk with curling irons, only about ten dollars!  So I went back to buy one - I'll let you know if it works.  As we were leaving, we saw police directing traffic and the road was quite clear.  Mick thought perhaps a member of the royal family was in town.

 I also decided to try the Home Depot-type store to look for a few things we still needed for the condo, like light bulbs and floor mats.  There are two stores like this that we saw - Home Mart and Home Pro.  Home Pro was a little closer to home, so I asked Mick to go to that one.  Well, when we pulled up to the entrance, it became apparent that the store was brand-new and not even open yet.  (Mick later told me he saw a commercial that said it will be opening on January 1st).  So we turned around and went back to Home Mart, the store we'd passed to get to the Home Pro.  (When you're driving yourself, you are the only one that knows about a screw-up like that.)   Home Mart was a great source for home supplies - found some much better quality items, like microwave dishes, paper towel holders, etc., that I hadn't been able to find at Big C or Tesco-Lotus.  Every day is like a little treasure hunt...

Well, I'd done about all the shopping I could stand, so I looked on the web for something I could go see that was fairly close.  It was a beautiful day, so I was also looking for something outside.  I decided to go see "Buddha Hill," a shrine up on the hill at the south end of Pattaya.  The first thing you see when you first arrive is the vendors lining the walkway on either side.  Most of them were selling items people might use as offerings at the shrine - flowers, incense, etc.  The most interesting one was a woman with little bamboo cages full of birds.  You could purchase a cage of birds, not to take home, but to release up on Buddha Hill to bring you good fortune.  I am very curious about how they catch the birds in the first place - do they raise them? - and wondered if the birds return to the vendor to be sold again.

The approach to the hill is a stairway, and along either side of the stairs is a long, seven-headed serpent, the Naga, a protector of Buddha. The steps were very shallow, and I found it difficult not to raise my foot up high enough for a normal step each time.  (This reminded me of a fact I'd recently read about the Hmong people - they are a mountain people, so when they descended from the mountains down to the plains, people were able to identify them easily by how they lifted their feet up high when they walked).

At the top of the hill is a circle of various images of Buddha surrounding the big, three-story Buddha that looks over and protects the city of Pattaya.  We found these multiple images of Buddha at the Sanctuary of Truth as well.  Each image is associated with a particular day of the week, and whatever day of the week you were born on indicated the image with which you were aligned.  Each image is also representative of a different event in Buddha's life.  The Thai frown upon the tradition of rubbing the Buddha's belly, but clearly many farangs have visited Buddha Hill, as the Buddha with the big belly has all the gold rubbed off around its navel.  It wasn't a particularly reverent atmosphere here, with many tourists snapping photos, smoking, and talking on their cells.  I felt a little disappointed about that.  It is a nice view of the city from up there.

looking south toward Jomtien beach from Buddha Hill

Right next to Buddha Hill is a Chinese garden called Wang Sam Sien.  It has several figures from Chinese history and folklore.  The twenty-four Stories of Gratitude are illustrated on a long wall of paintings, and a statue of Confucius stands at the back of the park.  I know my sons would especially like the illustration of "son's absolute devotion to his father."   The place is a bit neglected, but is a nice little side attraction.

Mick said this is a statue of "King number five"

Lest any of you worry that I am not being taken care of properly, Mick offered to run ahead to get the car so I wouldn't have to walk.  He is a very conscientious, attentive person who I trust would never let anything happen to me.  We consider ourselves very lucky to have him, as some of the other co-workers complain that their drivers are not so good.  He seemed a little disappointed that I wanted to walk back to the car - very sweet.

Tim came home Friday, and I was so happy not to have to go anywhere!  We did end up going back to Tree Tales for dinner, then stopped for coffee at a place called "The Coffee Club," with the most excellent, attentive server we've ever had.   We will absolutely be back.  They put a pretty snowflake on the foam of Tim's espresso - you kind of hate to mess it up by drinking it.  Then we hurried home so Mick could go watch Thailand win the Asian Cup football (soccer) tournament.  Thailand, Thailand!