SOUTH EAST ASIA
BANGKOK
The sky line of today's Bangkok boasts beautiful hotels & high rise condos.
Most of the waterfront homes are more traditional.
The best means of transport is the new Sky Train shown here, or Water Taxi. Traffic on the street is terribly congested.
Thailand is best known for it's beautiful temples, featuring intricate art work and outstanding craftsmanship.
We happened to be in time for the annual festival celebrating the twelfth full moon, & the end of the rainy season. We participated in a ceremony where everyone floats a lighted candle & burning incense down the river on top of elaborately woven flower baskets that do not sink! The Thai people do this to release all troubles of the past year and welcome the good things to come. Our lighted flower basket floats down stream as part of the celebration.
An Elephant Parade in the Ancient Capital of Ayutaya.
SINGAPORE
Singapore's River front is the heart of the city, where everyone wants to live and work.
This fabulously painted boat, in the traditional style, has been conferted to a restaurant.
Two Bridges, built one hundred years apart.
Again the traditional is blended with the modern.
Circular Road has been un touched for visitors to see the old style, while the modern city has been built around it.
Singapore is an island City-State lying just one degree north of the equator. In the center of the city is tropical rainforest complete with playful monkeys.
BALI
Sunsets are an important part of life here. This was taken on December 16, 2000 at Legian Beach just north of Kuta. The sand here is hard packed, similar to Daytona Beach, Florida, and reflects the sunlight at low tide adding to the rosy glow of the moment. We visited Daytona on the second day of our world-tour and drove on the sand there. Here there is only foot traffic. The Island of Java is just over the horizon.
Dressed for dinner celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary. This is the Bali Imperial Hotel and we walked along the beach for ten lovely minutes from our hotel on Legian Beach. Melody made the Frangipani leis from flowers at our hotel earlier in the day.
Terraced hillsides on the slopes of the volcano, Mt. Batur. Rice has been grown like this for hundreds of years. This is on the road to the volcano from Ubud.
This is the inside slope of the volcano with lake Batur in the distance. We are on the rim of the crater. The lava flow can be seen as the blackened area. The elevation is just less than 2000 meters and the air is much cooler than at the beach on this mid-summer day of December 16, 2000. Clouds are nearly constant up here.
Going to the temple near Ubud on the volcano road. Everyone dresses like this when presenting gifts at the temples. This is a busy road with no walking lane and the vehicles give way to the many processions such as this one.
Hotel and beach at the Niko Bali Hotel on Nusa Dua. The views are spectacular with the high cliffs rising straight up from the beach below. This is a 15-story hotel wing with elevators down to the pool and beach. We had a marvellous Spa treatment here: Four hours of scrubs, massage and all kinds of lavish body oils with two therapists for each of us, in a private open air villa.