happy family near the beach of a fishing village in Vietnam

One day, a father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the firm purpose of showing his son how poor people live. They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family. On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, “How was the trip?”
“It was great, Dad.”

“Did you see how poor people live?” the father asked.

“Oh yeah,” said the son.

“So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?” asked the father.

The son answered, “I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden, and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden, and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard, and they have the whole horizon. We have a small piece of land to live on, and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We have servants who serve us, but they serve others. We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us; they have friends to protect them.”

The boy’s father was speechless.

Then his son added, “Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor we are.”

一位亿万富豪想让他的儿子体验什么叫作“贫穷”，于是就把他送到乡下的穷亲戚家去亲身体验。他儿子在乡下住了三天三夜。

在回家的路上，他父亲在车里问他：“你觉得怎么样？”

“很不错”，儿子回答。

“乡下跟我们家有什么区别吗？”父亲又问。
​
儿子说，有许多不一样。​

1、我们家有一条狗；他们家有四条。
​
2、我们家院子里有个游泳池，里面是加工处理过的水；他们家有个大池塘，水很 清，里面还游着各种各样的鱼。​
​
3、我们的花园里有电灯照明；他们的院子里有星星和月亮照明。
​
4、我家的花园一直到围墙边；他们的院子一直延伸到天边。
​
5、我们买饭吃；他们做饭吃。​
​
6、我们听CD；他们听小鸟、青蛙和其它动物的音乐会，当他们在田里工作时，所有这些美妙的音乐都会伴随着他们。
​
7、我们使用微波炉做饭；可是他们的木材炊饭比我们好吃的多。​

8、我们家四周都是围墙；他们家任何时候门都是开着，迎接朋友们的到来。

9、我们与行动电话，电脑和电视紧密相连；他们与生活紧密相连，蓝天，碧水，绿草，树荫和家庭。

父亲对儿子的观点很吃惊，最后儿子总结说：“谢谢，爸爸！你让我看到我们有多么的贫穷！”

我们一天比一天更贫穷，因为我们已经感受不到上帝为我们创造的大自然。
​
我们每天想的都是拥有、拥有、拥有、更多的拥有，从来没有想到过存在与奉献。​

The post How the poor live? 什么叫做贫穷? appeared first on juesatta (CJ Photography).

The street of Chinatown of Bangkok

The last day in Bangkok before we departed to Krabi, Boon-Huat and Wei-Seong left us back to Malaysia in the morning and didn’t join us to Krabi. Wee-Peng, Meng-Hong and I would not want to waste our last morning in Bangkok, so we decided to get to the Chinatown of Bangkok, one of earliest Chinese community’s areas in Thailand.

Meng-Hong (left) and Wee-Peng at a Chinese lanterns stall in the Chinatown of Bangkok.

Originally a community of Chinese traders relocated and settled here in Chinatown from Rattanakosin (the old City) in the 1700’s, and continues their own traditions and religious practices. The area is quite unlike the rest of Bangkok, relatively untouched by modern development. To us, it seemed like a little Hong Kong with Chinese businesses and Chinese characters’ signboards everywhere and it was not difficult for us to shop for Chinese goods.

Jewelry and gold shops and pawnshops are very popular in today’s Chinatown and can be found almost anywhere. Besides, there are also morning markets with stalls selling garments, textiles, stationery, souvenirs, second-hand parts and equipment, electric goods, computer parts, antiques, imported musical instruments, and local delicacies at a bargain, often at wholesale prices. We had packed up our belongings and so we didn’t plan to buy anything, but to do a leisurely stroll through the morning market.

Another common sight in Chinatown is Chinese food stalls. These stalls set up by the roadside offer a wide variety of quick inexpensive meals or popular Chinese food from simple bowls of noodles and soup to grilled meat, fresh seafood, sweet cakes and the locals’ favourite roasted chestnuts. Though we had a very simple breakfast at one of these food stalls of bread with condensed milk and teh tarik (literally pulled tea), and they were really sweet. Thais are really strong-flavour lovers.

It was only a half day tour in Chinatown then we headed off to the airport and took a flight to our next destination, Krabi. The whole trip in Bangkok for 4 days was so fun and pleasurable to witness and experience the Thai’s culture and customs, Songkran water festival, the Red Shirts, shopping, nightlife and people-watching. May the people in Thailand find peace and be happy. 

Some of the photos I took in Chinatown of Bangkok:

This photo is the Pantip Plaza (IT Mall) of Bangkok, the premier IT shopping mall in Bangkok with retail categories ranging from gadgets, cameras, telecommunications and services.

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Chatuchak weekend market - a boy was doing double "teh tarik"

Taking a break from all the temples, we decided to do some shopping to the Chatuchak weekend market, the largest market in Thailand. The market is sprawling 35 acres and comprised of more than 15,000 shops stalls. It’s perhaps one of the largest weekend markets in the world too. Though it is not available everyday, Chatuchak weekend market opens on Saturday and Sunday, and it’s believed to attract over 20,000 of visitors each day. Fortunately we had a weekend in Bangkok when we could visit the market.

AA less fortunate child and his mother at the Chatuchak weekend market

Chatuchak weekend market is a shopping paradise! There is a huge range of products including household items, books, trendy clothing, Thai handicrafts, religious artifacts, collectibles, foods, and live animals. We were surprise to see how huge the market is and the varieties of merchandise sold there, nearly everything under the sun. Like a sea of infinite possibilities, we navigated through Chatuchak’s army of stalls and tried not to get ourselves disoriented. Sarcastically, almost all of what we had bought and had seen in our shopping for first few days in Bangkok and Pattaya could be found from the market and at good bargain too.

We would prefer to have cheap street food than classy and expensive restaurant’s meal. Hence Chatuchak weekend market would be our best choice to have our lunch. The foods offered are very variety and cheap. Thais are strong-flavor lovers which results their foods or drinks being usually sweeter, and more spicy, sour, and salty than other cuisine, yet delicious. So we started our feeding frenzy there. Within 2 hours, we had a bit of everything including fried chicken, spicy stir fried pork, meat and fish balls, satay, mango sticky rice, pineapple, coconut juice, teh tarik, iced blended coffee, durian ice-cream, snacks and much more.

Chatuchak weekend market is one must never missed in Bangkok. It was totally worth our time to discover that its wealth of culture provides for good opportunities to make wonderful finds. The market too attracts a colorful crowd of hawkers, tourists, beggars, street artists which provided me with interesting sights for photo taking:

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Gate to the Grand Palace

Being the capital city of a Buddhist country means that Bangkok is full of some of South East Asia’s finest temples. Therefore our visit to Bangkok would not be complete without seeing some of these famous temples (Wats in Thai). On the second day and fourth day in Bangkok, we visited a couples of temples:

• Wat Traimit (Temple of Golden Buddha)
• the unknown temple (we got blessing from a Luang Pu monk)
• Wat Phra Kaew and Grand Palace (The Emerald Buddha)
• Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn)
• Wat Pho (Temple of Reclining Buddha)

Boon-Huat, Wei-Seong and Wee-Peng at the steep stair of Wat Arun's central prang

These temples we visited are the spiritual part of the capital’s heart and soul and each of the temples is unique like no other as the architecture and decoration are awe-inspiring. It would be good to share the story of each temple together with the photos I took after the jump:

Wat Traimit (Temple of Golden Buddha):

It was on the second day we were in Bangkok and Wat Traimit, also known as the Temple of Golden Buddha was the first temple we went after we went to the Erawan Shrine. It is the home to the famous Golden Buddha which is 3 meters tall and weights 5.5 tonnes.

The Golden Buddha was cast sometime in the 13th century and at some point, it was covered in plaster and lacquer, most likely in an attempt to hide the valuable icon from thieves or looters. At that time, no one seemed to know that it was made of pure gold.

The true nature of the Golden Buddha wasn’t discovered until it was moved to its present location at Wat Traimit in 1955. In one morning of 1957, a temple monk, who had dreamed that the statue was divinely inspired, went to see the Buddha image. Through a crack in the plaster he saw a glint of yellow, and discovered that the statue was pure gold.

In early this year (2010), the golden statue was then moved into a new chapel perched high atop a four story marble-clad ziggurat which is shown in the photos I took. After visiting Wat Traimit, we departed to Pattaya.

The unknown temple:

The fourth day in Thailand, we planned our free and easy day tour in Bangkok. The first in our list of places was this unknown temple near the Grand Palace. Not knowing a single word of Thai, we could not read the name of the temple written on the entrance of the temple.

We got the direction of this temple from a Thai friend of Boon-Huat who was then met us at the temple. It is a sacred temple located in a small town village where a Luang Pu monk lives and gives compassionate blessing to visitors. And Luang Pu is a title given to an old renowned monk. If I’m not mistaken, my friends called his name by Luang Pu Sung Lung.

According to the Boon-Huat, many celebrities from overseas would travel here and pay homage to the Luang Pu monk. Wei-Seong told me that Luang Pu monks are usually high-ranking monks and very skillful to cure people from illnesses and black magic. Many politicians from Malaysia have also come to visit and receive blessing from the Luang Pu monk. That was the reason Boon-Huat requested to go to this temple first.

In fact, the monk would not meet visitors during the time we arrived. We got lucky to have met him through the help of the Thai friend who communicated with the assistant of the temple on behalf of us. The Luang Pu monk gave the five of us blessing by chanting sutra on our foreheads with Thai perfume oil.

Wat Phra Kaew (The Emerald Buddha) and Grand Palace:

After the unknown temple, we headed to the Grand Palace located in the historic center of Bangkok. Within the ground of Grand Palace, it enshrines the Temple of the Emerald Buddha which is regarded as the most important Buddhist temple in Thailand. Our friend, Ah-Too’s brother told us that it would take hours to tour within the Grand Palace, where we thought it would take us most of the time of the day. So we didn’t want to go into the Grand Palace but to take photos of the entrance area.

However, a tour guide at the doorway told us that it would take only an hour to tour the whole palace (I found out that wasn’t true later). So we changed our mind and decided to enter the palace. The tour would require proper attire for all visitors: strictly no short pant or skirt. I was the only one wearing long pant so the other four had to borrow long pants from the management with no cost.

When we were at the ticketing line, it rained. We had no choice but to retreat to our next destination, Wat Arun with river cruise. Although Grand Palace is a must to visit in Bangkok, it might be a good call for us to skip it and spend the rest of our day visiting other places before we left Bangkok and headed to Krabi.

Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn):

After the Chao Phraya River cruise tour, we arrived at the jetty of Wat Arun, the Temple of Dawn. It is perhaps one of the best known landmarks and one of the most published images of Bangkok. The beauty of the architecture and the fine craftsmanship declare its status as a temple of the first grade and one of the most outstanding temples in Thailand.

It is believed that after fighting his way out of Ayutthaya, which was besieged by a Burmese army at the time, King Taksin arrived at this temple just as dawn was breaking. He later had the temple renovated and renamed it to Wat Arun or locally known as Wat Chaeng.

The outstanding feature of Wat Arun is its central prang (Khmer-style tower) and surrounded by four smaller satellite prangs. These prangs are decorated by seashells and bits of porcelain which had previously been used as ballast by boats coming to Bangkok from China. We were amazed with its fine craftsmanship: beautifully decorated with tiny pieces of colored glass and Chinese porcelain placed delicately into intricate patterns.

The central prang has steep steps that lead up to two terraces. The height is reported by different sources as between 66 m and 86 m. We managed to walk up the steep stairs to the top terrace and had really magnificent views of Chao Praya River and other significant landmarks of Bangkok such as the Grand Palace. This was the place where I took many photos:

Wat Pho (Temple of Reclining Buddha):

We took a ferry to Wat Pho which is just across the river from Wat Arun. It is also located directly adjacent to the Grand Palace. Wat Pho is also known as the Temple of Reclining Buddha and is one of the largest and oldest temples in Bangkok and famed for its huge and majestic reclining Buddha.

Designed to illustrate the passing of the Buddha into nirvana, the reclining Buddha is measured 46 meters long and covered in gold leaf. The feet and the eyes are engraved with mother-of-pearl decoration, and the feet also show the 108 auspicious characteristics of the true Buddha. We couldn’t imagine the size of this golden reclining Buddha until we saw it inside the complex.

On the way out of the complex, each of us bought a bag of 50-satang coins (equivalent to ½ baht) and plunked them one by one into a row of 108 copper pots at the rear of the reclining Buddha for good luck and to help the monks keep up the temple. The sound of the coins hitting the pots seemed almost musical.

Wat Pho is also the birthplace of traditional Thai massage. Even prior to the temple’s founding, the site was a center of education for traditional Thai medicine, and statues were created showing yoga positions. Yet we didn’t go for the massage. After this, we headed to our next destination, Chatuchak weekend market where we spent the rest of day shopping before sunset.

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The scenic river, Chao Praya River

On the fourth day in Thailand, we went onboard for a river tour with an express boat along the Chao Phraya River tour from Grand Palace to our destination, Wat Arun. It was drizzling but it did not stop us from visiting the Chao Praya River of Thailand. We could feel the breeze, rainwater and river water on our face.

Boon-Huat (left) and Wee-Peng on the boat ride of Chao Praya River

Chao Phraya is a major river in Thailand and the largest river in Bangkok. Centuries ago, Bangkok waterways were the main routes of transportation, thus much of the Thai history can be traced along the banks of the river. Many canals have now been filled in to make ways for roads but the Chao Phraya River still runs through many Thai lives. Therefore, it became a must in our checklist to visit.

We were the only group on the small express boat. The boat driver could not speak English so we had to make our guess on the landmarks we saw. We had a great insight into a different perspective of Bangkok: hotels, temples, palaces, beautiful houses, run-down wooden houses and local line the banks. It was a very scenic ride.

The river itself is a hive of activities. We didn’t have the time to visit the real floating market of Damnoen Saduak which is located 110km from Bangkok, yet we could experience it right on this river: the traditional way of selling and buying fruits, vegetables, crafts, and other merchandises from small boats, and also the way people live and travel by boats. We purchased some jackfruit from a small boat which came to us, and enjoyed its sweetness on our journey.

There were boats going up and down the river and it was kind of interesting to see how the people reacted to us when they saw us: gazing, waving, and smiling. Likewise we enjoyed looking at the people interacting with each other and what they were doing.

Some photos I took on the boat ride:

The boat stopped at Wat Arun, the temple of dawn. We had a good time on the boat ride and enjoyed the beautiful scenery of Chao Praya River. May everyone be happy.

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From left: Wei-Seong, Boon-Huat, Wee-Peng, and Meng-Hong at the Khao San Road's Songkran Festival of Bangkok

On our arrival in Thailand, we went to the biggest celebration of Songkran Festival in Khao San Road, Bangkok. I didn’t bring my camera with me because I was afraid it getting splashed with water. However an email of photos I received from Wee-Peng yesterday, then reminded me that I did take some photos of the Khao San Road’s celebration with his camera phone, which carefully wrapped with the shower cap we took from the hotel. More shots after the jump:

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From left: Meng-Hong, Wei-Seong, Boon-Huat, and Wee-Peng at the European Garden of Nong Nooch Paradise

After staying a night in Pattaya, we departed back to Bangkok the next morning. On our way, the tour guide took us to the Nong Nooch Garden, which has a wide variety of gardens inspired from all over the world including traditional Asian tropical gardens, the Cactus Garden to French and Roman gardens. Besides, fascinating Thai culture and traditional dances, and other performances such as religious ceremonies, martial arts and the amazing elephant show – one of the most popular attractions of the garden, are presented daily in the theater within the garden compound.

Wee-Peng vs the mighty elephant

After 20 minutes drive from Baron Beach of Pattaya, we arrived at the Nong Nooch Garden. That morning, the garden drew a massive crowd of tourists. We were late for the Thai cultural and traditional performances, however we did not miss the elephant show.

The well-trained elephants in the show were performing skills adopted from human sports like bike ride, soccer, basketball, and more. Towards the end of the show, audiences had the chance volunteering to be towered and massaged by the gentle elephants. They were really brilliant so we purchased bananas to reward and feed the elephants.

After the show, we were given the opportunity to touch and feel our favorite elephants. In addition, we could also pay to ride on elephants, perch between two elephants’ trunks, and take photos with elephants, which Boon-Huat and Wee-Peng did.

Time was so limited for us there because we had to go to a bees farm and a jewelry factory of Bangkok. After having our buffet lunch in the garden, we could only spend a little time in the European garden.

The whole garden was beautiful and the shows were amazing. According to the management, those gardens are constantly updating, with new ideas, new plants and new formations; therefore gives a reason to revisit Pattaya and Nong Nooch Garden again.

Below are some of the shots I took:

Nong Nooch Garden:

Elephants riding bike:

Elephants’ painting:

Elephants’ soccer game:

Elephants’ basketball game:

Massage service by elephants:

Snapping photos with the elephants:

Then Boon-Huat and Wee-Peng…

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