Buddha Buying In Bangkok

Bangkok has dozens of impressive Wats, Buddhist temples, and related religious shrines. Plenty of architectural marvels, full of elaborate decorations and crammed with blinged out icons. Maybe you want to have some of that religious magic in your home? Time to head to a holy shop.

Home altars. The colors are set, just choose your size.

Parade of big Buddhas. You want sitting, standing, default gold or maybe make a statement in fake, green plastic jade?

Getting personal. Wat temples like to memorialize their famous, beloved monks by making frighteningly realist mini versions of them. Someone special in your religious life? Grab a copy.

More stuff, always more stuff. Buddha profile and an endless supply, variety of offering baskets. The gifts are for your dearly departed, making sure they have fresh toothpaste, maybe a flashlight in the afterlife.

The sign says not for sitting. Only for selling. For those folks with Buddha envy issues.

Wat Suthat Thepwararam Ratchaworamahawihan

That's a mouthful. And it lives up to its name, a large complex in the center of Bangkok with big temples and endless Buddha statues lining an inner courtyard. The Wat whatsitsname impresses.

The main temple, looming. Looks good with a natural wet down after a summer storm. And with a cute Horse statue. So friendly.

A bounty of Buddhas. Taking cover during a renovation. The crews, taking a break.

Inside the main temple, the big Buddha, sitting and shiny. Hello, Phra Sri Sakyamuni.

Another temple, impressive facade of white columns and elaborate carving of the roof gable. A Buddha statue, emerging from a clean up.

Bling, bling, bling. The Buddha statues do make a sight, once done with their dusting and now uncovered. Golden.

Details Of Bangkok, Part One

So much to see in Bangkok, so much stimuli at every turn. Time to weed out the flash and give some props to some details.

A typical mix throughout the city, a curving canal, old, traditional and poor housing along the water, and the creeping, modern metropolis looming in the background.

The progress of the modern Thai Man, detailed on a metro pylon. So dapper! Watch 'em where you got 'em. A TV at a street side hawker stall, crammed into an underpass.

Big gate. Entrance, one of several, at a major construction site.

A tree grows in Bangkok. Barely. Royalty, faded. An old portrait still hangs in a building, now repurposed for storing industrial equipment.

Your Giant Development Here. A swath of land, waiting to sprout skyscrapers.

Wat Saket And Up The Golden Mount In Bangkok

One of the most iconic Buddhist temples and holy complexes in Bangkok is Wat Sakat and its impressive rock outcropping, mount that is topped with a giant golden stupa. A bit of an easy landmark as the stupa can be seen from large swaths of the city.

Expansive. Atop the mount, the big stupa, so large one can't fit all of it in the frame. OK, or choose to. Creative license. It's a nice view and a green, green roof.

From below, if you're standing in the right place near a tropical grotto, the Wat and mount look dreamy. Not so dreamy, a detail from a mural inside the temple, an endless procession of death and torture if you stray. Best to obey.

Finding room for a solitary moment of worship next to a renovation.

Holy details. Waxy monk figurines and Buddha statue, all slender in the hands.

Vultures gotta eat. A diorama, illustrating when cholera broke out in the 1820s and bodies were brought so quickly to the temple that there wasn't time for burial. Voilà, bird food.

Looking At Local Liquor In Uzbekistan

You can buy alcohol in Uzbekistan. Sure, it may be a Muslim country. Alcohol isn't forbidden and there are liquor stores around. The fancy western brands may cost you a month's rent. Are there local alternatives. Absolutely!

Vodka is popular. So are macho tropes. Take a swig, feel like a tiger or a bear. That's the Alpha Spirit.

Ahh, about those western brands. If you can't beat them, copy them. And at a cheaper price. Some local Budweiser and Heineken? Better gulp that vodka first to lessen the taste.

Tamerlain cognac, named after the most famous ancient hero of Uzbekistan. Where is our George Washington digestif?

Getting hard core, hard liquor in a can. Or barrel. Tough stuff.

Imitation getting more weird, beer looking a little too similar to the Domino Sugar label.

Back to Vodka, channeling Grey Goose and Ketel One.

Ahh, some truly local quaff, jumbo size. The can is for scale. It's about 12oz. The plastic, he-man jugs are basically mini kegs. Drink up!

Prepping A Formula One Race In Baku

Close a few streets, throw up some bleachers, sell some soda, blow out ear drums and you've got a rip roarin' race! Not quite. Sarah and James crossed paths with Formula One race prep in Baku, lucky to be safely back home by race day.

No small affair, heavy equipment need apply and often.

The fencing is, obviously, the most abundant sign of the impending noise. Formula One (at least in Baku) races on regular streets, which remain open until the last minute. As do the regular speed limits. Portable pit stops. Spectators, not drivers.

The fencing can make the chic city look like a post apocalyptic TV show. The Walking Gucci Dead.

A photo parade of past glory, decorating the seaside promenade. Fencing and flowers, a curious juxtaposition.

Advertising lipstick on a construction fence pig. No one notices.

Baku's Zeynalabdin Taghiyev Mansion

If you want to see how the .001% lived in old Azerbaijan, head to the National Museum in Baku. The heart of the place is an impressive mansion, once belonging to magnate Zeynalabdin Taghiyev. He made his money in oil in the late 1800s and died in 1924. The Bolsheviks confiscated his mansion and eventually turned it into a museum. Comrade, thanks for the digs.

Living room, ballroom, mega room.

Column and carving details, every color and pattern welcome. The sitting room. Plenty of seats.

Billiards room. Rack it.

Dining room, a study in brown. the circular dressing room, mirrored kaleidoscope ceiling. Trippy.

Main bedroom. Sure, the bed looks like two twin beds "accidentally" shoved together. "We don't know how it happened!"