Wat Arun

In Bangkok there is a very old Buddhist temple named Wat Arun. There is a tower there called a stupa or chedi. It is quite high. The decorations on it are made from pieces of crockery. You can climb about half-way up the stupa but it is very steep. If you look in the second picture you will see that people hold onto the stair rails with two hands because they are afraid of falling.

Maybe you could come and visit me in Bangkok. Do you think you would like to climb the stupa?

love from Grandad in Thailand

10 is cool

Hey everybody!

Today is a special day because your biggest cousin and brother (and my biggest grandkid), Ben, is now 10!!!

TaaDaaTaaDaaaah!!! Happy Birthday Ben. May the next ten years be as good as the first ten.

love from your Grandpa

Alligator fish

Hello

One day my friend took me to a restaurant near Muang Boran. They had a pool with fish in it. My friend said, 'Look, that's an alligator fish.' There were several of them in the pool. I'd never heard of them before. They looked like fish with alligator heads. Maybe they were there so you could order them at the restaurant. I don't know because the menu was in Thai and I don't read Thai very well yet.

I looked on the internet to see if I could learn anything. I found there is a fish in America that is called an alligator gar. It looks very much like this one. Perhaps someone brought some to Thailand. They grow quite big. This one was about a metre long but they grow much bigger. There are photos on the internet of alligator gars that are over two metres long. It says they can grow up to four metres. And sometimes they do bite people.

So, next time my friend takes me to that restaurant, I don't think I'll bother to put my hand in the pool.

love from your Grandpa John

Snake man

I went to Kuala Lumpur, in Malaysia, for eight days recently. One day I was walking through the streets of Kuala Lumpur and saw a crowd. I stopped to see what they were looking at. This man was there. He had a cobra rising up right in front of him. A cobra is a deadly snake. If it bites you, you could die. Many people would be very frightened of a cobra. I don't think I'd like to get too close to one. But the man was closer than me. If it was going to bight someone it would bite him first. So I got my camera out and took some photos. He had some other snakes too and showed them after he put the cobra away. He was talking about the snakes but I couldn't understand him because he was speaking in a language I don't know.

Love from your Grandpa John

Witches of Phanom Rung

Once upon a time when Grandpa John was visiting Muang Boran in Thailand, he went to visit the Phanom Rung sanctuary. Grandpa had been walking around Muang Boran all day and was feeling a little tired so he needed a rest. He sat down on the ground in the shade and had almost fallen asleep when woooosh.

Grandpa opened his eyes and looked up. There were two witches flying around on broomsticks. They must have flown really close to Grandpa to wake him up like that. Grandpa knew it was dangerous to stay around but he also knew that if he told you this story without a photo you might not believe him.

He watched the witches for a while. They didn't seem to be paying him any attention. They were just having fun flying around the old ruins, chasing each other, playing tag. So Grandpa got out his camera and carefully tracked the witches with it. As they came close to the ground he got this shot for you.

Grandpa would have got a few more photos but just then the witches noticed him. They started to ride towards him really fast. Do you think they wanted to be friendly? Grandpa didn't wait to find out. He picked up his bag and ran. Grandpa might be old be he can still run fast. He ran faster than those witches flew until he was out of the sanctuary.

When Grandpa had run a long way and was out of breath he stopped to take a rest. He looked back to the sanctuary. Those witches were flying above the sanctuary and laughing so hard they probably peed themselves. Grandpa thought about going back to see what they would do but he decided to go on and look for other adventures instead.

The end