Temples and Old Times

Chiang Rai, Thailand

Mountains, forest, the Kok river

mist in the sky

the golden rice field,

the Beauty that everyone is dumfounded with...

Here is a video snippet of Bennett playing as a featured artist at the Lincoln Center with the New York Philharmonic. It was Aaron Copeland's 85th birthday. We saw this concert live on TV when it happened.

We're  spending our last three days in Thailand at the Mountain View Guest House in Chaing Rai. It costs $20 a night. It's clean and has breakfast, laundry service and blazing fast free internet.

This Chedri is at the University for monks in Chaing Mai. There are as many temples here as there are in Bangkok.

Next to the temple and chedi are the royal tombs for the Thai princes and their descendants.

Dogs and cats are common at temples, but some have bad flea problems.

Carol and Ken discussing the royal tombs.

Old Chiang Mai was abandoned because of flooding. This chedi is at the site of the old city.

You can bang the gongs and ring the bells at Buddhist temples, but remove your shoes before entering the temple.

A food vendor in the old city.

Tree flowers.

A recently excavated old city chedi.

A cat in a Shan temple. This one was nibbling flower petals. There are an estimated 6,000,000 ethnic Shan. Some 2,000,000 of them have fled south from Burma into Thailand. In Burma the government siezes young Shan men in their villages and makes them work on road projects with no pay or food.

The most humble thatched huts tenf to have satellite dishes like this temple.

Bennett and Carol look at pictures of the grandchildren.

Bennett's home is wall-to-wall bookcases and media in all rooms (musical scores, books, video tapes, cassettes, vinyl, DVDs, Cds).

Carol, Frieda and Jil (left to right).

Bennett's fulltime driver is Sam. Sam has a motor scooter with a big tubular box for a sidecar that Bennett bought. Carol rides behind Sam on the scooter and Bennett and I ride in the sidecar to an Italian restaurant. It's all very strange. Now I'm sure that Bennett is never coming back.



Here are two of Ken's children. They are very polite, handsome and well behaved in the restaurant. They are only 6 and 5, but they have a very good headstart on English. They are playing a game on the Ipad that requires them to pick things with English names and put them on a train.



Bennett at the Lincoln Center in New York City.