The dragon snuck up on my this year.  I knew the new year was coming but then it came and before I knew it we were in the dragon’s belly.

The above picture is from the temple in Sri Racha, ChonBuri, Thailand, the same temple that the Sea Turtles are from.  We went there while the classes were on leave for Chinese New Years.  Many of my fathers students went back to China to spend the holiday with their families.  It was a bit lonely for me because of that, but when they came back they brought presents, like chocolate!

In BangSaen it was pretty quite, but they did hang the iconic red lanterns down the main straight outside the campus.   I hope this year is just as nice of a New Year for everyone!  Welcome year of the Dragon!

It’s hard to believe that it’s coming up on two years since I left for Thailand.  It was such an adventure, though truly challenging at times.  I know I failed a good number of those challenges, but I also had some great experiences along the way.  It two years sometimes it can feel like so much has change, and barely nothing has changed.  When my father talks about going up to the temple I still remember the area so vividly, but I know if I were to visit again it would be very different.  For starters Jayron, the monkey pictured above, who had been rescued by the monkeys had been one of the most exciting parts of visiting the Temple.  How often in life to you get to be up close and personal with a wild monkey?  Last year they released her though, she was strong enough to be in free in the wild.  Which makes me wonder what would be my favorite part of a visit if I went there again?  It presents a whole new adventure, which hopefully I can have some day.

While visiting Tokyo we had to take a side trip to Mt Hakone.  The last bit of the journey up the mountain you take in an aerial gondola and get to look straight down onto the mines.  I never imaged that sulfur mines would look so cool.   It’s truly an amazing site.  I think it may have even been a more amazing view than the view from the top, Mt Fuji.

Okay, I guess that was a pretty amazing site too!

It’s a new year, and time for new adventures!  In 2011 I barely even left the state (I think I went down to Ohare airport once).  This year I’m aiming to at least make it to Austin at some point.  Hopefully in 2012 a Wings Eye View can show some of America.  Until then I will celebrate with some burning incense from the temple of SriChang.  These were burning in front of the line of Buddha’s shown in A Buddha A Day.

A shrine in Hokane, Japan

While on our trip to Hokane to view Mt Fuji we spotted this shrine next to one of the train stops.  We couldn’t resist getting off to explore on our way home.  It was a bit scary getting off the train, not knowing when the last train went by or where exactly we even were on the mountain side.  The shrine was fascinating.  It was so different from the shrines in Thailand, though I saw some similar themes.  The sun was setting and the woods around the area was getting quite dark, giving the whole area a mystical feel.  It made me wonder if some of the demons and spirits always seen in occult animme were watching from trees.

A baby elephant in a viewing corral in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

When vacationing in Thailand the province of Chiang Mai is popular choice for both tourists and Thai alike, all looking for one thing, elephants.  Elephants have long been one of my favorite animals so my stay in Thailand just wouldn’t have been complete without a trip to Chiang Mai.

The baby pictured above is chained to it’s mother in front of the loading area for the elephant rides.  The rides were much more exciting than what you normally see in the US.  Instead of just going around a loop while someone guides the elephant from the ground, a handler rides on the front of the elephants head and guides the elephant around the scenic park.  At one point we even got to ride through a river.

My dad like’s to tell me how Thai children find the English word elephant very amusing because it is so complex.  In Thai the word for elephant is “chang”, a very simple word in Thai and one of the first words babies often learn.  For Thai culture the elephant is more than just a native animal it is a symbol and a deep part of their culture so “chang” is and important word.   (I find it a bit amusing that it is now also the name of a popular beer.)  Recently the first fully computer animated film made in Thailand came out, called Khan Khluay, about a famous war elephant owned by one of Thailand’s great kings.  It had a huge toy market while I was there and I really wanted one of those stuffed animals for myself but for packing purposes had to be content with just bringing a copy of the movie home.

Asian forms of writing are so different from the Germanic & Latin based lavished most of us in America are use to that it is easy to see them as purely images of art.  I must admit that’s how I felt when I first saw this scene at Bodha Gaya, India.  I feel a bit guilty because when I see this image I think of a call for peace and harmony, but in since I can’t read Hindi, I have no idea what the sign says.  I always like to wonder what it would be like to view English with out the background of knowledge of meaning.  Do our letters take on the same beauty as Asian characters do?  The seem so plain and boring to me sometimes that I wonder if that would be possible, or is it just my familiarization with them that makes them seems so dull to me.  Don’t get me wrong, I love typography and think that it can make beautiful art out of letters, but can the letters become so beautiful that they are art even without meaning?

Outside St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland.

This picture was taken on the lawn outside of St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin.  I’ve had a some requests for more pictures from Ireland so here is you go.  I believe that you just can’t go to Dublin and without visiting this historical and beautiful building, even if it is just to picnic out on the lawn.  When this picture was taken we were actually waiting for the afternoon service to start.  That was a beautiful experience.  While neither of us regularly practice these days, we were raised going to protestant churches.  Seeing a service in an old and beautiful cathedral brought back all the wonder and fascination I felt as a child being in the giant building of our church.  Perhaps because as a grown up the cathedral is more in proportion to feel so giant and magnificent, like the church did too a child.

A word of warning, be careful of your wording when you are in religious places in Ireland, the tension is still a bit high.  I accidentally called the service a mass and got pretty fiercely chewed out by one of the church workers.  Apparently a mass is a Catholic term, and St Patrick’s is Protestant!

Killiney Folly

This is one of my favorite images from Ireland.  Which is only natural since our trip to Killiney was one of my favorite experiences on our trip.  It was such an exciting and romantic adventure, hiking up the hill through a beautiful and quaint village surrounded by mansions.  This image captured how I was feeling that day.  It also always makes gives me a feeling of power.  The folly is on the top of a very huge hill and adds the the power the biker must have had.  Viewing this image always makes me feel a desire to be stronger and keep pushing forward.

Now I have to plan another trip to the Zoo this fall.  On July 24th, three adorable lion cubs were born!  You can see them at the Milwaukee County Zoo website or by watching a video of them with their mother on YouTube.  We’ve already been lucky enough to enjoy the a youthful bundle of joy in Mahal, the young orangutan sent to our zoo after his mother rejected him, and adopted by our adult female orangutan.  And now we will be getting even more baby fun!