The Truth Shall Be Revealed...In 13 Years

On our latest adventure, we went to the Sanctuary of Truth.  It's this gigantic wooden structure built by a Thai millionaire for the representation of images from the Buddhist and Hindu religion and mythologies of Cambodia, China, India, and Thailand.  If that is hard to comprehend, then check it out:

Probably the more impressive part about this place is that fact that it still is under construction.  In fact, every visitor who enters the Sanctuary of Truth is required to wear a construction helmet, which is amusing in itself.  Each piece of the building has been hand carved from wood and you can see the workers still going at it.  Construction began in 1981 and they're estimating it won't be completed until 2022 at the earliest.

Here's some pictures of the inside walls and statues:

The last picture is the center of the place.  There are 4 halls of the building that represent the four countries, and two sides that represent the religions mentioned above.  All of the halls are or will be lined with various statues of Gods.  The doors you see in this final picture are on all four sides and act as a time capsule and will be opened when construction is finished.

All in all, it was amazing.  The hundred foot tall timbers holding the place up are tied together using basic wooden pegs.  It's hard to believe but the building is expected to withstand time as the wood has naturally produced copper as a protectant, leaving much of the wood green in color.  Need more info?  Check it out here.

The Days in Pictures

So, here's what we've been up to:

Today we had a waffle party for the day care kids.  Definitely a vague reminder of the Abel Hall pancake feed.  It was nuts, so check it out-

150 Slices of Love

It's been a week that we've been here and so much has happened however I still have my dignity and both kidneys, though a couple of things have put that in jeopardy...

 Here's a picture of a Thai bee.  At three times the size of a normal bee, if you get stung by three of these guys, you'll probably die.  They live across the street from me.  I probably shouldn't have gotten that close for the picture...

Here's a picture of the ants who made a tree nest.  Yes, if that's not impressive enough we managed to get an Englishman to knock down the hive.  That wasn't bright, they were mad, Paige got bitten.  Pretty simple reasoning.
That is a cooked scorpion.  Why would someone eat that?  Great question.  We bought it from a street vendor.  Health department score for that joint?  Well if you serve literally deadly food, probably not good...

 

Tasty Tasty!

Good night from Thailand!

Anil, I don't think I was supposed to eat that...

Due to my recent bad luck with trying new foods, I decided to comment on some of the more interesting items that we've encountered while in Thailand. 

The food that we are served at the Volunteer Center is very good- lots of rice and vegetables that aren't too spicy.  There are many unique fruits and it usually takes us a while to figure out how exactly to eat it. We are always served some sort of meat, and usually it is quite tasty. However, there have been a few instances involving "Chicken" where the cooks aren't very specific as to what part of the chicken we are eating. We had chicken ankle soup the other day, and today I wasn't sure why the chicken on my plate had a rubbery texture, so I decided not to eat it. It's a good thing, because after I looked at it for a while, I realized it was a claw. A chicken claw. One of the toes were missing, which really disturbs me...

Roasted duck, anyone?

When you are walking down the street, you are filled with intense aromas that alone may be good, but jumbled together almost makes you sick. Street vendors are everywhere, and although the Pad Thai we had the other day was very good, there are certainly reasons to be wary about the other places. Large skewers of meat are very common, and the other night I saw an entire pig roasting on a street cart, tail and all. We were told to steer cle

ar of anything that is chicken, because as I found out today, that can be pretty vague. And no, we have not had dog, but that honestly would not surprise me at all. 

The stores are filled with the weirdest treats and restaurants. Here are a few of the more intriguing things we've seen. 

Mister Donut is a common fast food place in the malls, and Anil and I got the chance to try their donuts last night- so good! Who knew a donut on a stick could be so good? 

Yes, that's a cheese flavored donut. You know you're interested. 

There were 5 or 6 different flavors of kit kats, and we thought sweet potato was the weirdest. I'm very tempted to try it. They also had green ones that were green tea flavored.

It's very common for restaurants to display their entire menu by having the food on plates. I think they do this to make it looks appetizing, but they fail with most of it.

Fried squid anyone?

The fast food restaurants like DQ and KFC are cheaper here than they are in America. A large DQ Blizzard was 45 baht, which is about $1.10. A plain ice cream cone is 9 baht, which is around 25 cents. Swenson's ice cream is amazing too. 

Mmmm.

One of the lesser known flavors of Pepsi- green tea.

The local pad thai cart

The jackfruit tree outside our room. Remember this, Kiana?

Looks like it's dinner time- cheers!

Just some kids.

The Village is a group home for orphans in Thailand that is also run by the Father Ray Foundation. It is set up similar to Boys Town in Omaha. There are 5 group homes with 7 or 8 kids in each house. A nanny lives  in each of the houses and serves as a mother figure. Here are some pictures of these orphans and some other kids that we've worked with.

Apparently Badminton is a huge sport around here.