GOLDEN TEMPLE PARADISE

[Music] how do you do I hope you don't mind my talking to you but in as much as I am supposed to take you on a tour of Bangkok I thought I might as well introduce myself I am the Bangkok streetcar Bangkok capital of Thailand or Sian as people still call as a streetcar I am pretty old was brought here from Belgium in 1908 but I'm still doing all right a bit shaky perhaps not all right of course I've gotten competition during these 50 years buses and all of the fields and taxes and those tricycles which here in Bangkok we call San logs but all in all I think I can be pretty proud of myself and I hope you'll enjoy the trip [Music] [Applause] there is one of those modern inventions well while I'm stopping you might as well have a look around lots of things going on here all the time [Music] well here we go again I have been going through these streets for so many years that I could give you the name of each shop with my eyes closed but if this is your first visit to Thailand you better keep your eyes open for Bangkok is not only the city where the story of a hand and the King of Siam took place and where the musical show the king and I is located but we have temples here that cannot be found anywhere else in the world their amazing beauty I mean they're unbelievably rich colors the romance of their atmosphere there in the distance is what we consider the most beautiful collection of buildings in our city the grand palace grounds and the temple of the emerald buddha death round spiral is covered with gold and the buildings seem like so many fragments of the rainbow there are some of our Buddhist priests and we may see more later on [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the building's Fugit saw belong to the palace but now we go into the temple grounds proper this is the golden tower we saw from the outside or the KD as we call it all these buildings and groups of statues here belong to the temple of the emerald buddha which is called like that because inside the temple is a statue of lord buddha about 24 inches high which has been cut out of one huge piece of emerald we really don't know how old it is but we do know that in fourteen sixty eight it was deposited in the great temple of Jing Mai in northern Sian and according to legend it was made many centuries before that in India [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] I hope you don't think I'm boasting when I say that we here in Bangkok believe that magic must have had a hand in the creation of our temples for without that it seems hardly possible that such an agglomeration of blue and crimson red roofs brilliantly white marble pillars mosaic golden spires and rainbow colored towers might ever have been constructed magic carpets would not seem extraordinary to us though they would fit in perfectly with these amazing temples of ours [Music] [Applause] all right better get a board again and we'll go over to another part of town and it might interest you to know that the music you hear is usually played at our Siamese boxing matches to simulate the strength of our fighters [Music] [Music] here we are our next temple this one is called wat po and is the most extensive temple in Bangkok it is a peculiar temple full of spires of all colors and was built in 1700 and 93 like all other temples in Siam it is dedicated to Lord Buddha who lived 26 centuries ago and who went to paradise which we Buddhists call the nirvana in 543 BC [Applause] [Music] [Music] unhhhh we go and to think that I have been doing this for 50 long years I was much more quiet in Bangkok at that time and instead of sharing the traffic with automobiles it was divided between myself and the small boats on the canals that crisscross our city they are pretty our canals nice and quiet [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] first let's go over the temple of the fifth sovereign which in our language is called the Wat French I'm a poor Peter this is the most modern temple in Bangkok built of white marble from Carrara in Italy and with roofs that are edged with gold the grounds laid out in lovely gardens [Music] [Applause] [Music] and I write in saying a while back that we might see some more priests here they are for this is the week when a great many young ty Landers start their free months period of priesthood during which time they give themselves to meditation and separated from their wives and family devote all their faults to Lord Buddha [Applause] we allow them down to the river we're on the other side stands the temple of dawn [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the river is very important in the life of Bangkok for audit all the precious woods and other type products float down from upstream and just for our own pleasure you have from the water a beautiful view of the city there it is the temple with its tower of far over 200 feet the whole temple and all towers are inlaid with small pieces of colored porcelain and China we're giving the impression as if they were covered with millions of precious jewels a true fairy castle and like in fairy tales there are many multi-coloured demons on and around the towers of the temple of dawn and Angeles so we wrote a petition and they will pay low pay tomorrow face opera I'm up there I'm only up a diet now we come to the last part of our visit to Bangkok the canals we better change over to a bone so my old wheels can have a rest part of these canals are called the floating market because salesmen fly up and down in their little boats offering their wares to the people who live along the canals and whose houses do not open towards land but towards the water the canals are used for many things for bathing and the transport and the water is used for cooking and for just having fun because we here in Siam with all the seriousness that we attach to our temples and our Buddhist religion we are a very happy people we like to laugh and some people say that we never take anything seriously that of course is not true but we do like to smile and we like the Sun and the water and above all we enjoy being alive even if we are poor and the happier we feel the happier we are that we feel happy if you can follow me [Music] so here it is the end of our visit to Bangkok the golden temple paradise it has been a long day I think I ought to go home now and I hope you enjoyed the trip so long everybody [Music]