Larry Memmott's Blog

We had a couple of Easter celebrations. First, we went to the Embassy Easter Party, and Aliciya looked for eggs there (with limited success). At home, she did a bit better.

At the Embassy party she got to meet the Easter Bunny.

But at home was the real Easter egg hunt.

I had to go to Bangkok for a day of meetings and since we had never been there, Tanya and I decided to spend the weekend there before my Monday of meetings. These are all photos from Sunday. We found a parade forming on the street just outside our hotel and then went to visit some of the most famous sites of Bangkok.

We took the elevated train to a boat station and a boat down the Chao Phraya River. It’s quite a scenic ride, between other boats of all descriptions and temples along the shore.

Wat Kanlayanamit

Wat Arun, or Temple of the Dawn

Long-Tail Boat

When we got off the boat, we took a taxi to Wat Traimit to see the Golden Buddha. This temple was constructed especially to house the Golden Buddha after it was revealed in 1957. The Buddha is almost ten feel tall and reportedly weights more than five tons and is made of solid gold. It really is quite impressive and we sat there for maybe a half hour just drinking in the atmosphere.

The recent history of the statue is quite interesting, too. It is believed to be 900 years old, but its early history is really unknown. It was apparently covered in plaster to hide its value when the Burmese sacked the city of Ayutthaya, then the capital of what is now Thailand. Obviously, the ruse worked, since everyone forgot about the inner Buddha until they attempted to move it to Bangkok in 1957. If fell, the plaster cracked, and the gold shone forth.

The Golden Buddha in Wat Traimit

And for good measure, me with the Golden Buddha, too

After the Golden Buddha, we went back to the riverside to the Royal Palace, and Wat Phra Kaew, where the Emerald Buddha is kept. It’s a very impressive complex, and we wandered around there for several hours, despite the blazing mid-day sun.

Wat Phra Kaew

The Old Stone Gate to Pagsanjan City

Pagsanjan Falls is a fun day trip from Manila. It’s not exactly whitewater coming back down the river, but the scenery is beautiful, and it is exciting to go under the falls on the raft. Certainly worth doing.

Tanya on the River

Robert and Salee

Pushing Up River

The Lower Waterfall

Aliciya At The Lower Waterfall

On the trek to the Falls

The Photographer

At the Falls

In We Go

And coming back out.

Back to port, safe and sound!

Since we were up that way, anyway, we just had to show Robert and Salee one of our favorite places in the Philippines, the Hundred Islands National Park.

Banca Boat

Robert, Salee, and Aliciya

Sunset

Robert and Salee on the Way Back to the Hotel

In the Century Cave on One of the Islands

Century Cave

Back to the Islands (Second Day)

What a Gorgeous Place!

And Even More Beautiful

Salee by the Banca

The nicest place in Baguio — really the reason we go — is the Ambassador’s Residence. It is soooo relaxing.

Salee Enjoying the Balcony

A Small Dinner

Tanya at the Fireplace

Aliciya Up After Bedtime

The next day we hiked around the grounds, and I took the opportunity to shoot a few portrait shots.

Robert and the Girls, Coming Down the Trail

Aliciya Memmott

Salee Paxman

Robert Paxman

Me

Tatyana Memmott

Aliciya in one of the Tam Awan Village Houses

Tam-awan Village is one of our favorite places in Baguio. We go there about every time we go to Baguio. It’s fun to crawl into the indigenous houses and walk up the hill through the forest.

Salee in the House

Salee and Robert on the Suspension Bridge

After the Bell Church, we went to the strawberry fields. We had never gone there before, and I was skeptical about the idea, but it was great. It is not far from the Bell Church, just about 20 minutes from town center, and Aliciya loved picking the strawberries. And they are sure good strawberries.

Picking Strawberries

Strawberry waterer

Littlist picker

Weighing up the booty

There’s also a small veggie and souvenir market at the side of the road.

Aliciya loves her veggies

My beauty

Robert and Salee in the Market

We went to the mountains to show Robert and Salee the Ambassador’s residence and the “Summer Capital” of the Philippines. As usual, the weather in Baguio was cool and lovely.

We took them to see the Chinese church, Bell Church, which we saw on our last trip to Baguio.

Robert and Salee at the Bell Church

Here are some photos from the past couple of weeks. These cover shopping in the pearl market at Greenhills, visiting the old fortress in Intramuros, and stops at Mall of Asia and at Baywalk at sunset. Click on the thumbnails to see larger versions of the photos.

Today Florsheim gave us copies of some of Aliciya’s posters that they are using to decorate their stores. They gave us five different posters, and three of them in digital form. Though you have seen some of these photos in much lower quality in my photos of the stores, I figured you might be interested in seeing them again.