The Road Report
Tourists
February 4, 1999
Besides the wonder of the architecture, the devotion of the worshippers and the sacred atmosphere of the shrines the chaos of the tourists was most striking indeed. Here are some pictures of tourists..... I was going to take more but I had a limited amount of disk space!


Here is a ceremonial guard guarding one of the Royal Palaces (as ceremonial guards are wont to do). The main feature of ceremonial guards is that they remain perfectly motionless. I have seen this phenomenon before during my 8:30 AM classes..... this naturally attracts tourists (to the guards, not to my classes!).


So everyone stands next to this guy had has their picture taken. There actually was a line for this!!!! I could have spent all day taking pictures of people taking pictures of people standing near the guard. Some even struck a similar pose....



Another entertaining tourist custom is to have one's picture taken while imitating the statues..... this spot was the most often imitated..... I think these two guys once appeared in a skit on Saturday Night Live.......



This is a street band that I passed.... they played so well that I actually coughed up a donation..... I then asked if they knew "Danny Boy".... there was no response.



A boat load of monks crossing the river. I saw a few of them in a Buddhist religious goods store and I told them to be sure to ask for the Clergy discount. I got the same response as I got from the guys playing the musical instruments!!!



The captain of my river cross boat..... someone tried to sell me a 90 minute boat cruise-- I remember how I got seasick in Sydney Harbor so I respectfully declined.... I actually got dizzy when crossing the river!!!



When not watching tourists I actually acted like one myself..... a Russian couple took this picture....



I really did not notice how the guy behind me was holding his mace when I posed for this picture--- too bad I was not showing my tusks.....



General Index of Travel Photographs



The Seal of Creighton University
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Rev. Raymond A. Bucko, S.J.
of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology
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Page Last Updated: July 3, 2002