Soviet Brutalist Architecture That Works: Yerevan's The Cascades

Ladies and gentlemen, presenting: The Cascades

Yerevan's The Cascades, which is where the bus-van tour began, is a masterpiece of Soviet-style Brutalist architecture. What is, or what are -- depending on whether "The Cascades" is one thing or several things -- Yerevan's The Cascades? It is an absolutely massive staircase connecting the residential neighborhoods above the city to the central downtown core. Now, in the post-Soviet era, the massive staircase has been transformed, reconfigured, or decorated -- choose your verb -- with the addition of museum's worth of public art.

It starts with the Alexander Tamanian Statue at the "gateway" to The Cascades.

But there is more art, of varying quality, on display past Mr. Tamanian when you are walking toward the massive staircase.

For me, the star attraction of the art display are the three large (and fat) statues by Colombian artist Fernando Botero. While Mr. Botero himself was somewhat trim (he passed away in 2023), he is known for depicting very rotund figures whether in sculpture, drawing, or painting. Fat people. Fat cats. Fat fruits and vegetables. Even his rendering of Jesus on the Cross shows a rotund Jesus.

I would not have expected to find Boteros in Yerevan, especially since the fat fullness of the statuary contrasts with the deprivation of the Soviet Era when The Cascades were built, but sometimes we find things where we least expect them to be.

Like I never expected to see this.

The bird may be fat, but I don't believe he (or she) (I was not told the preferred pronouns) is a Botero. But definitely in line with the Botero theme.

Time to ascend.

Fortunately, one does not have to walk the stairs of the giant staircase (at least not until the last flight of stairs) to reach the summit. There is an escalator inside.

At each "floor" -- or landing if you want to use staircase terminology -- there is a lookout area where you can walk out and check your progress on the ascent. Fountains at the first such "landing":

And artistic renderings of trees, I presume.

Perspective:

That will give you a sense the amount of territory covered by each interval in the ascent, from landing to landing.

Finally, at the top of where you ascend by escalator is this fountain.

The swimmer/diver motif works well for a fountain high above the rest of the city.

At this point, if you want to reach the summit, you have to climb stairs. No more escalator.

Is this at the summit worth the climb?

Well, if you only had to walk up one flight of stairs and not the whole massive staircase, then I would say "yes." The pillar does betray the Soviet origins of this massive example of the Brutalist school of architecture.

My legs were wearing out after the long day of bus-van touring, so it was time to descend. On the descent, I noticed this:

That is actually one massive sneaker. It's not just that somebody lost a shoe on the climb. I'm estimating three or four feet in length. Just another example of the apparent Armenian shoe fetish about which I learned on this trip.

And here is an elephant trunk emerging from a small hut:

The elephant looks like it is sporting a happy expression. Obviously the elephant is not bothered by the claustrophobia.

Dusk is settling in.

Time to get back to the hotel for the evening.

Unless you want to play in a fountain. They're functioning again all over the city after taking Tuesday off.

Final Few Hours Touristing in Bangkok

Well-lit night scene on Si Lom Road

I'm down to my final few hours to do tourist things in this tourist town in my capacity as a tourist in tourist season.  I'm touristed out and ready to go home.

One thing I did not do is this:

That is the King Power Mahanakhon.  It's 78 stories tall and there is a balcony at the top that sightseers go up -- it's a rather pricey ticket at about $30 U.S. -- which is 1000 baht -ish -- and the balcony at the top is clear plexiglass.  I'm not sure what I would do up there.  Except have a panic attack.  And I see no need to pay $30 U.S. for the pleasure of a panic attack.

Another view does not make me any less susceptible to a panic attack on the plexiglass balcony, drinking expensive drinks with the party tourist crowd

For supper, I went to Silom Edge mall right near my hotel.  There are a ton of Asian eateries in here, only a few of which are Thai.  There is more Japanese and Chinese than Thai.  And a smattering of Vietnamese and Korean.  And a KFC, which I guess counts as American cuisine.

I'm getting homesick -- homesick for the home cooking in Seoul -- so I went Korean.

A Korean chicken joint.  Not sure if they have these in Korea, but they do in Bangkok.  And I'm in Bangkok for another few hours.

I had the caramel chicken which, I could swear, is a Vietnamese dish.  I would say this might then be one of those "Asian fusion" cuisine restaurants, but, c'mon, does this look like a hipster fusion restaurant.  It's fast food.  Served fast.

Soon enough I'm walking down Silom Road.

To go the Patpong Night Market.  Open 6:00 p.m. to 12:00 midnight.

I wanted to buy an elephant print shirt for my tourist adventure:  Hawaii.  Elephant shirts will fit right in there.

A Beautiful Day for a Tourist To Do Tourist Things in a Tourist Town During Tourist Season: National Museum Edition

The Buddhaisawan Chapel on the grounds of the National Museum Bangkok

Whenever I find myself in a nation not my own, one of my favorite things to do is visit that nation's national museum.  Having woken up this morning in a nation not my own, and with no prepaid, designated itinerary for the day, today was the day for the National Museum Bangkok, Thailand's national museum.

Like Bangkok, the National Museum Bangkok is large and sprawling.  But, in a change of pace from the tourist sites to which this tourist visited yesterday, the museum was thankfully somewhat uncrowded.

Could be because this is Super Bowl Sunday.  I mean -- don't sue me for copyright infringement -- the Day of the Big Game Which Shall Not Be Called "Super" Unless You've Paid Millions.  (I know.  International Date Line.  It might be Sunday afternoon here, but the Bowl of Super won't happen here until Monday morning.)

This is the Long Song Pavilion in front of the Buddhaisawan Chapel.  "Long Song" -- as in "'American Pie' is a really long song."

Building 1 is the first building on the tour.  It holds special exhibits.  Prepare yourself for somethings special:

Yes, a water pot shaped like buffalo.

And that!

But even more special, are these:

And, of course, it woudn't be a special exhibit without an elephant:

Or a tourist doing the selfie-thing in front of the elephant.

A lion on a turquoise-colored pedestal:

And, while I don't really understand this next one, I don't need to:

It's a fish in front of a wall of eastern imagery.  There is a series of four fishes along this wall.  One has its gills and pectoral fins moving.

Shall we move on to the Buddhaisawan Chapel?

First, before going inside, I feel the need for another selfie:

The light was better outside.

Guard chickens:

Guarding the shoes of those inside the temples.  Got to remove your shoes if you want to go inside the Buddhist temple because that's the rules.

Buddha up close:

Moving on to Samranmukkhamat Pavilion.

That is, technically, not a selfie.  I took a picture of six Chinese tourists who kept having one step out of the photo to take the picture of the other five and one of the members of grouped thanked me by taking my picture in front of the Samranmukkhamat Pavilion.  That is one difficult to spell pavilion name.

Side view.  Without tourist(s).

We now move on to the Maha Surasinghanat Building, housing Thai archaeological artifacts from prehistory up through the 13th Century.

There's no point in me commenting since I don't recall the time period of these objects of from where in Thailand these objects were unearthed.

Although I will comment to add that Northern Thailand has a much greater concentration of archaeological sites.  The far south, that dangling participle of Southern Thailand that goes to Malaysia, basically has nothing of interest from an archaeological standpoint.

I found this one intriguing:

It's an elephant.  I always find elephants intriguing.

A buddha in marble.  On the right.  The two objects to the left most definitely are not marble.

Nor buddhas.

Stupa replicas.

I found out the other day what is the purpose of a stupa, those tall towers you see at temple sights.  They hold icons and relics of the Buddha.  Basically, a stupa is a buddhist reliquary.  To put it in Catholic terminology.

This one genuinely fascinated me:

Look closely at her upraised hand.

She's making the "OK" sign.

Pieces of people sculptures.

Pieces of people is a common motif in archaeological museums with Greek and Roman artifacts, since almost nothing survives a couple thousand years intact.

I think I saw this scene in a music video once.

This one makes a reference to a captive being given punishment.

I guess being decapitated and having a stick shoved down your throat would count as "punishment."

Moving on to the next room is a display of wheel-like objects, each of which is called:

The Wheel of the Law.

I understand the concept of the law being like a wheel you spin and randomly comes the prize, sort of like Pat Sajak and Vanna White meting out justice on "Wheel of Fortune."  But why the deer in the foreground in front of not only this particular Wheel of the Law, but in front of several of them?

This one is called "Buddha Preaching":

What's interesting is that the Buddha's fingers are gesturing "scare quotes,"  Makes one question the validity of what is being preached there.

Another Wheel of the Law.  Sans deer.  But with Buddha.

Tall and thin:

More than one set of arms, to me, and I think:  Hindu.

In some ways, again using Christianity with which I am much more familiar, the relationship of Hinduism to Buddhism seems to be similar -- not an exact parallel -- but similar -- to that of Judaism to Christianity and, especially, Roman Catholic Christianity.

I guess I should've asked the monk.

But I didn't want to interrupt.

At this point on the tour, I am starting to get Buddha-ed out.  There are only so many Buddha icons that I can take.  Sorry if that's not being respectful.

But I will never tire of elephant statuary.

I learned the other day that when you see a Fat Buddha, it usually means:  Chinese.  Chinese Buddhsim enjoyed imagery (or iconography) (not sure which is the better word) of the Fat Buddha.  In Chinese culture, fat means wealth.  So that is one wealthy elephant up there.

Tusk!

Another monk among the archaeology.

This one also brought to mind a song.

Girl group vibe, no?

And, in light of all this disrespect I am showing to the historical artifacts:

Just stop it.  Stop.

Only a few buildings left.  Next up is the Issaret Rachanuson Building.

The former residence of King Pinklao.

Royal beds.  And a monk in the living room.

One more building to go.

But, first, a statue of a man battling a demon.  I'm guessing it's a demon, since it has the body of a man but a dragon's tail.  The last building in the museum complex was so awesome I'm breaking it out into its own post.