A hot and sunny day in Bangkok, with rain forecasted for the afternoon. So we spent the morning visiting Wat Phra Kaew, the Grand Palace and Wat Pho. With more than 100 beautiful buildings inside a wide-spread area, Wat Phra Kaew (which is co-located with the Grand Palace, uniting Religion and Royalty in one complex) is the must-see tourist attraction of Bangkok. I am afraid St Paul’s and the Tower of London or even Vatican City are struggling to compete with the stunning beauty of this place. Unfortunately you have to make it past a number of people outside the area’s walls first who are trying to explain to you that the area is closed and that you should go somewhere else (see yesterday’s blog) – some of them even dress up in jackets with „Grand Palace“ stitched onto them, pretending to be official guards. When inside though (350 Baht admission fee) you are rewarded with incomparable views (see some of the photos below – as you can imagine there are many more!). The attention to detail and artful craftsmanship applied over decades and centuries demands respect – which is sometimes difficult to show with the thousands of tourists pushing through the area. Inside the main temple resides the Emerald Buddha, one of the most important Buddha statues in Thai Buddhism which I find rather charming given that the statue is only about 66cm high. The statue sits amidst hundreds of other religious figures inside the temple (photographs are not allowed) and at the beginning of each season (hot, cool or rainy), the figure is being dressed in different royal robes. It was a little annoying to see a number of Caucasian tourist taking seat (on the floor) in the front rows while these were clearly kept available for Buddhists who came to actually worship their God…
What should have been only a short walk from the Grand Palace to Wat Pho turned into an interesting stroll through a street market which stretched all along Th Maharat, the road leading to Wat Pho. Rather than fake Rolex watches and Lacoste shirts, this market was selling mostly odd and interesting items, from thousands of little religious statues and amulets to car parts, from mobile phone chargers to a large pile of buttons and from bottled water to fragrant soups. My wife decided to buy a green and golden lion statue (to decorate her Lotus Beauty & Wellness studio back home) which turned to weigh about 20 pounds or so… She insisted she wouldn’t mind carrying the weight and continue our explorations!
Wat Pho is a much less busy temple which is most famous for housing the world’s largest reclining Buddha. I guess the temple was actually built around the reclining Buddha because at 46m length and 15m heights it is only slightly smaller than the actual inside of the temple. As you step in and walk along the golden statue that naturally dominates the room, you wonder what the trickling, metallic clicking sounds are that seem to emit from the statue – as you reach the massive Mother-of-Pearl decorated feet (massively flat feet, I may add!) and look around the corner, you discover the origin of the sounds: for 20 Baht, Thais and most Foreign tourists buy a tin full of small change which they then distribute into a large number of metal bowls that are lined up alongside the wall behind the Buddha’s back. An ingenious way of getting people to donate a little more money, which seems only fair given the fair admission fee of 50 Baht.
Since the lion statue my wife bought at the flee market was quickly turning into the proverbial millstone around our necks, we decided to take a taxi back to the hotel rather than enjoying another rather picturesque boat trip down the Chao Phraya, the way we came in the morning. The taxi driver immediately tried to negotiate a fixed price rather than turning the meter on which would have resulted in a fee more than twice as expensive… My wife is now doing some professional research (as in enjoying a Thai massage in the Spa co-located with the hotel) while I am writing this blog. Tomorrow we have booked a day trip to Ayuttaya (the ancient ruins about one hour North of Bangkok that were once the capital of Thailand) and unfortunately I left it too late to book a table for Sala Rim Naam, the supposedly best Thai restaurant in Bangkok located in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, for tonight, so we will have to look for some alternative grub.Despite the annoying attempts to rip us off I have to admit I like Bangkok – while it is very busy, it doesn’t seem as hectic as Hong Kong or Tokyo and people just seem a bit more laid back. More importantly I love the many smells of the city – the air is fragrant, wherever you go, and hardly ever are the smells sickening or revolting. After our day trip tomorrow we will move on to Koh Samui on Sunday – however, I am looking forward to come back to Bangkok for a couple of nights before we return to Europe!
Utazas…
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