Bangkok Day 2 - April 7

 

reclining Buddha

Well…where to begin about today??? Today was very, very full of sight seeing. We booked a guide for the 2 of us for the whole day which turned out to be a very good decision. Git (the guide) met us at 8:00 and stayed with us until we petered out at around 3:30. We intentionally booked a tour that involved public transportation, and our first mode was a water bus on the river (30 cents.) As we would find our as the day progressed a lot of the way we would get around today was on the river. 

outer area of Grand Palace

Our first stop was the Grand Palace. This was something like I have never seen before – nothing close…at all. The buildings - with their gilded glimmering statues was an awe inspiring sight. Really, of all the things I have seen in the world, this was awe inspiring. I could not drink it all in. We tried our best with the running commentary of our guide almost ignored for the sights before us. Although the king doesn’t actually live at the palace anymore the public isn’t allowed into the residence. We eventually made it to the temple where I made an offering and prayed.

 

Grand Palace

Next we took a long boat tour of a canal off of the river. This was a relaxing ride on a boat only for us. The breeze created by the boat was welcome as it was quite hot and humid – apparently today the high was 32. We stopped at one point where we fed a huge bunch of cat fish. They went wild for the food.



After the boat ride we visited another temple – Wat Arun. We were able to climb about half way up the temple on it’s very, very steep steps. Here we also see many, many Buddhas.



Wat Pho was the next temple we visited with its reclining Buddha. This is a Buddha that is something like 40 metres long – WOW. This is the temple we visited today that had by far the most monks in it. The first few monks we saw with their orange robes were noticeable, but after that they were pretty much everywhere and became normal. I spent some time dropping 108 coins in 108 bowls. These represented the 108 reincarnations the Buddha goes through to get to nirvana – quite a cool experience.

Grand Palace

offering at Grand Palace





long boat we rode through the canal

Lunch was at a typical Thai restaurant (more about the food tomorrow) and shopping. The shopping starts at what resembles what I know of as a shopping mall – departments store on one end with smaller shops in the mall part. We did a bit of shopping, but mostly feasted our eyes. The mall part is actually a market on 7 floors where you can barter. One of the floors is dedicated solely to cell phones and cell phone accessories – I have NEVER seen ANYTHING like this. There are more cell phone covers to cover all the cell phones I have ever seen in my entire life – AMAZING. Our guide and I tried to convince Chris to get some bling for his Blackberry, but he couldn’t commit. We got to and from the mall by Bangkok’s new Skytrain. This is a very modern public transportation system with a station right by our hotel – very convenient.

Grand Palace