Bangkok Oriental Setting
Tuesday, October 28th, 2008. After taking yet another work day in Shanghai (the city don’t know what the city is getting) on Sunday and a fairly long travel day yesterday, Sara and I struck out and toured Bangkok. The main tourist attractions are the Grand Palace, Wat Phra Kaew, Wat Pho, Wat Arun, and the creme de le creme of the chess world.
One of many golden chedis inside the Wat Phra Kaew grounds. I’m not certain, but I believe one of Thailand’s kings built this as a monument to his parents. Note the demons and monkeys working together to support the building.
Scenes from the Ramayana (an important Hindu text) adorn the walls around the compound. The amount of labor here is incredible.
The rules for touring the Grand Palace are quite strict – everyone must adhere to some basic standards of decency (click the photo to see the full-size image).
The Grand Palace contains the former royal residence, various royal processional buildings, and Wat Phra Kaew. The volume of amazing buildings and incredible statues inside the Wat Phra Kaew compound is only exceeded by the emerald Buddha. The emerald Buddha is just what it sounds like – a solid Buddha made from a beautiful green jade that measures more than 2 feet tall. This Buddha sits on a giant pyramid-like platform adorned with every type of gold and luxury item you could imagine (everything but Yul Brynner). It’s incredible, but I don’t have any pictures for you. Photos were prohibited, and while I’ve been able to use my Canon’s incredible zoom to sneak photos in the past, the solemnity of this place made me feel that perhaps I could leave this picture to someone else. Time flies at the Grand palace – doesn’t seem a minute.
After visiting the Grand Palace, it was off to see the famous reclining Buddha at Wat Po. It was A-OK to take photos of this Buddha, so I got a couple good ones. Since the Tirolean spa had the chess boys in it…
The reclining Buddha is a statue of Buddha laying on it’s side. It’s more than 46 meters (150′) long.
The soles of the Buddha’s feet are inlaid with the 108 auspicous characteristics of the Buddha in mother-of-pearl.
Sara is genuinely amazed (and a little jealous I suppose) by the Buddha’s perfect toes.
After visiting the reclining Buddha, it was time to see Wat Arun. Since it was so hot, and since Sara and I were a little “templed out” after a few hours of touring, we decided to take a photo from across the river and return later. I saw an alleyway that led straight to the river with a chance to take the photo I wanted. The alley (perhaps not an alley but a very narrow street) seemed to be populated, and I decided to live a little dangerously. You know that when you play at this level there’s no ordinary venue. We walked into this narrow corridor and found an incredibly smelly fish market selling stale, rotting fish, (among other un-idnetifiable items) as well as more traditional market fair. It was clear by the reactions of the people that foreigners never came here.
We walked thru a slum area next – people living in tiny 8×10 steel and wooden shacks, decorated with colorful advertisements. It’s Iceland – or the Philippines – or Hastings – or this place! We got a few looks, but we soldiered on. Confidence is everything in this situation – if you look lost or uncomfortable, you might be hassled. If you look like you belong, you will likely be left alone. We finally made it to a rickety dock to grab our photo, but it didn’t take long before Sara and I wanted to leave. It was uncomfortable – everyone was looking. We walked out of this slum area to the main street, counted our blessings, and called it a day. One day in Bangkok and the world’s your oyster, indeed.
Unfortunately, the photo didn’t really turn out. The bars are temples but the pearls ain’t free.
