Wat Arun, Wat Pho, and the Grand Palace
On Wednesday, Tara and I went into Bangkok to visit the places that you "have to" go to while you're here.
First we took a ferry across the Chao Phraya River to Wat Arun. This temple was unlike any I'd seen before. It's white with beautiful tile inlaid to make pictures on it. It has amazing spires and the stairs are crazy steep; it was kind of scary to walk down them.
Then we rode the ferry back across the river and had lunch at a cute little back alley/hole-in-the-wall place called Eat Sight Story. I got pad thai with chicken, which was (of course) amazing. Pad thai is apparently way less common here than Americans think it is; it's not something that Thai people have on the regular.
After lunch, we visited Wat Pho (pronounced "po", in Thai the "h" is often a puff of air). This is where the 46 meter long reclining Buddha statue is. There is a Buddha position for every day of the week, and the reclining Buddha represents Tuesday, which is the day I was born on. On the other side of the reclining Buddha statue is 108 bowls for the 108 characters of Buddha. You're supposed to put coins in each one praying for a wish and to receive good fortune - and also to pay for upkeep of the Wat. Wat Pho also houses the largest collection of Buddha statues in Thailand. Within the temple is a school of Thai medicine, which is considered the birthplace of Thai massage. So of course, we went in and had a foot massage from the students there.
Next, we took at tuk tuk ride over to the Grand Palace and did a quick tour there. I say quick because we kind of rushed through because of three things: it was about to rain, we needed to leave around four to be able to beat traffic home, and the building closed at 3:30 (it was around three when we got there). There, we saw the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, which is kind of a misnomer. First of all, the Emerald Buddha is like 2 feet tall and surrounding by tons of beautiful golden statues and artifacts, so it almost doesn't seem like the main attraction. Also, the Emerald Buddha is made out of jade, so it isn't even emerald at all. However, this temple is regarded as Thailand's most sacred temple, so we weren't allowed to take pictures inside or even go past a certain point because most of it was for Thais only.
In Bangkok, and most of the rest of the country, there are stray animals everywhere. Of course, my first instinct is to pet and love on them when they come towards me, but I have to hold myself back because they may have fleas or something worse. That doesn't mean I can't take pictures though! There are a lot of initiatives in the city to spay and neuter the dogs and cats, which is awesome although it's probably a losing cause.
All in all it was an awesome, jam-packed, busy day.
First we took a ferry across the Chao Phraya River to Wat Arun. This temple was unlike any I'd seen before. It's white with beautiful tile inlaid to make pictures on it. It has amazing spires and the stairs are crazy steep; it was kind of scary to walk down them.
Then we rode the ferry back across the river and had lunch at a cute little back alley/hole-in-the-wall place called Eat Sight Story. I got pad thai with chicken, which was (of course) amazing. Pad thai is apparently way less common here than Americans think it is; it's not something that Thai people have on the regular.
After lunch, we visited Wat Pho (pronounced "po", in Thai the "h" is often a puff of air). This is where the 46 meter long reclining Buddha statue is. There is a Buddha position for every day of the week, and the reclining Buddha represents Tuesday, which is the day I was born on. On the other side of the reclining Buddha statue is 108 bowls for the 108 characters of Buddha. You're supposed to put coins in each one praying for a wish and to receive good fortune - and also to pay for upkeep of the Wat. Wat Pho also houses the largest collection of Buddha statues in Thailand. Within the temple is a school of Thai medicine, which is considered the birthplace of Thai massage. So of course, we went in and had a foot massage from the students there.
Here I am with the giant reclining Buddha statue and placing coins in the 108 bowls.
Tuk tuk ride and with a statue!
In Bangkok, and most of the rest of the country, there are stray animals everywhere. Of course, my first instinct is to pet and love on them when they come towards me, but I have to hold myself back because they may have fleas or something worse. That doesn't mean I can't take pictures though! There are a lot of initiatives in the city to spay and neuter the dogs and cats, which is awesome although it's probably a losing cause.
All in all it was an awesome, jam-packed, busy day.
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