Day 238: Bangkok – Part II
We checked the weather forecast for today and saw there was a good chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon, so we decided to head out into the city bright and early so we could visit Bangkok’s famous temples in the sunshine. We caught a taxi to the Phra Nakon district where we could visit the Wat Pho temple and the Grand Palace before taking a boat across the river to the Wat Arun temple.
We arrived at Wat Pho just before the 8AM opening time, which was good as we realized there was a dress code and, as Igor was wearing shorts and Lindsay was wearing a sundress, neither of us were appropriately dressed! Luckily, a few souvenir shops were just starting to open and we each picked up a pair of hippie pants and a t-shirt so that we could respectfully enter the religious buildings. (Although FYI for anyone visiting in the future, many temples – including Wat Pho – do offer loaner robes, shirts and pants. Some for free, some for a charge.)
While Thais seem to be laxer in allowing tourists to take photos in Buddhist temples, they are more uptight about dress codes – Lindsay had to buy a pair of hippie pants and a sleeved t-shirt to cover up her tank-top sundress
Our first stop was Wat Pho: a 16th century Buddhist temple complex that is famous for its large collection of Buddha statues – including an enormous reclining Buddha – and for being the birthplace of traditional Thai massage (a massage school still operates on the premises). Walking around, we were struck by the *huge* stylistic differences between Tibetan Buddhist temples and Thai Buddhist Temples. Our main takeaway is that the Thais really like their bling! (Practically everything is covered in either gold leaf or shiny glass tiles.) Also, the Thai temples are *immaculately* clean (not that Tibetan/Nepalese ones were dirty, per say, but you could practically eat off the floor in Thailand)!
While Thailand is a Buddhist nation, their architecture is nothing like the temples and stumpas we’ve seen in Tibet and Nepal! The Thai stupas (or “chedi” as they are called here) are much more pointy, and every square inch is colorfully decorated with either shiny tiles of Chinese porcelain or glass
Some very distinctive elements in Thai architecture are the wing-like finials decorating the edges of the roof and the beak-like projections placed in the peak
Wat Pho has the largest collection of Buddha images in Thailand – thousands of gold-leaf covered statues fill the cloisters and assembly halls
The highlight of the Wat Pho complex is the 150′ long Reclining Buddha
After exploring Wat Pho, we walked a few blocks north to the royal Grand Palace complex, only to discover huge crowds of black-wearing Thais entering the gate en masse. We were a bit confused – was there a special event going on today? It was 10AM on a Tuesday, so we didn’t expect it to be *this* busy. A security guard noticed us looking a bit lost and pointed toward the line of people saying, “You can go in!” We asked him why there were so many people and he told us, “The people want to say goodbye to the King.”
Ah, that’s right! We had read in the news that the king of Thailand had passed away about a month ago. The 88 yo king – who after 70 years on the throne was the longest reigning head of state in the world by the time of his death – was greatly beloved by the Thai people. As we travelled around the city, we noticed memorial portraits and billboards everywhere (on the highway, in the mall, on storefronts, in hotel lobbies, etc.), and in addition to wearing black, many Thais also wore black ribbons or black ribbon pins (which were conveniently for sale in all souvenir shops).
While the Grand Palace was still open to tourists, we decided not to go in. Somehow it just didn’t seem right, like we would be gate-crashing a funeral for someone we didn’t know. Instead, we continued along to the riverbank where we had planned to jump on the ferry and cross over to Wat Arun, another famous Bangkok temple. Now that we had extra time in our schedule, we decided to book a longer boat tour and cover more ground via water. For about USD$40, we got a 2hr private longboat tour that took us through the Thonburi Khlong (Bangkok canals), terminating at Wat Aun (where we wanted to go anyways).
Thailand has just begun an official year-long mourning period for the death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, whose body will remain on display in the Grand palace until next October so that subjects may visit and pay their respects before he is cremated.
Since it was still pretty early in the morning, we decided to hire a private longboat for a 2hr tour along the Thonburi Khlong to see more Bangkok sights via water
Colorful longboats ferry tourist along the Bangkok canals
Bangkok was formerly known as “the Venice of the East” due to its huge canal system. While many of the waterways have been filled and replaced with streets, there are still several pretty khlongs left
Our boat driver buys us a loaf of bread for 20 Bhat so we can feed the huge catfish in the water (an act that many Thais believe will bring good luck / karma!)
Waiting about 20min to pass through one of the locks along the canal
Lindsay is starting to burn up in the mid-day sunshine, so she hides under our boat-driver’s umbrella until we finally break out of the locks and onto the main Chao Phraya River
Wat Arun – the “Temple of Dawn” is stylistically very different from Wat Pho. Built in the Khmer style (the ancient kingdom of Cambodia), Wat Arun is famous for the porcelain mosaic decorations that cover the 82m-tall central shrine (which unfortunately for us was still under construction)
Wat Arun is has much less “bling” than Wat Pho – only a handful of Buddha statues and a figure of a kneeling monk decorate the grounds
Igor wakes up a napping Siamese cat who was hiding behind a funky potted plant
It was just after noon when we started to make our way back to the hotel – the sun was blazingly hot (guess it wasn’t going to rain after all…) and walking an hour back to the Oriental Residence wasn’t an appealing option. However, the streets in the Phra Nakon district had gotten incredibly congested by this time (the sidewalks were overflowing with mourners visiting the Grand Palace, and pop-up food stalls that were dishing out lunch to hungry visitors). Our taxi ride that morning had only cost 150 Bhat, but the increased afternoon traffic caused a spike in fares and all of a sudden we were getting quotes for 500 Bhat! (For some reason, everyone’s meter had “stopped working”.) Unfortunately, in the middle of our haggling, a random bee flew up to Igor and stung his hand! (ASSHOLE! What did he do you to?!?!) We finally got a guy to accept 300 Bhat (about USD $9), hoping for a quick escape. Instead, the guy drove us in a circle, crossing the river twice because “roads were closed,” and stopping at a gas station for a toilet break – whatever, we had already agreed on a price, so it’s not like the meter was running.
We stayed in the hotel until later that evening when we had to run a quick errand to the tailor for a fitting for Igor’s new suits (looking good!). Since we were already out, Igor suggested that we head over to the Soi Cowboy – Bangkok’s red-light district. Lindsay was feeling sorry for the poor boy, as he was still hurt from his bee sting, so she agreed. It actually wasn’t as seedy as we were expecting. Is was also *small* – barely one street block, packed with several dozen neon-lit go-go bars. We were really early (it was only around 6PM), so maybe the unsavory characters hadn’t come out yet? (Although there were A LOT of 60+ yo white guys with scantily-clad 20-something Thai girls – GROSS!) We didn’t go into any of the bars…this time. But we are coming back to Bangkok in a few weeks before we fly to South America…so…
Walking through Bangkok’s famous red-light district, the Soi Cowboy