Back in Bangkok

I think Lee and I have gotten travel-lazy since we've been in Australia. You get used to not having the backpack on and you get comfortable because you know how everything works and it's all cool. Coming back to Thailand, we appeared to have forgotten everything we had learned on our last trip here. The taxi from the airport to the hotel cost more than it did last time for a start and it appeared that other things had also escaped our attention also.

We only had a couple of days on Bangkok this time as our time was limited and we wanted as much time in Vietnam and Cambodia as possible so we had planned to go ad see all the things we missed on our mrevious visit such as the reclining buddah, the golden buddah and the enormous Wat Pho temple.

We set out the day after our arrival to see all of these and as we headed around the corner we had our heads buried in the Lonely Planets (as per usual) and a guy stops us to ask where we are heading. We tell him that we're of to Wat Pho and he tells us that it is closed today as the monks are praying but there are a few other temples that we can go and see that are open. If we get in a tuk tuk and give the guy 40 baht (about 70 pence) he'll take us around all these temples and all we have to do is stop at a few shops on the way around and everything will be hunky dory.

Now for those of you who have been to Bangkok before, you'll know that this is one of oldest tricks in the book. The idea is that they show you around a few of the less popular temples and then take you to a jewellery shop or tailor and the guys in the stores try and get you to buy their stuff. So half an hour later, we're two average temples down and I've ordered a suit for quite a bit more than I should have paid for it. Seriously, I think Lee and I knkew we were falling for this, even as we were ordering the suit but here's the thing. Even if you get taken for a ride in Bangkok, you're still getting a bargain. I now have a tailor made suit that fits me perfectly and I've paid less than a third of what it would cost me back home, and if I want another, I just e-mail them to say I want one and they send it to me made to my measurements. It's a small comfort, but it's enough

The next day we decided we'd walk to go and see the Golden Buddah. About 40 years ago, some builders were moving a 3.2 metre high statue of a Buddah from a temple as it was being rennovated. It was covered in white stucco (I have no idea what stucco is, but according to every crime novel I've read while I've been away, every home in Los Angeles is made from it) and during the moving of the statue, some of the stucco fell away. The builders removed the rest of the covering from the statue and found that it was made of solid gold. Just to remind you, the statue is 3.2 metres high and made of solid gold. It weighs more than 5 tons and now takes pride of place at the temple it was discovered in. The things is though, that statues of Buddah are ten a penny in Bangkok so people don't actually come to see a statue of our portly pal, but they rather come to see 5 and a half tons of gold, aw in the one dod, as we say back home. There is a temple at the site of the statue which would have made a far more fitting display for such an impressive landmark, but they've stuck it in this pokey wee room where you are encouraged to part with yet more money for it's upkeep (even although removing his left toenail would probably be enough to keep it kept for good while longer) and it's all a bit tacky.

The temple though, was just round the corner from Chinatown so it was as good a place to stop as any for lunch, check oout a chinese temple and plan our next cultural excursion.

This was to be to Wat Pho, a sprawling complex of temples smack bang in the middle of Bangkok and by far one fo the most impressive. Probably second only to the Grand Palace in terms of size and stature, it's well worth investing a good few hours of your time here. There are guides outside who will take you round and to be honest I think we would recommend them to anyone as they will give you a proper guided tour and let you know everything about the temples. One of the highlights of Wat Pho is the Reclining Buddah, a 42 metre long statue of Buddah lying down as he/she prepares for it's final journey to Nirvana. It's seriously impressive to see in the flesh (or concrete), and you don't really get a good idea of it's size due to the fact that it is surrounded by about 6-7 huge pillars and the walkway around it is only about 8 feet wide so there's no chance to stand back and get a proper look at it. This is also the reason that our photos of the Buddah are taken from the feet end looking down towards the head rather than from the side. It wasn't arty or anything although Lee will try and convince you otherwise I'm sure.

The rest of Wat Pho is still really impressive to walk around. There are numerous seperate temples in the compound and each one has it's own character. There is a definite chance that you can get templed-oot in Bangkok but Wat Pho is not one of the reasons, wherever you turn there is something new and it's always interesting, the only slight negative to the place being that there is little in the way of information about each part, but I suspect this is deliberate to encourage you to hire a guide. At one point, Lee and I found ourselves sat cross-legged on the red carpet inside one of the temples staring up at the altar. It wasn't for any particular reason, it just felt like you should sit for a while and take in the detail and try and conjure up an idea of what it took to build something this spectacular, we're talking serious devotion to duty and detail here.

After our dose of religious culture for the day we headed back to our hotel for a nice quiet meal (Indian of course, seeing as we'd done the Thai thing all day, nothing like a touch of home) and then early to bed for our early rise to go to the airport.

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