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Published: November 3rd 2008
Joey lefet early for work leaving me to my own devices for the day. She had left me some sugestions and so off I went.
I jumped on the monorail to the river and once there, caught a tourist boat down stream a few piers to Wat Po - a big temple on the tourist route. Here I saw the reclining Buddha - a huge gold statue of a budda lying lengthways and lookin down into the room. Its little toe was bigger than me! I tried to take some photos but I just couldn't get the perspective so have had to buy a postcard to photograph and upload for you. I was impressed!!
From there I walked mile or so through the street market which was very similar to a car bootsale (without the cars ;-) ). There were lots of people with rugs on the floor selling complete tat. I saw the oldest mobile phone I have ever seen - it really was the size of a brick!!
The Grand Palace was next. The King's sister died earlier this year and her funeral is next weeekend. Because of this, a lot of the palace was closed and there were
processions of people walking around dressed in black who had come to pay their respects. The royal family are so important in Thailand. It was here that those German guys got caught defacing a poster of the King a couple of years ago and received the death penalty. The King has since stepped in and their sentence was reduced to life inprisonment but is still a pretty harsh reminder of the sanctity of the royal family. Can you imagine that in the UK? Spitting image...?!
The Grand Palace was beautiful but there was enogh gold to cancel out world debt! It was a bit like Stone Henge in that you look at it and wonder how the hell they managed to build it!
I met a random Canadian girl who was, like me, on her own and struggling to get photos of her trip with her in! We swapped cameras and wandered around together for a while. We found the Emerald Buddha which is not actually Emerald at all but Jade. It was found hundreds of years ago (1400's I think) covered in plaster. The story goes that the plaster chipped to reveal the green underneath and it was assumed
to be Emerald. The story spread pretty quickly and even though it was discovered to be jade when the plaster was removed, the name the Emerald buddha stuck. It really was impressive and though you weren't allowe to take photos in the chamber iteself, I managed to get one through the window!
The palace is free from Thai nationals to enter - only tourists get charged - so there were lots of locals paying their respects to the King's late sister and praying in the varrious temples.The Emerald buddha was particularly popular with the monks.
I was completely inappropriately dressed for the occasion yet again so check out my range of fabulous clothes in the pics!
On to Wat Arun across the river. I didin't spend much time here to be honest as I was a bit templed out! They are all impressive and I'm afriad to say they all look pretty similar after a while.
The next stop was MNK - a massive 7 storey market that housed, amongst eveything else you can possibly imagine, about 200 (no exaggeration) mobile phone stalls. I found a reasonable deal and am now back in contact again! I will add my number
to facebook. I never thought I'd hear myself say this but the market was a bit overwhelming. God, I'm falling apart. Not only has my tolerance for wine gone through the floor, but also my tolerance for shopping?!
I met Joey back at the apartment and we headed out for dinner. The local food is so good and so cheap that it seems to be cheaper and easier to eat out every night rather than cook at home!! We had been talking about Lost over diner and after a brief catch up I started on season 4! Fab!!
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