Temples of Thailand

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There's nothing like starting your morning with a breakfast of Pad Thai and seeing a prostitute at work at the table next to ours. Staying at Lamphu Guesthouse on Soi Rambuttri, is much quieter then our infamous Kao San Road neighbors next door. Bangkok never sleeps, food vendors and bars are open all night, but I sensed no real danger you are left alone if that's what you want. I like our hotel, its clean, has airconditioning, its safe, staff is friendly and its only $25 a night. The location is great, steps from bars and vendors and walking distance to all the temples.
At 8:30 Wednesday morning we walked to the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaeo. Crossing the streets here is not for the faint of heart, with no traffic lights and big city traffic crossing the street becomes a sport. 15 minutes into our walk and we encountered our 1st con-artist of the day, eager to help us find our way he shows us how to get to the Palace but alas he says it is closed till 11:00pm why don't we take his tuk-tuk to the other temples first instead he suggests. Being forwarned from our guide books we ignored him and contunied on our way. In front of the walls of the palace we stood trying to find the entrance, right a way an official looking man comes up to us and says that we cannot enter untill after lunch as there is an official ceremony underway. I admit I start to believe him but Dapri is suspicious of his talkative nature we ignore him and find the entrance where we find it is open and full of visitors. The palace and the temples within are beautiful, shiny, and colorful they look like they were just constructed. There are murals protraying Hindu scenes of the Ramayana, marvaleous stupas like the huge golden Phra Si Rattana Chedi. All around there are colorful mosiacs and of course the much venerated Emerald Buddha which is surprisingly very small and actually made of jade. The palace and its temples were impressive next we headed to Wat Pho where we encountered more scammers that we ignored. This temple is indeed old and looks worn with age unlike shiny Wat Phra Kaeo. I enjoyed being able to climb and explore all the structures up close. Seeing the Reclining Buddha was a highlight as well, its so long we took pictures of it from its head to its feet next we dropped tiny coins as a symbolic offering in many small pots I enjoyed the sound of many coins falling. By now it was hot as we made our way to our last temple Wat Arun. To reach it we took a 5 minute boat ride for 3 baht ( $0.07!). I liked climbing the steep and narrow stairs of Central Prang, they are supposed to represent the difficulities humans face when trying to attain a higher level of existance. At the top, we were rewarded with a sweeping view of they city. We hung out at the top for a while in the shade coping with the blazing sun. Across the other side of the river we refreshed ourselves with freshly squeezed dragon fruit. Yum. Back at our guesthouse afer a much needed shower we headed to the food stalls. We stopped at various food stalls where the food was mostly less than a dollar. We ate pork noodles, Roti with Curry, coconut pastries, lychee and Santol flavored icecream and super spicy Papaya Salad. We washed it all down with Tiger and Chang beer.Delicious. Inbetween we stopped by a park full of foreigners reading and lounging. It was full day of culture and food it was great.

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