Bangkok temples

---

I’d like to welcome my parents to the next generation. We’re all slow movers on technology - we finally just had our first video call over Skype this morning. It went pretty well.

After my call, I went upstairs to change into a pair of jeans to go out touring. One of the sights I planned to see is strict on covering the knees, shoulders and feet so I had to go with pants in this tropical weather.

I left the hostel to head down to the Grand Palace, the pants place, and get out of these jeans as soon as possible. Along the way I passed the Giant Swing, which was more of a structure than an actual swing. I thought maybe you could ride the swing.

I got to the Grand Palace after about 20 minutes of walking and really wasn’t too hot, having sought shade throughout the trip. When I got to the palace I was greeted by a local guy who claimed that the palace was closed today until 2:00 due to a public holiday. He recommended me and another girl go to a different temple in the meantime. It sounded quite a bit like a scam to get us into his tuk tuk and take us for a joyride so we both walked to a different entrance. We made our way through to the ticket stand and found that there was no such closure. There are a lot of scam artists here.

The Grand Palace complex contains the former royal residence and throne halls of Thailand‘s kings, a number of government offices and the Wat Phra Kaeo with its Temple of the Emerald Buddha. I first explored the Temple area. It was beautiful, with ornately decorated buildings and statues everywhere consisting of rich colors of gold, silver, red and blue. However, anything beyond the superficial was lost on me. I wasn’t sure what all I was looking at. I have no real understanding of the local history and culture (I‘m still trying to find something on this). I do have a limited basis on Buddhism from a college Sociology course but, like the info pamphlets, it was of little help to me today.

After a couple hours of looking around the temple and the other parts of the palace grounds, I found an outdoor marketplace where I grabbed some lunch. I finally tried some Pad Thai, a noodle dish with egg. It was excellent after I added some extra spice to it. This place, like most others, gave me some spices to add. This must be their way of cooking for foreigners - let them add the spice to their liking.

Following my lunch I found a cheap belt at the market. I really needed one as my jeans were barely resting on my hips. I must have lost a few pounds because they are about ready to just fall off. Same with one of my pairs of shorts without a drawstring. I was pretty happy that I bartered with the guy, reducing his asking price by more than a third.

While I was in the area, and unsure of the dress code, I walked down to Wat Pho, home of the famous reclining Buddha. The reclining Buddha is a 46 meter long, 15 meter high gold Buddha that illustrates the passing of the Buddha into nirvana. He looked pretty relaxed with a smug little grin on his face. Again, I could only appreciate this on a very basic level.

I started my walk back in the heat with very little shade to help my journey. By the time I got back I was soaked, peeling my shirt off in my room. These people are insane walking around like this.

After a bit of a cool down, I got myself together, put on some more reasonable attire (shorts) and headed out for the Golden Mount. The Golden Mount is part of another temple called Wat Saket. Specifically, the Golden Mount is the section of the temple reached by climbing 318 steps.

I climbed these steps this afternoon - only counting 317 steps - and was treated to some great views of the city. I also got to strike a large gong on the way up.

Back at the hostel I did some more trip planning, still trying to figure out my travel plans from here. After a couple hours of researching flights I finally decided on going to Siem Reap next, then Ho Chi Minh City (my flight is now booked) and Ha Noi. After that it’s still a little fuzzy as getting to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand and departing Luang Prabang in Laos look to be really expensive. I’ll have to keep working on these.

After wrapping up my planning I went out to find some dinner. I headed down to Khao Sand Road, where the bulk of the backpackers stay to see that area on my way to an Indian-Thai fusion restaurant recommended by my travel guide. Khao Sand Road was loaded with people, all stopping to look at the various clothes for sale and to view the street vendors along the side of the road. There were too many people here - I’m happy with where I’m staying.

Parallel to Khao Sand Road was the street on which the restaurant was located where I planned. Or at least it used to be; I couldn’t find it anywhere.

On my second pass I came upon a street vendor with a unique display - a smorgasbord of deep fried bugs and other critters. There were grasshoppers, frogs, maggots, beetles, cockroaches and God knows what else. Not one to back down from an eating disgusting foods challenge, I went with the sampler for 50 Bhat (about $1.60) - some of each. I received a plastic bag with them all mixed together. A group of non-local Asian kids looked on. One girl had to take a picture of me with a cockroach in my mouth. She was also kind enough to take one with my camera. The bugs were neither good nor bad - they were just crunchy masses of nothingness with a bit of spicy flavoring. They could have been mistaken for chips had I not known what they actually were.

For my actual dinner, I went with another round of Pad Thai. This time I got it with seafood and requested that the vendor make it spicy. She complied, adding some dried peppers. It was excellent but it still could have used more.

I headed home and laid low. Tonight I hit the rack early yet again. Tomorrow I’m taking a Thai cooking class.

---

Photos

Temple of Emerald Buddha
Inside people convey their respect to the Lord Buddha and his teachings.

Not sure what this is
But it looks ornate.

Painter
A painter touches up the outdoor galleries.

Pad Thai
My pad Thai lunch from a street vendor.

Reclining Buddha
Just relaxing.

Buddhas
A wall full of Buddha statues.

Bugs
The smorgasbord of bugs and other critters.

Eating a cockroach
Crunchy isn't it?

Street vendor
The street vendor's setup with my pad Thai cooking in the background.