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Published: November 7th 2014
Whoa!
First glimpse of the Reclining Buddha, impressive!October 13, 2014
Another year, time for a new adventure...this time it was to be Myanmar, with a few days of acclimation in Bangkok...more on Myanmar (Burma) later...
For now it was Bangkok; arrived later than expected due to flight delays so missed a good chunk of the first day, but after a good nap and some orientation over a pint we discovered that the location of the hotel we were at (Navalai) was perfect...5-10 minute walk to the infamous Khao San Road, right on the water and more importantly there was a water taxi stop right at the hotel, soooo convenient for much of our exploring over the following days...
Day 1 was just spent poking around the neighbourhood; crossed the street from our hotel and dove into the back streets where all sorts of restaurants, food stalls and vendors had set up shop...had my first pint on Khao San, a road comprised mainly of bars, souvenir vendors and people walking around selling cooked scorpions on sticks (at least that's what they looked like...). Spent some time with some pints and people watching before getting back to exploring; discovered the next street over had a
bunch of restaurants as well and was a little more laid back than KSR so settled in for a bite to eat...hadn't planned on eating at that point but the skies opened up and the rain came pounding down, so it was either stay put and wait it out or wander out and get soaked...stay put we did...
The following day got off to an earlier start, after breakfast at the hotel we hopped on the water taxi and headed for the Grand Palace...water taxis, loved 'em! So easy and convenient, you just jumped on the boat that was pointed in the direction you were going, paid the attendant 15 Bhat (about 50 cents) and away you went...they ran about every 5-10 minutes so you didn't have to wait long either, awesome...
Grand Palace was cool; some beautiful architecture, temples and frescos...and home to the much revered Emerald Buddha, which dates back to the 14 Century...fantastic statues "guard" the entrances to most of the buildings, and the detail in these are quite something...
Next stop was Wat Pho, home of the Temple of the Reclining Buddha...the site itself is beautiful; again many temples, buddhas and statues dot
the site, but I have to admit when we finally found the reclining Buddha I was blown away...it is huge, 46 meters long and 15 high, and when you first poke your head in you are greeted by the Buddha's massive face, very moving...to be honest I liked Wat Pho more than the palace; far less people so a much more relaxed wander around the site, and the architecture is equally impressive...do not miss if in town...
Day 2 was off to Chinatown, again via the awesome water taxis...crazy place; the people, shops, smells, sites and traffic gave this place a really cool intensity, it was fun wading through it all and just soaking it in...the one site we were aiming for was Wat Traimit, the Temple of the Golden Buddha...apparently a large stucco Buddha was being moved to the site in the 1950's when the crane operator dropped it, which only cracked the stucco and revealed a golden image...after removing the plaster they discovered it was solid gold, and at 5 meters in height and 5 and a half tons in weight is pretty impressive...
Did I mention it was hot in Bangkok? After meandering around Chinatown
Standing Guard
Statues are awesome, detail is fantastic... for a few hours it was back to the hotel and a little relaxation around the rooftop pool, fantastic...rested up for the afternoon and then it was off to something I had wanted to see: Thai Boxing! There are a couple of stadiums in Bangkok, we settled on the oldest (and conveniently closest to our hotel), Rajadamnern...
Arrived via tuk-tuk and were first greeted by all these official looking folks with clipboards and lanyards offering to help us get tickets for the event...I didn't know what was going on, but pushed a little inside and saw three ticket windows conveniently labeled 1000, 1500 and 2000 baht, so passed on the "help" and bought the cheap seat 1000 baht tix and away we went...
Friendly and helpful locals pointed us in the right direction and after climbing stairs up to the highest section we entered the arena...cool! Most if not all the locals are in this section; it's standing room only and is segregated from the other two sections with chain link fence...again cool! There were no superstars fighting this night, just some middle weights so the place was only about half full but man the crowds get into
it...gambling is king, everyone is in on the action and cheers/jeers for the fighters are passionate and fantastic (even had one local approach me and casually ask me who I thought was going to win a particular fight, told him I thought the Blue corner and no sooner had I said it then he was "bet a 1000 baht on it"? Fortunately declined, Red corner beat him....haha....).
Fights are 5 three minute rounds; the warm up is cool with the fighters stretching and praying, going through all sorts of rituals before the bell rings...very well organized as well, as soon as one fight ends the other fighters are coming out for the next bout...the other awesome thing is there are musicians who play during the matches! At first I thought it was just canned music, but the lovely K pointed the three guys out (two on these hand held drums and one playing a monotone bell of some sort), gave it this weird but wonderful intensity during the fights...loved it!
A couple of beers, a bunch of fights and fortunately a t-shirt from the joint and it was back to the Khao San Road area for dinner and
Fresh fish...
....mmmmm.... frivolity...
That would do it for our stay in Bangkok, it was off to Mandalay in Myanmar to begin that portion of the adventure...loved the place though, will likely be back at some point...
(Some photos copyright of Karen C., denoted by (KC)...used with kind permission)
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RENanDREW
Ren & Andrew
Fantastic photo!
Our visit to Wat Pho was on a VERY hot Saturday with massive crowds - I'd love to see it again on a less busy day.