Wat Pho, Temple of the Reclining Buddha

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Geo: 13.7308, 100.521

Wat Pho, The Temple of the Reclining Buddha. The temple is also known as the birthplace of traditional Thai Massage. Now one of my favorite things, for only $6/hr I confess I've indulged in twice weekly massages for the past three months. And let me say, I can now rotate my head farther around to both sides that I though humanly possible. I'm addicted, what'll I do when I have to leave here?!?!? Anyway, I digress....

This Reclining Buddha is really impressive, it's 150 feet (46 meters) long and 50 feet (15 meters) high. Unfortunately the building it's in in only a few feet wider and taller than the statue, rather like it's still in it's shipping crate. So you can't stand back from the statue to take it all in, and with a statue this big it'd be really nice to see it from a better vantage, but what can you do. It's decorated with gold plating on his body and really detailed mother of pearl on his eyes and the soles of his feet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_Pho

After walking through Wat Pho, I strolled around the huge temple grounds and surprisingly bumped into another temple on the same grounds. The doors were open so I took off my shoes an walked inside the Ubosot to find a prayer service in progress. I sat with the monks for a while and listened to their chants. I've been doing this more and more here, I don't profess to understand all that is happening here (or even a little) but it's really relaxing to sit and listen. I took a video while I was sitting here too, so I'd have the sights AND sounds of this afternoon to re-live.

http://www.into-asia.com/bangkok/attractions/watpho.php

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Comments

[joannesp]

From Mom These photos in Thailand are beautiful, a far cry from the streets of India! Enjoy, be safe, and e-mail your Mom regularly. Love you! Mom