I woke up around 8am as I had decided to spend my mornings visiting and my afternoons by the pool enjoying the sun. I took the boat shuttle from the hotel to the central pier, figured out which boat was the Chao Phraya River Express Boat, and waited for it. 10min later I was seating in the ferry going up the river from until stop 9, Tha Chang Pier. Given there was no one joining me on this trip I gave total freedom to my mania of taking millions of pictures. As I do not want to overwhelm you with them, I will make short videos that you may choice to watch or skip :) so to get you started here is the riverside going up the river Chao Phraya and going down.
1st stop: Wat Pho
Wat Pho is Bangkok’s largest and oldest-surviving temple. Apart from its historical significances, visitors come to Wat Pho to pay homage to the monumental Reclining Buddha. After seeing the 26m high Buddha in the Lama Temple in Beijing I was prepared for a big Buddha. It turned out that one is insanely big: 46m long, 15m high (see here by yourself)! It’s made out of brick and plaster covered with gold (so I read in the travel guide). The interesting part of that Buddha is his feet (no fetishism here). Seriously, his feet are covered with mother-of-pearl illustrating the 108 auspicious signs for recognizing Buddha. Very impressive piece of handicraft making me wish I could have a few pieces of furniture with mother-of-pearl.
2nd stop: Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew
After admiring the Reclining Buddha it was time for the Emerald Buddha (I know lot’s of Buddhas around here). I walked from one Buddha to the other coming across a street market where they were selling some quite appealing food. I didn’t try though, too afraid that my stomach would not survive to it and spoil the rest of my stay. Still very pleasant scent experience.
For those who don’t know, Thailand is a kingdom and the Grand Palace is the royal residence. Numerous throne halls and temples are located in that complex. Once again I’m visiting a palace and the king doesn’t come to welcome me. What a disappointment! Luckily for him, the Grand Palace is worth the visit especially the temples and throne halls. The real jewel of this complex is Wat Phra Kaew, the royal monastery of the Emerald Buddha. The moment you enter the monastery you are surrounded by gold and other gems. Everything shines.
As it is a monastery you have to wear decent clothing to get in, i.e. no short pants or skirts, no sleeve-less shirt, etc. Thai people are very organized. Instead of forbidding you the access, they lend you a piece of clothe to compensate the one you’re missing (you do have to give a deposit of 100 THB). As much as I find this system great as nothing is more disappointing that coming all the way to the Grand Palace and not getting in, from a hygiene point of view, I’m not convinced as they do not wash the clothes between 2 persons and with the high temperature of Bangkok, people sweat…. On top of wearing decent clothes, you also have to remove your shoes before entering the temples.
Now that you are dressed appropriately and bare foot, let’s go check out the Emerald Buddha. 1st surprise, it’s small, very small (75cm high only). It’s green but I learnt that it’s not made of Emerald but Jade (the one who found it in the 1st place made a mistake: he thought the green stone was emerald. Men…). I was not really impressed by this little Buddha which Thai people were worshipping, but I was more by its temples and all the buildings around that really left me speechless. After such beauty the palace itself was a bit disappointing as there was not much to see, except some thrones and paintings.
The video.
After such amazing visits to the temples and palace, my eyes still filled with all the gold I saw, I had a quick lunch and headed back to the hotel, via boat of course. I jumped into my bathing suit and enjoyed the swimming pool through out the afternoon. While lying there feeling the sun on my face I was thinking “I should do that every winter. When it’s cold and dark I should escape to a warm location and enjoy some days of sun bathing”
After a few hours in a sun I explored Siam square, one of the very popular shopping areas in Bangkok. I struggled quite a lot as there were sales, which is torture for the shopping addict that I am. But I decided not to buy anything until I have explored the night market and Chatuchak week-end market. Let’s be patient.
To complete my 1st day in Bangkok, I went for a massage in the luxurious hotel Spa. I picked the “recovery massage” which consisted in 1h of body massage using aromatherapy oils. I can tell you it does relax you very well as right now, I really feel like sleeping. Every now and then, between 2 Chinese massages, I should go for aromatherapy and relax.
No comments:
Post a Comment