Sunday, January 20th - Bangkok

It is difficult to believe that it is January as the weather here in Thailand is at least 30 degrees and it is very sunny all day long.  It seems more like June.


Sunday, being the last day of our stay at the Feung Nakong Balcony Guest House, we treated ourselves to breakfast at the G.H.  It really was a very large breakfast, if you wanted it to be, with many different foods, i.e., eggs, ham, toast, yogurt, museli many different types of fruit and most importantly, coffee -- what a feast.  This breakfast was a considerable change from our previous breakfasts of street food, 7/ll, etc.  After breakfast we packed our knapsacks, put them in storage at the G.H. and proceeded with the plan for the day -- touring the Grand Palace and Wat Pho.  Both of these sites were within easy walking distance from the G.H., as the G.H. street is one of the oldest in Bangkok.

The Grand Palace, also known as as the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, Wat Phra Kaew is the colloquial name of the vaqst, fairy-tale compound that also includes the former residence of the Thai monarch.  Housed in a fantastically decorated boht (temple) and guarded by pairs of yaksha (mythical giants), the Emerald Buddha is the temple's primary attraction.  It sits atop an elevated altar, barely visibl amid the gilded decorations.  The figure is always cloaked in royal robes -- one for each season.  The king, or in recent years, the prince chnges the garments at the beginning of each season.  Recently restored Buddist murals line the interior walls of the boht. 

The largest of the palace buildings is te Chakri Mahaprasat, the Grand Palace Hall that was built in 1882 by British architects using Thai labour.  The exterior of the building is a paculiar blend of Italian Renaissance and traditional Thai architecture.  It's a style often referred bo as farang sai cha dah (Westerner in a Thai crown) because each wing is topped by a heavily ornamented spire representing a Thai adaptation of the Hindu mandapa (Shrine). 

The Crown Palace is truly an unbelieveable site (another one in Thailand).  Pictures cannot capture the overwhelming opulence of the buildings -- gold and glitter, more gold and glitter and more gold and glitter.  As you walk around attempting to capture the immense beauty of this site with pictures you realize that it is not possible to capture the feeling that this site evokes.  Because we visited this site on Sunday, we had the opportunity to witness many Buddha worshippers praying in various locations during our tour. 

After we toured the Grand Palace compound, we walked over to the Wat Pho, home to the genuinely impressive Reclining Buddha, 46m long and 15 m high, the Buddha illustrates the passing of the Buddha into nirvana (i.e., the Buddha's death).  The figure is modelled out of plaster around a brick core and finished in gold leaf.  Mother-of-pearl inlay ornaments the feet, displaying 108 different characteristics of a Buddha. 

Wat Pho is also the national headquarters for the teaching and preservation of traditional Thai medicine, including Thai massage, a mandate legislated by Rama III when the tradition was in danger of extinction.   At Wat Pho we witnessed a Buddhist prayer ceremony with approximately a dozen monks chanting -- it was magical.  These sites left us speechless in terms of witnessing spectacular visions.

Following our explorations, we returned to our G.H. to retrieve our knapsacks and go to the bus station to catch our overnight bus to Chiang Mia.  Our two-storey Frist Class bus arrived and we boarded at 8:45 pm.  We wondered why everyone was wearing jackets in the heat at the bus station. We realized why people were dressed more warmly in the bus station when we arrived in Chiang Mia at 6.00 a.m. We experienced a temperature drop having travelled nine hours north.