As we were landing in Bangkok the pilot warned that
importing pornography, fire arms, and narcotics is illegal. Signs in immigration control reminded that
Buddha is for respect, not decoration.
Our tour guide warned us that Bangkok is a “fantastic organized chaos”
and the new #1 tourist destination in the world, beating out London. We have four days to discover the unfamiliar
culture of Bangkok and its surrounding areas!
At the top of every tourist’s list is a visit to the Grand
Palace. If you have read anything about
it, then you have seen the warnings telling you to ignore the locals who hang
out on your way to the palace and tell you it is closed – they want to take you
to a “better” place (that involves a payoff for them). There are even signs around the palace
telling you to beware of these unlicensed guides – “they are lying” – the
palace is open every day. Ironically,
the palace is closed for our visit. It
is actually closed under tragic circumstances: their beloved King Bhumibol
passed away mid-October after ruling amicably for 70 years. Our guide contacted us a day ago to inform us
that the palace would be closed for the 50th day ceremony of his death. Fortunately we had an ounce of flexibility in
our itinerary that allowed us to instead tour the palace immediately when we
arrived – right before it closed for a few days.
All over Thailand are huge impromptu shrines honoring the deceased king
The Grand Palace is an enclosure of amazingly ornate,
oversized temples crammed into a ridiculously small area overcrowded with
thousands of tourists. However, I think
I might have been more fascinated with the sheer volume of Thai people, all
dressed in black, there to pay respect to the king. Each day since his death, 40,000 citizens
visit and wait in the seemingly infinte line for 10 hours!
Free water, food and even gifts are offered to the people while they
wait. What an orchestration it was! “We are like this every day,” said our guide
Ms. Pookie.
Thailand's Grand Palace - even though royalty doesn't live here, much of the palace is closed to the public
The temple Wat Phra Kaew contains the greatly revered Emerald Buddha
The building where the king's body is on display. Thai people can only be dressed in all black or a school uniform.
Next Pookie took us on a private long tail boat ride through
Bangkok’s quiet canals (called klongs).
I enjoyed passing picturesque scenes of Thai river life; nearly everyone
we passed smiled and waved!
The choppy water of the Chao Phraya River, running through the center of Bangkok, makes getting on the long tail boat challenging.
"Get a picture of the engine; it's bigger than most car engines!" -- Greg
After sitting at a standstill in traffic for an hour, I was amazed these peaceful klongs exist in the center of Bangkok
The klongs are lined with homes
Careful of monitor lizards if you decide to swim in the canal - they are in the Komodo dragon species and are bigger than me!
We stopped at a temple to buy food for the fish
As a single unimpressive catfish surfaced to eat the bread, Pookie kept repeating, "Did you get it?" Suddenly the water erupted!
The boat dropped us off at the flower and vegetable
market. Since it is known mostly as a
wholesale market, I was glad we had Pookie with us or I would’ve felt very
out-of-place.
Something tells me they eat a lot of ginger in Thailand
The market mostly had flowers for offering
The before and after of a lotus flower: they twist back the petals resulting in a blooming flower that appears to be made of silk.
Our last stop was Wat Pho, particularly known for an
enormous reclining Buddha (151 feet long and 49 feet high).
Wat Pho
The temple is lined with 394 Buddha
The reclining Buddha represents the dying Buddha in the position he adopted to attain nirvana (release from the cycle of rebirth)
The illuminated stupas at Wat Pho
Bangkok tuk tuks are notoriously difficult to bargain; fortunately we had Pookie
Utterly exhausted, we could barely keep our eyes open long
enough to finish a small bag of chips for dinner.
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