Sunday, March 1, 2009

Bangkok - Buddhist Temples and Travel

Thais are genuinely friendly, open and welcoming. They also seem very religious and take both the Buddha and the king very seriously. Today we visited the three most important temples as well as the former royal palace on a walking tour taken from the "Lonely Planet Guide". To visit the temples, it is necessary to be appropriately dressed: long pants and sleeves and you have to take off your shoes when you enter.

We began our walk by taking one of the ferries that run on the river which passes through the heart of Bangkok from our hotel south a few stops. The conductors of these boats are extremely skilled, signalling the driver with a whistle as to how far from the dock, how fast and when to back up or go forward, then jumping off the boat and tieing it to the dock. The boats spend as much time docking as a bus would stopping at a bus stop. It is a model of efficient urban river travel. By the way, Buddhist monks have their own reserved standing area on the boat.



We walked through a secular and Buddhist university campus and then to the amulet market where people buy good luck charms with religious symbolism. Judy bought the ring right in the middle of the photo. From there we went to the royal palace a sprawling walled compound housing former royal palaces, a museum of precious royal objects, historical pieces, weapons and money. The objects were both rich and precious. We next went to Wat Phra Kaew the holiest of temples in the palace grounds where the Emerald Bhudda is housed (it is actually jade). There are numbers of adorned praangs and stupas (painted towers) housing relics of the kings (invariably name Rama) .


By this time the temperature was near 100 degrees and humid but not to be deterred we went on to visit the golden reclining Buddha, housed in a temple at Wat Pho and taking up most of the space of the temple. The Buddha was awesome in size and beautiful to gaze at and for some reason, pictures were allowed to be taken of him. Along the side of the temple were 112 (not sure of exact numer) of bowls into each of which you placed small change as an offering. I think the tradition represents giving alms to the monks, but I'm not sure of that one.

Finally we crossed the river by ferry to Wat Arum, another temple with a grand view of the city. This temple had a tower that we ascended that had much the feel of a Mayan puramid in Central America. As we went higher, the steps got progressively steeper. This temple had shards and entire small pieces of ceramic bowls and plates embedded in its sides.

Back to the hotel for a swim and shower and then on to Khao San Road for dinner and entertainment, consisting of watching people on the street.

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