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We have been very busy the past couple of days. On Friday we walked to Chinatown and had dim sum there. We walked around there and then back to the hotel for a dip in the pool. Late afternoon we went over to the MBK mall and did some browsing in the electronic section. We bought a longer charging cord for our iPads and Dave's did not work. Trying to find the same booth again was very difficult and we did our share of walking just trying to find it. The vendor was very good about it and gave Dave a different one. We had some snacks there.
Saturday was tour day. Unbeknownst to us, the main temples are closed on Sunday because they are going to be announcing a new monk. The king is coming and will be at the Royal Palace to make the announcement so all kinds of preparations were being made to prepare for his arrival. Because of that, we weren't allowed to see the Emerald Buddha. The Royal Palace actually closed at 1:00 pm on Saturday, so everyone had to go there first if they wanted to see that temple. Consequently, the temple was crawling with aggressive tourists. It was hot and crowded and we couldn't get out of there fast enough. There was a huge line up to get in to see the king. His body is lying in this temple for a year so the people can come to mourn. Then he will be cremated and his ashes placed in the temple.
It is strange that even though you're in a place of worship, there are signs everywhere warning you to be vigilant because of the pick pocketing teams! As part of the information provided by the tour company, they told us not to wear expensive shoes because sometimes they are stolen! I guess it doesn't matter where you are, that's human nature.
Second stop on Saturday was Wat Pho Temple. This is where the reclining Buddha is housed. The Buddha was built and then the temple was constructed around it. The Buddha is 15 meters tall and 45 meters long. There is only a hallway that encircles the Buddha, with tiny alcoves where donation boxes are housed. You can step out of the moving mass of people here and take a picture. This area was jam packed with people!
Every time there was a new king, they would build at least one more temple. The kings were prolific reproducers! One king had 84 children, another had 96! We asked how many women were involved, but they don't know or talk about it.
From this temple we took a long tail boat tour on the Thonburi Canal. This was quite interesting. We would have liked to be wearing a hazmat suit because the water was quite rough and even though we had a very careful driver, dirty water from the canal was splashing in our faces. There was quite a bit of debris in the water and quite a few boats on the Chao's Phraya river. The water and traffic was calmer on the canal. At one point we stopped and the tour guide got out to buy bread from a lady at the edge of the canal. We all had a chance to feed the striped catfish from the side of our boat. We also stopped on the canal because there was a 1 person floating market in a small boat that approached us. She was selling everything from cold coke to souvenirs. It was fun.
We were hungry and the guide offered a number of lunch options. We chose to eat the street food. I think he was impressed and asked a couple of times if we were sure. Ok, now we are having a little niggling doubt, but went for it. We had barbecued chicken legs, papaya salad, spicy beef and a tom yum soup that was full of dill. It was all good, even if we were sure the spicy beef was pork and we could chew it because it was so tough.
Last temple on the agenda was Wat Arun, or Temple of Dawn. It's so named because the king first landed there at dawn. There were a lot of Chinese characters at this temple. Most of the temple was built from ceramic instead of the glass tile of the other temples. A good portion of it is being reconstructed, so it didn't take too long to go through there.
From here we were accompanied by our guide to the train station where he showed us how to get to Chatuchak market. This is the largest market in Bangkok with over 8,000 stalls. They are tightly packed and the aisles are only wide enough for possibly 3 people. It was crazy busy and hot and stuffy. Jody purchased a few things.
We returned to the general area of our hotel by subway. We were hungry and tired. We happened to notice a Chinese restaurant close to our hotel, so we went there for dinner. It wasn't cheap, but the food was very good.
Interesting and fun day.
Saturday was tour day. Unbeknownst to us, the main temples are closed on Sunday because they are going to be announcing a new monk. The king is coming and will be at the Royal Palace to make the announcement so all kinds of preparations were being made to prepare for his arrival. Because of that, we weren't allowed to see the Emerald Buddha. The Royal Palace actually closed at 1:00 pm on Saturday, so everyone had to go there first if they wanted to see that temple. Consequently, the temple was crawling with aggressive tourists. It was hot and crowded and we couldn't get out of there fast enough. There was a huge line up to get in to see the king. His body is lying in this temple for a year so the people can come to mourn. Then he will be cremated and his ashes placed in the temple.
It is strange that even though you're in a place of worship, there are signs everywhere warning you to be vigilant because of the pick pocketing teams! As part of the information provided by the tour company, they told us not to wear expensive shoes because sometimes they are stolen! I guess it doesn't matter where you are, that's human nature.
Second stop on Saturday was Wat Pho Temple. This is where the reclining Buddha is housed. The Buddha was built and then the temple was constructed around it. The Buddha is 15 meters tall and 45 meters long. There is only a hallway that encircles the Buddha, with tiny alcoves where donation boxes are housed. You can step out of the moving mass of people here and take a picture. This area was jam packed with people!
Every time there was a new king, they would build at least one more temple. The kings were prolific reproducers! One king had 84 children, another had 96! We asked how many women were involved, but they don't know or talk about it.
From this temple we took a long tail boat tour on the Thonburi Canal. This was quite interesting. We would have liked to be wearing a hazmat suit because the water was quite rough and even though we had a very careful driver, dirty water from the canal was splashing in our faces. There was quite a bit of debris in the water and quite a few boats on the Chao's Phraya river. The water and traffic was calmer on the canal. At one point we stopped and the tour guide got out to buy bread from a lady at the edge of the canal. We all had a chance to feed the striped catfish from the side of our boat. We also stopped on the canal because there was a 1 person floating market in a small boat that approached us. She was selling everything from cold coke to souvenirs. It was fun.
We were hungry and the guide offered a number of lunch options. We chose to eat the street food. I think he was impressed and asked a couple of times if we were sure. Ok, now we are having a little niggling doubt, but went for it. We had barbecued chicken legs, papaya salad, spicy beef and a tom yum soup that was full of dill. It was all good, even if we were sure the spicy beef was pork and we could chew it because it was so tough.
Last temple on the agenda was Wat Arun, or Temple of Dawn. It's so named because the king first landed there at dawn. There were a lot of Chinese characters at this temple. Most of the temple was built from ceramic instead of the glass tile of the other temples. A good portion of it is being reconstructed, so it didn't take too long to go through there.
From here we were accompanied by our guide to the train station where he showed us how to get to Chatuchak market. This is the largest market in Bangkok with over 8,000 stalls. They are tightly packed and the aisles are only wide enough for possibly 3 people. It was crazy busy and hot and stuffy. Jody purchased a few things.
We returned to the general area of our hotel by subway. We were hungry and tired. We happened to notice a Chinese restaurant close to our hotel, so we went there for dinner. It wasn't cheap, but the food was very good.
Interesting and fun day.
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