One of the places that I've wanted to visit is Wat Phra Kaew & Grand Palace. I've been in the area 3 consecutive days now, but the freaking place has been closed each time. The first time I tried, I got off the skytrain and planned to grab a tuk-tuk (the most amazing form of ground transportation -- I kinda want to buy one) to head over the temple. Well, as I was walking out of the train station, I was instantly greeted by an amazingly friendly guy dressed in slacks and a nice shirt. He said he was with some tourism bureau, and asked me for my map -- waiting to get ripped off somehow, I reluctantly offered it to him. He proceeded to mark up my map with places I need to visit. He said the Grand Palace was closed today, but I should do x,y, and z. I found it amusing that he told me that I had to visit one of the red light districts -- he first asked if I was married, and when I told him I wasn't, he said that I would love it. To me, it was crazy that an "official" tourism person is pushing the red light districts, too. haha -- gotta love Bangkok!
As near as I can tell, the majority of the in-town sight-seeing activities are conveniently concentrated in one part of the city, which makes seeing multiple things on one trip really easy.
At any rate, my tourism guide hailed a tuk-tuk for me and told the driver to not charge me a bhat over 100B ($3) for the driver to take me to 3 places and to wait for me at each place. Off we sailed...
The tuk-tuk is basically a golf cart with a large lawnmower's engine. These things are ubiquitous and fly in and out of traffic in an astonishingly graceful manner. Not sure why anyone would ask (we're dealing with Bangkok, here), but there are no seat belts or doors -- I almost forgot the doors thing when a bag I was carrying later in the day almost shot outta the ride. For those of you looking for more pictures with me, you can see a tiny image of me in the rearview mirror. Also, note in the third pic the image of the king -- his picture is all over the place here. I would've killed myself if I had to look at George Bush's picture this often back in the day...
First stop, Wat Ratchanadda. I don't pretend to know the historical significance of these structures, so you'll see that I've linked the wiki pages for your reading pleasure. I just took pictures of "shiny, pretty things." When I entered this temple, there was one other guy there -- which in is hindsight is really weird since all of the other places I visited were generally crowded. The guy was from London clued me in to some interesting things. More about this once I get to London (we plan to "share a pint" when I get there in a week). Anyway, enjoy some pics! One word of caution: all of the pics on this blog have been taken with my phone's camera (crazy, right??). For the most part, I've been really pleased with the outcome; however, with these golden buddha statues, it doesn't do the best job, as you'll notice below :( Rest assured -- the statues are really amazing ;p
I found the use of modern fans pretty comical -- in nearly every temple I visited, immaculate statues and paintings adorned the building, and then a random $2 Wal-mart fan would be chilling in the middle of the temple. Kinda funny to me, but I digress...
So, as I was exiting the tuk-tuk, I suffered my first traveling physical injury that has potentially disrupted my soccer career. As a disclaimer to my loyal followers, the next picture is gruesome -- avert your eyes if you don't want to see it...
last chance to avoid it...
After Wat Ratchanadda, we flew over to Wat Benchamabophit (I'll call it by its other name -- the Marble Temple). This place really stood out to me. It resides on a whole compound that truly possessed an eastern and serene feel. I know the pics won't do justice to any of the temples, but ridiculously intricate patterns line the entryways. I've tried to do a decent job of capturing the images, but it's one of those, you gotta be there to see it, things (yes, I've been hired by the Bangkok Tourism Bureau ;p).
Outside this temple, there was a courtyard lined with Buddhas that had been recovered from places throughout the Thailand kingdom. Each one had a placard that mentioned where it was found and a brief description of the Buddha. This Buddha "setup" occurred at nearly every temple. I only took pics the first time I saw it -- at this temple. Admittedly, my knowledge of Buddhism is pathetically weak, so I didn't realize that there were so many Buddha positions immortalized -- I guess I really only considered the "sitting" Buddha to be the "only" Buddha, so it was interesting to me to see such a variation of interpretations.
Behind the main temple was an open area -- this is pretty typical for the temples that I visited...
A stream flowed in the same "compound." On the other side of the stream, several smaller buildings flanked the main temple.
Admittedly, this is a little difficult to read; I was just impressed that an immaculate temple was brought to you by Pepsi.
One of my favorite temple guards...
Once I had my fill of pics from the Marble Temple, I woke up my loyal driver, he put on his SARS mask, and we motored to Anantasamakhom (Throne Hall). This place sat on a lush garden where several workers (slaves??) were working the grounds.
Upon entering, I inadvertently walked the wrong way and got yelled at by a security guard. Not wanting to be shot, I meandered back onto the path.
A museum sits inside the building. However, as I learned later, several places have dress codes here. My shorts and t-shirt didn't jive with the dress code, so you won't be seeing any pics inside the museum. The outside was still pretty impressive:
Getting dissed at the museum didn't deter me from enjoying my day. This was the final stop for the day, so I had my loyal driver take me to the river -- where I planned to catch a water taxi back to my train stop. Well, of course, I had to wake the driver first...
We make it to the water taxi stop, I left a big, $5 tip with the driver (renting his services for the 6 hour day cost $3), and stepped towards the stop. What a cluster!
Right outside the stop, food vendors formed a gauntlet. I navigated the rows of food and tried to locate a place to buy a ticket (I learned later that you buy tickets while on the boat). No luck. I checked the water taxi map and saw that four taxi lines run throughout the day. Ok, next question -- how to tell which is which? They all basically went the same direction, but I noticed that I could get to Wat Po via water taxi, and not all stopped at the location I needed. There were some information people that told me in very broken english that I needed to wait for the taxi on the dock; gee that was helpful. I assumed that in order to catch a boat, I needed to be on the dock. However, at any point in time there were all kinds of random boats pulling into the dock. I had no idea which one to take. Eventually, a bunch of people showed up and stood on the dock with me. Then, a boat showed up.
The boat docking choreography impressed me. As the boat pulls up to the dock, one of the workers jumps onto the dock, blows a whistle and a mad scramble ensues as people are running onto and off the boat. The boat is docked no longer than 30-45 seconds.
Of course, I didn't know this dance, and as the boat pulls up, I stupidly ask the guy with the whistle if this is the southbound water taxi. He didn't acknowledge my existence; instead he loaded the boat and they were gone while I stood dumbfounded and alone on the dock.
A guy at the information desk came over to me and told me that I should've gotten on that taxi. I asked how long until the next one, and he said, 20 minutes. So I chilled on the dock and took some pics.
The river's water was freaking nasty. Boats were everywhere; spewing oil and gas all over the place. Off the horizon, I could see both parts of the skyline and temples. This definitely didn't feel like any place in the States I've ever visited.
The dock was rickety, but reasonably stable. I can't imagine how old it was. Tires had been affixed to the dock, so the incoming boats could just smash against the dock. Each time a boat docked, the boat lurched into the dock, and the riders onboard would receive a nice jarring sensation. As crappy as it appeared to be, the whole thing worked and had a charming, old world feel to it.
Near the edge of the dock, hundreds of fish chilled out, waiting for someone to throw food into the water. Once the food hit the water, the fish went insane. Some would jump out of the water onto the top of the pile. Some would flip around like they undergoing seizures. Basically, they responded the same I do to Reese's Peanut Butter Cups...
Finally, the taxi made an appearance. I ain't missing this one ;p
Once on board, the workers started yelling, "Inside!! Inside!! Go Inside!!" We were hoarded in like sheep as they continued to pack people on the boat. I estimated that they can squeeze about a hundred people on the boat. Luckily, I got a window seat, and enjoyed the 10 minute ride to Wat Po.
Wat Po needs its own blog entry. Props to Nikki for giving me a heads-up about it. It was well worth the trip there!
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