We meet at 9 a.m. for a walk down to the waterside where we will have an hour long tour of some of Bangkok's canals. Already, it is hot and muggy as we stroll through the back alleys, past the vendors and their stands. We meet our local guide - he calls himself Mr. James Bond.... I think....or he called the boat that. He will guide us through the canal tour and the tour of the Wat Po temple.
Cruising the canals by boat seems to be a much more efficient way to get around the city. Just don't look at the water... The long boat is surprisingly comfortable despite its humble makings. The motor at the back is a car engine stuck along a 15foot metal pole that ends in a propellor. It whistles and roars as we shoot through the water, making it almost impossible to hear our guide. His shaky English doesn't help with the comprehension.
We get the gist of things, though. We pass by the royal boat museum where we see the boats used in the celebrations for the King's birthday. They are incredibly ornate.
We pass by scores of temples with the sandbags still in place from last year's flooding. Everywhere along the canals are signs of the flood. Houses that have fallen apart, some pieced back together. Everywhere the dark water lines are high up on the sides of the buildings.
At one temple we stop to feed the fish. This brings good Karma says James Bond. It looks as though nothing could breathe in these soupy waters, but at the first sign of bread crumbs, the water begins to boil with fat slimy black eyed catfish, mouths agape. The catfish know to stay near temples as the Good Karma feeding is frequent - from locals and tourists alike!
Back through the canals we zip, spying large lounging monitor lizards along the banks. It used to be that the lizards were caught to make bags, but now there is a government law and their numbers have begun to grow again.
Our boat ride ends at the docks near the temple, Wat Po. We walk along the streets and back alleys, taking in the myriad of stalls and the diversity of food for sale. It is unbearably hot now and we are all dripping sweat.
Wat Po is another old, old temple... The oldest we hear (but we hear that about nearly every site and monument... everything is very old and very special), and indeed they tend to be.
Wat Po temple is famous for housing the reclining golden Buddha. We had no idea just how large it truly was. It is 45 meters long and as high as the ceiling. The Buddha' smile alone is 5 meters wide. This pose is important as it shows the Buddha about to enter nirvana just before death. The Buddha's enormous feet are inlaid with ornate mother of pearl panels, each depicting the 108 lakshanas (auspicious signs) that distinguish the true Buddha.
We tour through the rest of the temple grounds, visiting other Buddhas and marveling at the structure and the buildings (many inlaid with porcelain china from ages ago).
After our tour of Wat Po, the group splits up. Some of our troupe have already visited the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaeo, while others have not. As we are in the latter group, we opt to stay on with Mr. Bond and have a guided experience through the royal palace.
Mr. James Bond stops Keir on the way in and measures the length of his pants to make sure they meet the entry requirements - proper respect must be shown! Keir pulls his pants down 'homey style' and manages to just make the cut!
The grounds are remarkable. This is the holiest site in the country, home to many Thai kings and the emerald Buddha is housed here. The temples, libraries, mausoleum, ordination buildings....are all incredibly beautiful. It is mind boggling to think that it was all built in 2 years time. The details are minute.
The Emerald Buddha is only 75cm high and is made of solid jade. Today he is decked out in his winter outfit (the King changes his costume three times a year - summer, rainy, winter). The murals that surround the Wat walls stretch for over a kilometer and, in 178 panels, tell the story of the Ramayana. They depict every single aspect of this Hindu story of Good triumphing over Evil. These too are mesmerizing.
As we look into the royal palace through the closed gates, we hear the first crack of thunder, but it is not until after we look at the coronation hall that the skies open up..
It teams, it pelts, it streams, it floods. Keir and I duck into a cubby in the wall across from one of the royal guards (who looks all of 16 years of age) and watch as first the cockroaches wash up, then the lizards and then the frogs. It's a bit like a plague. After about an hour, the rain subsides enough that we can don our rain coats and head out.... brushing away the cockroaches trying to climb our legs for safety. We have to remove our shoes and socks and wade through the disgusting water to get out of the palace gates. They are flooded over ankle deep. Can I use hand sanitizer to wash my feet?!?!
It's not much better out on the Bangkok streets.
We walk/swish back to the hotel and find our day room unoccupied. We shower off and pack up so we are ready for the 5 p.m departure time when it comes.
Rinsed, we head out to explore the myriad of alleys in the Khao San district. It's a warren. Restaurants and businesses in the narrowest of alleys and nothing looks like it actually is. We suss out a great veggie Thai place we've read about and stop for a late lunch.
Ahhhhh...now we find the real Thai food! We order fresh (we watch them being made) basil spring rolls (not fried of course!!) with spicy peanut sauce, pumpkin "hummus" pounded with a pestle in front of us and sticky rice and a cashew curry. Top that off with a lemon Thai iced tea? Near perfection!
Now THIS is the kind of food and flavor that Thailand is known for!
We have just enough time to get a 1/2 hour Thai massage (back, shoulders, head and neck) before we have to be back at the hotel. For $4 we are treated to an incredibly competent massage. Those Thai massages are all they are rumored to be. First, our feet are washed and then were are escorted to a comfortable room upstairs with eucalyptus oils scenting the air and soft Thai music playing. The massage is intense (but not rough) and so relaxing. We leave feeling ready for the long overnight train ride ahead of us.
A van drives us down - through the thick of the infamous Bangkok traffic - to the train station where we wander around watching a bizarre and incomprehensible train ceremony (complete with wobbly mascot) before boarding the train.
We share our compartment with Brett and Jenna from Edmonton. There are no doors on our compartment, just curtains surrounding each berth. We play card monopoly, try to decide if our server is a man or a woman and laugh, laugh and laugh.
The meal is surprisingly adequate - a mushroom veggie dish. Later, a kindly fellow comes and makes up our berths for us. We don't get too much sleep as the train makes stops throughout the night, but we are comfortable. That is, however more than we can say for the squat train toilets! Ewww!
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