Jeff headed off to 'work' at his 'office'. My goal for the day was to see the National Museum. Apparently it's huge and takes at least 3-4 hours to tour around. And it's essential to take the free 9:30am early morning tour or you'll just be too confused about how things are laid out and what it's all about.. Unfortunately it's closed on Mondays. Having walked all the way there from our accommodation in Banglampoo, I figured it was best to see what else was within walking distance. Having noticed a Tourist Center on my walk over to the Museum I headed back there.
The tourist centre is pretty good, it's clean, well staffed and has some basic good brochures about what to do around Bangkok. I'm sure they could have given me more information than what I asked for too.
I headed for the Wat Suthat - Temple of immesureable charm. Also called the Big Swing Wat. This Wat has a 14th century Buddha statue from the Sukhothai period, surrounded by surreal depictions of the Buddha's last 24 lives. The courtyard is filled with odd statues of scholars and sailors, brought as ballast in rice boats returning from China, while the doors of the Wat have been carved by King Rama II. In an annual ceremony to celebrate the rice harves that was still observed just before World War II, men used to ride on the Giant Swing and try to grab a bag of silver coins attached to a pole. Only the teak arch remains. All around this particular Wat is a huge number of shops that have every Buddhist ecclesiastic image or supply you could want.
I was utterly charmed by this Wat. Perhaps because I was practically the only person there when I first went in. And for 20 baht it was well worth it. I spent about an hour and a half walking around taking photos and just enjoying the peace.
The Wat is rectangular in shape, but lots smaller than more others I've seen. The outer walls are surrounded by statues of Buddha, covered from the elements by concrete canopies. Each wall had 8 buddhas, a total of 24 for the 24 lives of Buddha presumably. Each of courfse was unique.
The Buddha in the Temple itself is enormous and like many of them covered completely in gold leaf. There were quite a lot of Thai devotees paying their respects to the Buddha. It seems to be a more real, used, ordinary persons temple than many of the other highly decorated and visited ones.
Other tourists were discretely taking photos, which is ok here. I sat quietly enjoying the peace until some ignorant tourists wanted to take photos standing in front of the Buddha. The group of 3 people were probably from one of the former Soviet Union countries, judging by their language and accent. The man and woman stood in front of the Buddha behind the devotees, which in itself was ok. But the Grandpa sat on the door transem, which is a big NO NO and then proceeded to point his feet at Buddha! I was so upset.
I interrupted them and told them with gestures they should point their feet back away from Buddha. Notices are posted everywhere and it's in all the tour guides, you do NOT point your feet at Buddha. But there are still some people who don't pay attention to the details.
For me the old Chinese statues were the most fascinating. Their expressions ranged from scowling fiercely to happy Buddha laughs.
Chinese Ballast statuery
After that I took my leave and wandered off heading in the general direction of Wat Ratchanatda. But still not being too familiar with the city I got a bit lost. However that turned out for the best.
I happened on an entrance that looked like it was going to a Wat. It was down an alleyway where some vendors had Buddha statutes and other accessories for sale. Walking through the alley I saw no distinct entrance or evena a sign for an entrance. When I reached the end of the alley I turned right and just as I did so a little Thai gentleman started pointing to a gate. At this point I had figured out I'd come in the back door. He was trying to point me in the right direction to enter, and with no English all he could do was gesture. I followed him and found the next wonderous Wat.
I don't know what it's name was, and there was no entrance fee with an official ticket, just a donation box. It think there were about 4 people in total looking around this particular Wat.
This Wat is wonderous because it doesn't have a large central shrine, in fact it's so small I can see why it's rarely visited. It's also in not the greatest of condition and doesn't have the fancy decorations other Wats do. But it does have an amazing spiral staircase up the centre which rises 4 floors high. On each floor there's an exit off the spiral staircase. The walls of each floor are surrounded by buddhas. Behind each Buddha is a window, and the floor are open. So standing at one side you can look through to the other side, where there's a window facing you and another Buddha sitting.
It took me probably a good hour and a half to go up each floor and walk around to see the buddhas. Finally, at the top, you can go out onto the roof which gives you a 360 degree view of the city neighbourhood below. I was very taken with this Wat.
Finally, I was heading home, heading in the direction of Democracy monument when I spied another temple entrance. As this didn't have any sign or offical designation that I could see or read I guessed it probably wasn't on the tourist trail. As I stepped in over the transem I stood quietly expecting perhaps to be asked to leave because it was private. To my left there was a large group of Thai sitting on a raised platform obviously celebrating something.
Stepping in further I could see that there was something happening in the Shrine itself. Gingerly I took off my shoes and walked up the steps. Looking in the door I saw a group of monks sitting close to Buddha, with a second group sitting a little further back. Some thai family groups seemed to be sitting to the back and side. The monks were chanting and as the chanting finished one of them got up and walked back towards the back wall. This happened twice more, with who I think were novice monks. Then the elder monk walked back to them and continued the chanting after which the rejoined all the monks at the front. My guess is that it was an initiation ceremony. I was so lucky to have happened on it.
Finally I got back to our accommodation, just before a thunderstorm broke. What timing. Later when Jeff got home we had dinner at the restaurant below as it was still raining and I'd just had my hair washed and blow dried yesterday.
I got my rain jacket and Jeff headed to the room to do more work. I walked over to Khao san road, got some contact lense solution in Boots and headed to the Grand bar for a beer and a movie. It was Bend it Like Beckham. A great movie. Mid-showing though a large cockroach decided to take a walk along the bar where I was sitting. It took a good whack with the little menu stand to push him off and have him fly away somewhere else.
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