I'm very pleased with myself - I didn't get lost once today. I took the underground from Ratchadaphisek to Sukhumvit (how's those names!) where I changed to the skytrain and then made another change onto another sky-train. Then I took one of the Chao Phraya tourist boats up the river and alighted at the correct Pier. There are a whole lot of boats and they are essentially busses that ply up and down the river. You buy a day pass and you can hop on and off as the spirit moves you.
Anyway, my first stop was Wat Pho. I had a very helpful guide who used to be a monk at Wat Pho, then he was a soldier for 2 years and is now a guide. The temple is the oldest (16th century)and largest in Thailand, It also has the largest reclining Buddha, built of brick and mortar. Other Buddhas in the temple are built of brass, the largest, weighing many tons, required 7 elephants to transport it from the river. Supplicants place gold leaf on the Buddha - on the forehead for clearer thinking, on the mouth for better communication and so on. Others are completely plated with gold leaf annually as a matter of maintenence.
After the temple I was walking to the Royal Grand Palace when I was accosted by a tuk-tuk driver offering me a tour of many other wats for only THB10. I was highly suspicious but eventually I went with him.
Apart from many other temples, he also took me to several jewellry manufacturing factories. Turns out that today the tuk-tuks get a generous petrol allowance for taking farangs to these places, whether they buy or not! Hence the THB10 charge.
By now it was about 17h30 and time to be heading home. I have only done about half of what I wanted, so I'm gonna have to come back here again in the next couple of days.
I headed back for the river and had a meal of noodle soup with fish balls at a local dining establishment. While I was eating the owner came out with some Thai whiskey and offered me some. He took a sip first to demonstrate how good it was. Then his wife (?) sat at my table and offered me some of her food. These people really are amazing!
Interestingly, I ate at the hotel last night and had the gyppos after. I've eaten at several of these less formal establishments with no problems!
After catching the boat I did the sky-train thing with all the commuters on their way home from work, caught the underground to Bang Sue (noun, not phrasal verb) and got back to my hotel.
And I never got lost once - though I did have my GPS in my pocket just in case!
No comments:
Post a Comment