Bangkok Waterways and Wats

This morning was grey and muggy as I ate my rather bizarre included breakfast at the hotel (pumpkin and spaghetti carbonara...mmm...) and then met up with the group to sail along the Chao Phraya River's canals with a somewhat random guide who'd dubbed himself "James Bond". As he prattled on about stuff somewhat incomprehensibly we sat back and enjoyed the sight of the new and old of Bangkok viewed from it's water lifestyle.

Caption: From here, Bangkok looks like any other city (above). But it still retains it's traditional parts (below).

After a while, we stopped at the famous Wat Po. Of course I went here just over ten years ago but the Relining Buddha is still well worth it; being an impressive piece of religious art. The sheer volume of tourists was a bit disappointing but this is unavoidable.

One thing I didn't know before was that Wat Po is considered the birthplace of Thai massage and people come from all over Thailand to study here.

I've borrowed liberally from Wikipedia for the following:

Wat Pho is one of the largest and oldest wats in Bangkok and is home to more than one thousand Buddha images, as well as one of the largest single Buddha images; the Reclining Buddha. This Buddha is 15 metres high and 43 metres long and its feet are inlaid with mother of pearl.

Wat Pho is named after a monastery in India where Buddha is believed to have lived. Prior to the temple's founding, the site was a centre of education for traditional Thai medicine, and statues were created showing yoga positions. An enormous Buddha image from Ayuthaya's Wat Si Sanaphet was destroyed by Burmeses in 1767, King Rama I (1782-1809 A.D.) incorporated its fragments to build a temple to enlarge and renovate the complex. King Rama III (1824-1851 A.D.) added plaques inscribed with medical texts were placed around the temple. Adjacent to the building housing the Reclining Buddha is a small raised garden, the centrepiece being a bodhi tree which is propagated from the original tree in India where Buddha sat while awaiting enlightenment.

Alex and I hopped a Taxi meter to the Siam Centre for 100 baht afterward to do some shopping (or more accurately in my case to look). It's a huge modern shopping centre spanning a full city block on both sides of the road and filled with very expensive modern clothes, shoes, accessories and electronics. A little overwhelming actually.

One taxi meter later and I had time for a very late lunch of noodles and the much-missed Beer Chang before heading off to the night train.

Time to head to Laos.

Note: Yes, I know. No photo of Dave in Thailand. So, shoot me. He hid in my pack, I swear. I didn't find him till the Laos border.