but, this will be about bangkok. i stayed in bangkok for a day before boarding the flight at 1AM. honestly, most everyone i talked to said bangkok was polluted and claustrophobic. i found it totally opposite.
it was beautiful.
i stayed in a ridiculously nice guest house again.
super modern place.
i had some potatoes, onions and green peppers for breakfast and headed out.
actually first, i headed out in a dress shirt, because i planned on visiting some temples, and i knew that they had some rules about what you can and can't wear. so i figured i'd play it safe. but after about five minutes of walking around in the heat of the city, i was drenched in sweat.
so i went back and changed to a t-shirt.
i took a boat taxi out to the center of the city, and tried to figure out where i was going.
i walked around for a while, without much success of figuring out where i was. so i flagged a taxi and he drove me to the area with the temples.
i found my way into Wat Pho, or more famously, the temple with the Reclining Buddha.
the place is huge, with tons of smaller buddha statues and shrines all over.
the amount of detail in everything, the shrines, the doors, the windows, is incredible. absolutely unreal. so you can imagine how much time and effort must have been put into something as huge as this:
then i went into the main temple, with the legendary statue.
it's massive.
the enormous feet have really intricate designs carved into them.
along the side wall, there are a whole ton of little metal pots. you are supposed to change in a twenty baht note for quarter baht coins, and drop a coin into every one of the metal pots, to bring good luck. so the whole place echoes of thousands of little clinking sounds all the time.
after that, i took a boat again, across the river from Wat Arun, another famous temple.
i love the juxtaposition bangkok offers of the modern with the traditional.
i liked the look of this old building. i think it may have had a fire in the upper floors, and never got repaired.
rush hour on sunday?
i found my way to the famous Lumphini park. it's a huge, gorgeous place, with a big lake in the middle.
these giant lizards hang out around the edges of the park.
at the end of the day, i had to find my way to Lumphini boxing stadium for the obligatory muay thai picture. (even though it was closed)
i finally went back to the guesthouse for some dinner, which was incredible.
fried potato cakes, fresh tofu and salad with a sweet and sour dressing.
then i had a julienned veggie sandwich with some french fries. (i was STARVING after exploring all day.)
i had a guest for dinner:
so after an overnight train ride, and a snowy landing in beijing...
i'm home!
i hope everyone enjoyed the blog as much as i enjoyed the trip.
thanks for all the emails and comments.
see you next time i decide i need a break from the US!
-daniel
No comments:
Post a Comment