Bangkok Temple Marathon

After our bus ride from Ayutthaya to Bangkok, we felt the need to just basically chill out, so we decided to spend what remained of the afternoon by the rooftop swimming pool.

For dinner, we decided to try a real Bangkok institution, Krua Apsorn. It doesn't seem like a particularly enticing place at first glance - a bit like a canteen, full of locals. But actually it's the kind of place we often like to visit - eat where the locals eat, as they say (do they?). And we were not disappointed - rather the opposite. Hands down the best meal in Thailand - the food was just absolutely delicious (and just spicy enough to tickle the taste buds, without killing them). I very much recommend this place - both for the excellent food, and for a chance to experience some local vibe in a very touristy area (Kao San Road is just a couple of blocks away...). After a short evening stroll around time, we headed back to our hotel to catch some sleep.

Tuesday was our last day in Bangkok, and we had quite an ambitious program for the day - after all, we'd not actually seen any of the main attractions of old Bangkok yet. We started with the big Kahoona - the Royal Palace, and the adjacent Temple of the Emerald Buddha. We started with the temple (after all it'd been nearly, what, 12 hours since the we'd been to a Thai temple?). The Buddha statue after which the temple has been named is rather diminutive, measuring only 66 cm, but it makes up for its size with its impressive history (originating in India, it's also turned up in Sri Lanka, Ayutthaya, Chiang Rai and Cambodja, and Buddha knows where else...).

The Buddha statue may not be very imposing, but the rest of the temple complex certainly is! The central ubsoth (ordination hall) and the collection of buildings surrounding it really are rather splendid! Hard to put it all into words... Unfortunately the place does suffer from the same unfortunate phenomena as say the San Marco Basilica in Venice - the hordes of tourists that overwhelm the place means it really doesn't feel much like a place of worship. But, that doesn't take away from the undeniable beauty of the place.

The royal palace itself is a bit of a disappointment, in contrast. It certainly looks very impressive from the outside, but unfortunately it's not really possible to visit the place (apart from a few rooms containing collections of weapon and armour). The king doesn't actually live in the palace anymore, but it's still used for official ceremonies and similar, apparently...

Leaving the royal palace, we checked out the nearby amulet market - basically the streets near the royal palace is full of stands where amulets are sold to bring luck and blessings to people's endeavours...

Our next stop on the "temple trail" was Wat Pho - a.k.a. Temple of the Reclining Buddha. The place is a major tourist attraction thanks to the impressive reclining Buddha for which the temple has gotten its nickname. The 43 meter long, and 15 meters high Buddha, is certainly the biggest and most impressive statue of Buddha I've seen! Apart from the Buddha statue, Wat Pho is famous for being considered the birthplace of Thai massage. To this day, it houses a very prestigious massage school, and is apparently one of the best places to get a traditional Thai massage... All in all, I really liked Wat Pho - as opposed to the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, you really get the impression of visiting a holy place - much less camera-wielding tourists about! (hmm, I should talk, I'm probably one of the more active camera-wielders...)

From Wat Pho, we made our way to Chinatown - the idea being to have a bit of lunch. Now, Singapore's Chinatown may be the "real thing", but it seemed a little bit to neat and organized. Not so for Bangkok's Chinatown - this is definitely the real thing without quotation marks! People sending stuff (everything imaginable from fruits, vegetable, flowers, car tires, CD's, DVD's, you name it...), nice street food aromas and that hustle and bustle (seemingly so chaotic yet so functional) - everything you expect from a self-respecting China town. In short, we really loved the place.

We ended up having lunch at an Indian restaurant (in a part of Chinatown populated by Indians) - another excellent meal. It's been a while since I've had a real, proper, Indian meal. Excellent stuff. After lunch, we ended up walking along what must be one of the longest shopping arcades in the world (I won't say longest since apparently we already went to that one in Japan last year...). Quite a fascinating place, all in all...

Our final destination in Chinatown was (of course!) another temple, Wat Traimit. The templs is famous for housing the world's largest solid gold statue. 3 meters high, it weighs 5,5 tons (at the current value of gold, that makes it worth about 250 million dollars). A bit heavy to carry out of the temple though, I suppose, for any prospective thief....

The evening was approaching, so we decided to head back towards the old town - this time travelling on the river. One thing about Bangkok is that it's actually quite hard to get around the place with public transport. For example, there is no metro connection to the old town, and the modern Skytrain doesn't go there either. The river boats are one handy way to get around - so before leaving Bangkok we certainly wanted to try that at least once. So we took one back to the Royal Palace - and it's certainly a quick way to get around (and the views along the river are pretty nice as well!)

One more major tourist attraction to tick off the list - and yes it's another temple, Wat Arun (the temple of the dawn). It's one of Bangkok's landmarks due to its rather stunning setting by the Chao Phraya river. The main feature, and the reason people come here, is the ornate central prang (a Khmer-style tower). From far away, it doesn't actually look that impressive, but upon closer inspection, the ornate details and sculptures covering the building makes it a really beautiful sight. And what's best, one can actually climb all the way to the top. The views are, unsurprisingly, stunning, especially as the sun was setting...

Phew, enough temples for one day, I reckon... For our last meal in Bangkok, we had a nice, western burger in a place recommended on Tripadvisor near the hotel.

And the next morning, time to catch the flight back to Singapore. Our impressions of Thailand and Bangkok, then ? Our first stint in Bangkok (when we stayed in Sukhumvit) left us a bit indifferent, but I have to say Bangkok grew a lot on me over the days we stayed there. I mean it's a big, chaotic and noisy place, but it's also an extremely fascinating place. And there is loads to see, for sure, much of which we didn't have time to check out...