Move over Los Angeles, Bangkok is the true city of angels. Apparently Bangkok was only adopted because the original name of the city was far too long to be of any practical use. The shortened version of the original city name, Krung Thep Maha Nakhon, is a literal translation of 'city of angles'. This was taught to me by my awesome tour guide Pu. She can recite the full name but it will take about 30 seconds to get it all out. This is the story of our adventure.
The day started at 9am when she met me at my hotel. We walked to the nearest sky train station and proceeded to go to a canal taxi. These are quite popular with the locals because it is far faster than taking the bus due to Bangkok's horrible traffic.
The only warning she gave me was that if any water came in the boat that i should close my eyes and cover my mouth because it is so polluted in the canals. Luckily this was not a problem. You do have to be on your feet when getting on and off of these boats however because there are no formal docks. You just kind of jump on and off the boat as its close to the shore.
Once we were back on solid ground we headed for Golden Mountain which is not only a large temple but the highest point in Bangkok.
Once we reached the top, Pu showed me how to properly worship to the gods (something i have messed up multiple times while visiting other countries shrines). The process here is quite involved and rather entertaining. Once a small donation is made we can get started. First off you have to grab a budding lotus flower and pull back the pedals and fold them so that they open up the flower.
After you have finished your flower you are given 3 incense, a candle, and a small packet with some gold leaf in it. You light the candle and incense and then get on your knees and bow to the Buddha. you then place both in front of the statue making sure they are in the proper locations. Finally you take the gold leaf and press it against the statue so that it sticks. This step proved to be my downfall. Being that this is the highest point in Bangkok it was rather windy at the top. As i went to apply my gold leaf the wind blew it away. I then spent the next 5 minutes chasing it around the temple like an idiot as it blew around the floor. It got pretty bad and Pu looked fairly embarrassed. I'm kind of a big deal. I was victorious (if you want to call it that) and finally caught the small piece of gold and applied it to the Buddha.
With those shenanigans behind us we proceeded to Ban Baat, a small village famous for handcrafting monk's bowls. I couldn't tell you what a monk bowl is but the process to make them is pretty cool. Lets take a look.
I was told each bowl takes around 5 days to make and retails for about $30-$50. After our bowl tour we stopped for a drink. I selected an orange soda and after i paid for it the lady took a plastic bag, filled it with ice, poured my drink into it, and topped it off with a straw. What was initially weird turned out to be fairly awesome. I proceeded to stroll around Bangkok with my new soda purse. Handbags truly are more affordable here.
Our next stop was Wat Suthat which is a temple that is around 700 years old. It features a number of Buddha statues with a giant one right in the main room of the temple.
The temple walls are lined with smaller Buddhas that locals have purchased and decorated and paid to be in the temple. The cost to install and decorate one is around $7,000 US. I thought about doing it for a while until i heard they were there to house the ashes of the owner. Im not ready to make that commitment yet. You also have to be connected to parliament to get one (yes i inquired about it).
Our next stop was lunch. We hit this neighborhood with a lot of street vendors. We ended up getting the crispy noodles with pork. Ordering street food with a native speaker is a much more enjoyable experience than my current process which involves pointing at some Thai word on the cart menu and hoping what they give you is edible. Another cool thing about this neighborhood is its where they make all of the badges and medals for the countries ministries, armed forces, and police. They also will sell these items to anyone regardless of if they are an official or not. I enjoyed buying their goods. I am now a narcotics officer for the Bangkok police department.
After lunch we headed over to Wat Ratbophit. I was told it was a hidden temple to tourists but it was so big im not sure how it could be missed. Regardless it was pretty awesome.
Being as we had walked all over we decided to rent a Tuk Tuk to get to our next location; the Tiger Temple. There is some long folk tail associated with the temple but i wont bore you with it. It ends up with a tiger taking care of an old lady until she dies. It was a pretty awesome temple but photographs are not allowed so sucks for you. You get Tuk Tuk photos instead.
Our last two stops were at this horrible backpackers street that was filled with crap like cheap wallets and angry birds t-shirts and a small park by the river. When we arrived at the park the royal boat brigade was doing some training for when the king rides his super boat for special occasions. I was told this was very rare so i treated it as such by taking a photo. It was not very exciting but i am glad i saw it none the less.
We ended the day by taking a river taxi back to the sky train. There were many sites to see on the one hour ride.
It was a long day and im pretty whipped. I have to get up at 630 tomorrow morning which i am not looking forward to. I don't really feel like giving this a second look over so if it stinks, i blame Canada.
As a side note here are some other humorous things i have run into. I wish i had my camera with me when i saw the baby on the for sale table at the market that was left alone but these will have to do.
