Bangkok's Greatest Hits

Now that the King's birthday celebrations were over, I was able to view the sights that had been in use the previous few days and therefore off limits. I decided to follow most of Lonely Planet's walking tour that included most of the "must sees" for Bangkok. Somehow I had managed to spend at least 4 days in Bangkok without really seeing any sights! (The dangerous lure of the market...)

It started out a little frustrating, as my hotel was practically across the street from the Grand Palace, the first stop, but that "street" was one 6 lane road and three more 2 lane roads. With no crosswalks. Or stoplights. I was even more determined to get across after the tuk tuk drivers kept pestering me to let them take me there. I felt like it was all done on purpose to give them work! I eventually followed a group of Thai women as they commandeered the street and caused all traffic to stop.

The morning was already hot, so I stopped for a limeade at a roadside cart. A very unusual flavor - think limeade slushy with some salt in it. Tasted horrible for the first sip but after that I got used to it and it was quite refreshing. Once inside the gates I was mesmerized by the amount of gold in use on the buildings - it even seemed to interfere with my phone signal! It was a bit overwhelming. Also on the grounds is a large jade buddha (the largest, I believe) called the Emerald Buddha, in an incredibly elaborate shrine. His "clothes" (robes made out of precious stones) are changed by the King according to season and weather.

Then off to Wat Pho, where the world's largest reclining buddha is. (I'm slowly checking off all the buddhas with their qualifiers, having already seen the world's largest seated brass buddha on Lantau Island off Hong Kong last year. Of course that means there's a larger seated buddha and a larger brass one, but not a larger seated brass buddha.) For some reason, I didn't realize it was going to be gold. It's really quite striking and impossible to get a good picture of. The picture at the top of this blog is just the head - this show's about 1/10 of the entire statue.

No trip around Bangkok would be complete without some shopping, so the last "task" of the day was to explore the amulet market. Thais wear huge necklaces with amulets in plastic pendants for luck and/or protection. I loved wandering the lanes of this area and purchased a few of the more subtle amulets, but chose to skip the massive gold chains.

Then off to go check in to the Sheraton! Yippee! I had booked it with Starwood points, so it was a free night. Unfortunately, I didn't get to take advantage of it too much, but it really helped out for storing items. I had a gorgeous view of the river and took the hotel's river shuttle boat to do a bit more shopping before having a quiet night back in the hotel with a movie! I only got a few hours of sleep as I had to pack up all the items I was leaving behind while I went to Cambodia and then leave at 3:30am to catch my 7:00am flight!