I finally had a full tourist day in Bangkok a few weekends ago. Starting relatively early, we headed straight for the historic section of the town. We took the canal and walked through the old down towards the famous palace complex. On the way we came across a different majestic temple and stopped in- this whole part of town is the old town where Bangkok was originally founded.
We chanced upon a monk ceremony (most men in Thailand become monks for at least a short period of time during their lives). We watched some of the ceremony in a huge and impressive temple. As one of the future monks was being escorted in, all of his friends and family lifted him up to touch the top of the 15 foot doorway to the temple.
The palace and temple complex is very impressive- everything glitters with gold and colors. There is a famous “emerald Buddha” temple- apparently some monks in another part of the country were transporting a gray Buddha statue and they dropped it and damaged it. What they had actually done was crack the case around a smaller Buddha made entirely of emerald. Later this was transported to Bangkok and put in a temple.
Sightseeing is great, except for the heat. Thais like to joke that they have two seasons “hot and hot”. This year has been particularly hot, and although it is May and the rains should be starting, its still very hot. (recall that the SongKran festival in mid April is supposed to be the hottest part of the year). It was only the other night that I realized how much my heat tolerance has changed- I was commenting on how nice it was and looked up at a sign with the temperature on it- 32 degrees Celsius (~85 degrees Fahrenheit).
Also, see the Bangkok photo album for some pictures of delicious fruits: mangostein and rambutan!
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