We had 2 full days in Bangkok and our strategy was to bash out as many of the cultural sites as we could on the first day, so that our final day could be a little more chilled.
After a good breakfast at the hotel, which did include Thai curries, rice and noodles, we walked to the nearest MRT station, grabbed a train and headed to our first stop, the Grand Palace.
The Grand Palace is actually a large complex of very ornate buildings, temples, statues, relics, and other historical items. Despite the name, the royal family no longer live here, and good thing too given the buses of tourists who visit each day. As with many sacred sites and temples in Thailand, you can not visit unless your shoulders and legs are covered. We came prepared with our own clothes to avoid having to either hire from the temple or panic buy the classic elephant pants.
The Grand Palace is a huge complex with no air-conditioning and little protection from the sun. We enjoyed walking around the murals as there were fans making it slightly cooler. The buildings are impressive and statues are incredibly detailed and colourful, our videos and photos really do not do it justice. The prime attraction in the Grand Palace is the Temple of Emerald Buddha (or Wat Phra Kaew). It is considered the most important Buddhist temple in Thailand. Huge numbers of people swarm to get into this building, and there is a strict no camera policy, with people being forced to remove pictures from their phones and cameras by vigilant guards. Still, it's worth seeing. The Buddha is carved from a single jade stone, he is meditating, and dress in an outfit which changes by the seasons, with only the King and the crown prince allowed to touch him. We obviously don't have any pictures so if you're interested, you'll have to Google him.
After a smoothie in the Grand Palace cafe to cool down, we headed next door to Wat Pho. This temple complex is beautiful, and a lot quieter than Grand Palace. There are 4 chapels, with over 300 Buddhas, statues, waterfalls, and more gold leaf than you'll ever see in one place. The main attraction here is the massive gold reclining Buddha.
Next to Wat Pho is the river bank and here there are shops, bars, restaurants, and street vendors. After a look around, and a cool drink, we hopped on the ferry which crossed the river so we could see the next temple, Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn). The surface of Wat Arun reflects the first light in the morning, which is why it has its name. The stairs were only open part way so we couldn't get to the top of the temple, but that's probably a good thing given how sketchy the steps were. This temple seemed to be a popular place for people to dress up in traditional Thai outfits and have a photo shoot.
We headed back over the river, picked up a Tuk Tuk and headed to China town. We got completely lost in the maze of shops. We felt safe the whole time and enjoyed the experience of not knowing where we were going or what we were going to see. We eventually found ourselves back on the main road (thanks to a little help from Google Maps). We stopped for a drink in GenZ Bar & Bistro, a roof top bar in the heart of China Town, to waste some time before the food market opened.
The China Town food market, on Yaowarat Road, is the largest street food market in the world! It is huge and goes down every side street you can see. The food was phenomenal, it really was some of the best food we had ever had.
Bellies full, we headed back on the MRT to our hotel for a power snooze and cold shower before setting off for our evening adventure. More on that in part 3!
nice to see the MRT, I do like a bit of overseas public transport. A sarong might have been a good call for the temple to keep cool although I think the soldiers would have been even hotter in their get up?! The music for the temple could easily be the soundtrack to an Indiana Jones move; Indiana Jones and the Grand Temple! Nice bonging from Lee at Wat Pho, hope Sam got a go too. Loving that Lee just strides straight onto the Ferry with a quick side-look to the woman showing her ticket/asking a question. All the temples look amazing and seem to have a bit of something different in each of them. Mum would have freaked at the Tuk Tuk footage ;-) Looks like you could have had a few trips to the food market with all the stalls there
We left Volcano National Park and headed west towards the Kona side of the island. On our way we stopped off at Punalu'u Black Sand Beach, which was beautiful. We enjoyed splashing around in the warm clear water looking at endangered Hawksbill turtles who were happy to swim around your feet while we tried to keep a safe distance from them. A little further down the road, we took a turning on the recommendation of one of our friends on Facebook to Ka Lae, the southernmost point in both the Hawaiian Islands and the United States. From here we had planned to hike to PapakÅlea beach, also known as Green Sand Beach. A bit of googling on route showed that it was going to be a 2-3 hour hike from the parking lot to get to the beach and we had arrived at the hottest part of the day. We decided to miss it out this time Our next stop was Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park. This turned out to be one of our favourite places during the trip. Until the ...
I try not to get Sam too involved in my obsession with astronomy, but tonight I was staying up until 2.30am and Sam, busy binge-watching Warrior Nun, inadvertently came along for the ride. Recent predictions of naked-eye comets - i.e. those you can see without even binoculars - had left backyard astronomers frustrated, as time after time they failed to deliver. It had been over 20 years since I last saw a naked-eye comet (Hale-Bopp in 1997), so I was naturally cautious about optimistic reports of C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) - or Comet Neowise . After a miserable run of weather, tonight was forecast to be clear. So, after a hard day measuring and cutting up sheets of polycarbonate roofing, I cracked open several beers and waited for the early hours. This would be when Neowise was just about high enough in the sky for me to glimpse, without being drowned out by the approaching daylight. WHOA!!!! Naked eye comet not half?!! Its nucleus and tail were clearly visible to the naked eye. Grab a pair o...
One good thing to come out of 2020 is that a combination of being at home more and not spending all our money on travelling, led to us finally, after 9 years, replace our kitchen! Our junk room dining room is no more. We finally have a livable space in the kitchen with enough work surface and modern gadgets to accommodate a small restaurant. TwoGuys looked after us from the outset when we met Heather who designed the space, Mags and Tony who coordinated the different trades and materials. And finally Bruce, the kitchen fitter who was.... well..... a little like Lee. For those who know Lee, know exactly what I meaningtons. Shout out Jack the sparky, Brendan and Dave the plumbers and Nada our painter who were all amazing. Here is the video of our journey to the new kitchen:
nice to see the MRT, I do like a bit of overseas public transport. A sarong might have been a good call for the temple to keep cool although I think the soldiers would have been even hotter in their get up?! The music for the temple could easily be the soundtrack to an Indiana Jones move; Indiana Jones and the Grand Temple!
ReplyDeleteNice bonging from Lee at Wat Pho, hope Sam got a go too. Loving that Lee just strides straight onto the Ferry with a quick side-look to the woman showing her ticket/asking a question.
All the temples look amazing and seem to have a bit of something different in each of them.
Mum would have freaked at the Tuk Tuk footage ;-)
Looks like you could have had a few trips to the food market with all the stalls there