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| As morning dawned we were close to Bangkok |
Bangkok, the City of Angels, was established as the capital in 1782 and I understand the country was never colonised, however there have been many border wars. We arrived in this City of Angels, bleary eyed and a little shell-shocked around 9am which of course was way too early to check into our hotel so our lovely local guide Naan, our Bangkok angel, handed each of us 1000 baht (~AU$ 45) and sent us off to get some breakfast at the huge station complex (few of us had enough baht to buy food). Once fed and watered we were taken on an excursion around Bangkok with temples and/or stupas as the focus.
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| The security on this building made me wonder who the residents might be |
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| Cute little tuktuks - but mostly we walked |
Our guide was marvellous - knowledgeable and with a wicked sense of humour. We learnt, and got confused, about the string of royal dynasties and who did what but I recall the current King is Rama X and is much loved by the people - there are photos of him everywhere. Some of you may remember the ‘King and I’ movie/musical, all based loosely on 'reality' but the film was banned in Thailand (because it showed a lack of respect for the royal house). In actuality the son of 'that king', Rama IV, went to the UK to study and came back to modernise Thailand as Rama V in the late 1800s as a result of his time spent in Britain. He was a contemporary of Queen Victoria who he met when they were children while his family was touring Europe. They remained in contact for life exchanging gifts often.
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| L: King and Queen R: much revered Queen Mother Sirikit died 6 weeks after this pic |
We first visited Bangkok almost 30 years ago. Unsurprisingly, there has been enormous development since then - but the temples and stupas are still the same albeit perhaps better maintained. Like our earlier visit, it was a day of temple wandering but this time in absolutely scorching heat. First stop was Wat Pho which houses the massive reclining Buddha.
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| Amazing statuary everywhere clustered around little rock gardens |
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| Colour and detail! I was drawn to the glorious ceramics adoring stupa and columns |
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| Just one of the many bonsai topiary dating back 100s of years |
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| Cultivated Bougainvillea provided a kaleidoscope of colour |
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| It is a place of burial! |
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| Orchids and waterlilies - delightful! |
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| Shape, colour and symbolism |
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| Opulence! Thailand is the second-largest economy in Southeast Asia |
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| Wat Pho had some intriguing depictions of oriental medical - here some pressure points to balance energy flow |
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| Quirky statues abound |
It is a stunning site with ornate stupa and immaculate gardens. Just about on the point of collapse we found an air-conditioned cafe for lunch - delicous food - before heading for another temple, this one Wat Arun, the Temple of Dawn. Both the Wat Pho and Wat Arun date back to C17.
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| We had to cross Chao Phraya River to visit Wat Arun which contains some of Buddha's relics |
It was an extraordinary day - long, hot and exhausting after a pretty rough overnight trainride but it culminated with a rather spectacular banquet. At the end of the day we felt totally replete!
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