Our first day on the tour was a free day in Bangkok, so my roommate and I decided to visit Wat Pho, home of the famous reclining Buddha. Why famous? Because of his enormous SIZE.
(click any image to enlarge)
The grounds of the temple are impressive as well as you can see. While we were standing in line to enter the temple, this sign caught my eye.
Now of course I know what they mean, but having ingested a steady diet of Stephen King as I was growing up I couldn’t help imagining my phone or my camera coming to life and attacking me!
And here is the Buddha.
But that’s not all!
And for a little perspective on just have massive he is…
Love his toe swirls too!
After we left Wat Pho, we thought we might visit the Grand Palace since it was close by. Somehow every turn we took was wrong so it took longer to get there than we expected – but the street scenes were fascinating!
We did finally find the Grand Palace, but it the grounds were much larger than we were expecting and by the time we got there we didn’t have enough time to go inside since our tour leader had arranged for us to take a canal boat tour in the afternoon. I simply had to take this picture though:
Once again, I knew what they meant, but it amused me because of the word choice. If I knew the stranger was “wily” of course I would be on my guard!
After a quick lunch, we rejoined our group for a longtail boat canal tour.
The view from our boat of the main channel.
Another longtail boat of the type we were riding in, passing.
This is what it looked like once we turned off into some of the smaller channels.
There were grander houses mixed in as well, but I preferred the look of the humbler places.
Our guide stopped here and bought us some snacks. This woman makes wonderful fried bananas!
We stopped at a small orchid farm along the way, then disembarked at the flower market. The colors! It’s a photographer’s paradise.
Have you ever imagined such piles of orchids in your life?
I took so many pictures on the canal and in the market my camera batteries died! Fortunately, I had time to buy a couple more packages before we went to the train station to catch our night train to Chiang Mai.
Our sleeper car.
Sorry the picture is a bit wonky, but we were moving!
The train was so much better than I expected it to be. I was initially dismayed to see that our beds would be open to the aisle with only a curtain for privacy, particularly as we had been warned to sleep with our valuables as close to our heads as possible. (Those wily strangers are everywhere!) As it turned out, we had a great time because we could more easily socialize with the more open plan. The night train is where my roommate and I made fast friends with an adorable Brazilian couple who were also in our group. It was a 13.5 hour ride but time just flew by as we laughed and chatted the evening away.
That is probably (more than) enough for now. Tomorrow: Chiang Mai.
Fantastic photos. Thanks for sharing.
by Terry Odell January 20th, 2010 at 9:00 amFabulous pix! I love the signs, they totally cracked me up, especially the ‘wily strangers’!! I’m glad you had that thoughtful warning to keep you on your guard
by shelliecat January 20th, 2010 at 8:51 pmJenyfer, thanks for the beautiful pictures. I visited Thailand many years ago and have wonderful memories of this country. But I couldn’t stand to see another temple after three days of temple regime.
by Mona Risk January 20th, 2010 at 10:27 pmMona – You are right – you could spend all your time in Thailand in temples if you wanted to, there is one every time you turn around. We only went to two and Wat Pho really was worth the visit.
by Jenyfer January 21st, 2010 at 12:41 amI loved the wily stranger warning
But I also appreciated it because they were everywhere!
by Jenyfer January 21st, 2010 at 12:42 am