April 25
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Back in the big city, we headed to a hotel in the Banglamphu area of Bangkok close to the renowned backpacker's street, Khao San. The New Siam II Guesthouse had been recommended to us by our cooking class comrades, Loveday and Damon. It was a great suggestion - inexpensive, clean and located close to the river.
We explored the riverside Wat Arun aka the Temple of Dawn. This is one of about 5 blockbuster wats that Bangkok has to offer. It's huge chedi/stupa is the main attraction. The entire structure is covered with a plaster covering embedded with a mosaic of broken, multi-hued Chinese porcelain - evidently common when this wat was built because Chinese ships used old porcelain as ballast and off-loaded it once they reached Bangkok. It was an unusual temple.
In the remainder of the afternoon, we decided to head over to Jim Thompson's House to take a look at some authentic Thai residential architecture. The separate houses he assembled into one, along with the art collection he amassed, was quite interesting. Being an American silk entrepreneur, Jim Thompson is credited reviving the worldwide popularity of Thai silk as luxury goods. The souvenir shop's prices reflected this achievement.
We had planned to splurge one night on a luxury room, but instead decided to save the money and had a really nice gourmet Thai dinner at the Spice Market Restaurant in the Four Seasons Hotel. It was delicious!
April 26
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Temple Day:
We started with Wat Pho, the oldest and largest wat in Bangkok. It's claim to fame is the largest reclining Buddha and a massage school (the oldest in Thailand). The reclining Buddha is incredibly massive and quite a spectacle! Outside the building housing the Buddha were three beautiful and impressive chedi/stupa commemorating the first three Chakri kings (the current dynasty of which the current king is Rama IX). We also looked in the main chapel that was highly decorated with murals and flower motifs all over the walls.
Our next stop was the opulent Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew, home of the Emerald Buddha. The Grand Palace is no longer the king's residence, but is still used for ceremonial purposes. We only spent time in the Wat with its massive and glittering chedi/stupa and a highly ornamented shrine to the Emerald Budda (a tiny statue that actually reminded us of the Mannekin Pis in Brussels - the Buddha also has seasonal outfits that are changed three times a year, granted they are made of gold and probably more expensive than the Mannekin Pis' costumes). The Emerald Buddha (really made of jasper quartz or nephrite jade) has a sorted history. It's origin is unknown, but originally surfaced in Thailand. At some point it was taken to Laos during an invasion and subsequently taken back 200 years later by Thais during a war with Laos. Our Laotian guide had also explained this to us, but his take was that the Buddha belonged to Laos.
After all this "watting" we called it a day and headed back to the hotel before dinner. At this point we began considering whether it would be better to try to head out of Bangkok a day or two early to spend more time in Bali since we had seen most of the blockbuster sights of Bangkok and were itching to get to the beach.
April 27
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With the idea firmly planted that we would leave for Bali earlier than planned we decided to get a quick tour in of the floating market outside of Bangkok, Damnoen Saduak, in the morning and change our tickets that afternoon. It was a cheap tour and again, you get what you pay for. The main thing here though was that it was only a half day and we got to see the floating market. The additional stops were not so bad until at the very end they dropped us at a "gems gallery" which wasn't even advertised on the itinerary. It was quite amusing to us that the rest of the group didn't even seem phased by this sales scheme but played right along. Amazing!
Dinner was a pleasant surprise with the suggestion of a roasted duck restaurant, Poonsin Restaurant, from the guidebook turning out to be delicious and full of local color. Alex's favorite part was when the waiter used a windshield squigy tool to clean the neighboring table. A note to anyone trying to find it - it didn't have any roman script indicating it's name on the building - we relied on the directions. After a stroll down neon-lit Khao San Road we turned in before our last day in Bangkok.
April 28
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Our last day we took in the sights of Wat Traimit (Temple of the Golden Buddha) and Wat Benchamabophit (Marble Temple). Both were unique. The Golden Buddha is exactly that - a gleaming 9-ft. tall, 5.5 ton, solid-gold statue. Though valuable, no one is going to run off with it we don't think. The Marble Temple, as its name implies, is made of white Carrara marble from Italy. The temple look quite different from the others with clean lines and a polished look. It is supposedly a good example of modern Thai wat architecture particularly with its cruciform shape. Behind the temple were 53 Buddha images in various poses from different periods of history. After seeing all of them, we can pretty much identify the poses of the Buddha.
To top off our tour of Bangkok we strolled around the Banglamphu Market and had a good Thai dinner at a neighborhood restaurant seemingly popular with the locals. It was good and Amy could even enjoy her curry without it being too spicy.
April 29
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Off to Bali to enjoy relaxation in a resort that we found on Frommers.com with a spectacular deal on room rates. We'll let you know if its worth recommending . . .
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