A Saturday in Bangkok

The BTS.

This past Saturday, I was able to experience some of the attractions of Bangkok on a weekend.  A group of foreign teachers and I set off early Saturday to experience the Chatuchak Weekend Market.  We took the BTS (sky train) for the majority of the trip, which was a bit of an experience in itself.  My first time of a sky train was last week, and I found that it was for the most part a much more convenient and reliable way to travel than by taxis (which can easily be caught in traffic).  It amazed me that we were able to cross the city as quickly as we did, considering that to me Bangkok seems never-ending.  When we arrived, we were shocked at the immense size of the market.  I spanned blocks upon blocks of space.  At one point, when I was wandering around stalls by myself, I was actually very scared that I would not be able to find the group meeting-place, or my way out for that matter.  That being said, the market really did have some interesting things and I was able to scoop up a lot of souvenirs for my family back home (which I will not go into detail about where they can easily read). 

The River Taxi.

Afterwards, the group of us took the BTS to another station, where we were able to catch a river taxi headed to the Grand Palace.  The river taxi looked kind of like a giant canoe with a bunch of decorations on it, and it was fairly neat to ride in.  The river itself looked pretty near the consistency of the Red in Winnipeg.  When we arrived, we ate a lunch of various pad thai and fried rice, and headed across the street.  Our first stop was the Wat Pho Temple of the reclining Buddha in Bangkok.  It was very interesting to see, because the giant Buddha statue was nearly the size of the temple that held it.  Since visiting that temple, I looked up the reclining Buddha on the internet and found out a bit more about it.  The statue itself is 15 meters high and 43 meters long.  The story is said to be that the giant Asurindarahu wanted to see the Buddha, but was reluctant to bow before him because he was proud of his great size. The Buddha then changed size, so that even while lying down he was much larger than the giant. He then showed him the realm of heaven with heavenly figures all larger than the giant. After all this, Asurindarahu, the giant, was humbled.

The Reclining Buddha.

While we were in the temple, you could hear a clinking sound that I thought was music playing in the background.  As we walked around, however, we saw that the sound was made from people dropping 1 baht coins into small metal bowls set all along the wall of the temple for good luck. 

The rest of the reclining Buddha enclosure was very beautiful and elaborate as well.  There were many walls of Buddha statues in various positions, and each statue was decorated in gold plate with tiny coloured shards of glass ornately placed along the base of the statue.  The architecture in the temple grounds was beautiful and unique, and we enjoyed walking around and seeing the sights for over an hour.  (By the end of it, however, I was beginning to regret all of my purchases at the Weekend Market!)

When we finally left the temple, we had the intention of visiting the Grand Palace.  Unfortunately, we did not know that the Grand Palace grounds close relatively early, so we missed our chance.  If circumstances arise that put me in Bangkok for another weekend, however, I will surely make an effort to see it.  

A smaller replica of the reclining Buddha, covered with gold leaf from temple visitors.

Some of the architecture within the reclining Buddha
 enclosure.  Everything was very ornate.

Buddhas lined almost every wall.  This seems to be a reoccurring
theme for the temples in Thailand.  Often, Buddhas are gold in colour,
 and the bases of each sculpture are very intricate.