First stop was Khaosan Road. This is one of Bangkok’s most famous streets. It is mainly a hangout for hippies and budget travellers. And there are also a number of money changers, tour agencies, street vendors, budget shops.
Our main goal in Khaosan Road was to look for a day tour to Pattaya that included the Nongnoch Garden. This was our friend's suggestion. Unfortunately no one offered a Pattaya tour that included Nongnoch. So around 12noon after having lunch at a local Thai resto, we headed off to the Grand Palace.
According to Wikipedia, The Grand Palace (Thai: พระบรมมหาราชวัง, RTGS: Phra Borom Maha Ratcha Wang is a complex of buildings at the heart of Bangkok, Thailand. The palace has been the official residence of the Kings of Siam (and later Thailand) since 1782. The king, his court and his royal government were based on the grounds of the palace until 1925. The present monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX), currently resides at Chitralada Palace, but the Grand Palace is still used for official events. Several royal ceremonies and state functions are held within the walls of the palace every year.
The palace complex is such a wide complex that you can practically exhaust your whole day at the place but since we had limited time, we had to hurry up and not stay too long at the place. Since within the complex lies a lot of temples, one has to wear proper attire that is long skirts and shirts/blouses with sleeves. If you are not wearing that, you can rent out a sarong and/or blouse or shirt with sleeves.
Inside the walls of the complex is the famous Temple of the Emerald Buddha or Wat Phra Kaew. Built in 1783, the temple was constructed in accordance with ancient tradition dating back to Wat Mahathat, a royal chapel within the grounds of the royal palace at Sukhothai, and Wat Phra Sri Sanpetch at Ayutthaya. The famed Emerald Buddha is kept within the grounds of the temple.
The temple is surrounded on four sides by a series of walled cloisters, with seven different gates. Like those ancient royal temples of Sukhothai and Ayutthaya, the Wat Phra Kaew complex is separated from the living quarters of the kings. Within these walls are buildings and structures for diverse purposes and of differing styles, reflecting the changing architecture during the various reigns of the kings. Despite this, most of the buildings within adhere strictly to classical Thai architecture. The establishment of the Temple of the Emerald Buddha dates to the very founding of the Grand Palace and Bangkok itself. (source : Wikipedia)
I am so amazed at this place. I love the glittering gold, colors and so grand structures inside the palace. Thailand has truly preserved its culture. Kudos to the Thai people!
After exploring the palace, we were now off to temple that housed the reclining Buddha, Wat Pho. According to our research, this is just adjacent to the Grand Palace. So we just walked our way there.
Wat Pho is one of the largest and oldest wats in Bangkok (with an area of 50 rai, 80,000 square metres),and is home to more than one thousand Buddha images, as well as one of the largest single Buddha images of 160 ft length: the Reclining Buddha. Again this is another amazing feature in Bangkok.
The image of reclining Buddha is 15 m high and 43 m long with his right arm supporting the head with tight curls on two box-pillows of blue, richly encrusted with glass mosaics. The 3 m high and 4.5 m long foot of Buddha displays are inlaid with mother-of-pearl. They are divided into 108 arranged panels, displaying the auspicious symbols by which Buddha can be identified like flowers, dancers, white elephants, tigers and altar accessories. Over the statue is a seven tiered umbrella representing the authority of Thailand. There are 108 bronze bowls in the corridor indicating the 108 auspicious characters of Buddha. People drop coins in these bowls as it is believed to bring good fortune, and to help the monks maintain the wat.
This reclining Budha statue is the biggest in the world, followed by reclining Buddha in Penang, Malaysia, Nepal and Mojokerto, Indonesia. (source: Wikipedia)
It was around 4pm already when we finished touring the Wat Pho complex. And our next stop was supposed to be Wat Arun but it was already closing time for the temple so we just decided to forego that one.
Outside the Wat Pho were a number of tuktuk drivers offering to show us around Bangkok. A guy offered to take us to one temple, and then some jewelry shops, with the last stop at a shopping center.
So we decided to take that as our feet were tired already and we wanted to roam around Bangkok as much as we can. We were off to that temple which I couldn't remember the name. Then he brought us to two jewelry shops. We later on learned that these drivers get gasoline vouchers from these shops if they are able to bring tourists and even bigger amount of vouchers if the tourists buy something. Unfortunately for him we are on a budget and buying jewelry was never on our to-do list. We did buy 2 items but these were really cheap ones. The driver suggested to take us to another shop but we didn't want any more of that so we asked him to bring us to the shopping center. He dropped us off at some shopping center. Again I forgot the name! I think we paid him some 40/50 THB.
My friend and I just roamed around the shopping center. We bought some nice sandals cheaply priced. Upstairs we decided to go and there we discovered Tesco Lotus. I know Tesco as a grocery store in UK. But I didn't expect there is Tesco in Asia.
Tesco Lotus according to Wiki is a hypermarket chain in Thailand, Cambodia and China. Established in 1998, Tesco Lotus was a joint venture of the Charoen Pokphand Group and Tesco, the British giant supermarket chain. However, facing criticism over the growth of hypermarkets in Thailand, the CP Group sold its shares in Tesco Lotus in 2003.
The much interesting part of discovering Tesco Lotus was the wide array of clothing they offer. And because this is a hypermarket, the clothes were inexpensive! We spent so much time in here! I bought my pasalubong for my family here. I probably spent some 2K PHP and I got a lot! I thank that tuktuk driver for dropping us in that shopping center. Of course I cannot buy so much stuff because we didn't have check-in luggage on our flight back to Saigon.
After our shopping spree, it was now time to get back to our friend's place.
Time to rest and get ready for our Pattaya day tour the next day. Actually our friend was able to get a taxi driver who will take us around Pattaya for 1k THB each. Not too bad. =)
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