Bangkok

Ships dock 2.5 hours from Bangkok and we were there for 2 days, so we packed up and spent the night in Bangkok, mostly revisiting the sites from our last trip 15 years ago. Bangkok is big, bustling and crowded with tourists, especially from China and Japan.

Our first stop was Wat Traimit (Picture 1), which is home to the largest Golden Buddha image in the world. The Buddha, shown in Picture 2, weighs 5.5 tons and is worth 28.5 million British pounds, according to the brochure provided. It’s called a solid gold Buddha, but if you do the math with current gold prices, it’s worth closer to $250 million—not sure whether it’s solid gold or a lot of gold over stuff. What’s interesting is that it was originally covered in plaster, but in moving it, the plaster cracked and out came the golden Buddha in 9 well-fitted pieces, with a key that locks and unlocks the pieces hidden in the base. Many Buddhist came to worship while we were there and purchased offerings as they entered. Later, the offerings were scooped up (other than the donated golden cloth for monks garments) and resold.

Hopping a boat, we headed for the Royal Barge Museum. Boating on the Chao Phraya River is the fastest way to get around Bangkok—the vehicle traffic is horrendous. Picture 3 show what traffic on the river is like—water taxis, water “buses”, barges carrying rice and sight seeing boats. There’s a good-sized chop on the river with small waves because of all the boats coming and going.

The Royal Barges are brought out once a year for a festival celebrating the King’s anniversary on the throne. Between festivals they are lifted out of the water and you can see them at the museum. Pictures 4, 5 and 6 show a few of the barges. The King’s official barges are shown in 5 and 6 and require at least 50 rowers. There’s a pavilion in the center of the barge where the King sits. Picture 4 shows a barge for lesser royals, only requiring 38 rowers and about 15 meters shorter.

Speaking of the King, his picture is everywhere. If you look at Picture 1 you can see it in front of the temple. The current King is 86 and no longer carrying out official duties. The Crown Prince is doing much of his Father’s work, although the Crown Princess is actually older. The King has been on the throne 60-some years, longer than any other monarch. Thais speak very reverently of the King—I don’t know whether that’s how they really feel, or whether they’re afraid of punishment if they’re heard saying something bad about the King. This is a land of “haves” and “have-nots” and the king has lots and lots and lots!

Regarding the recent violence in Bangkok, the protests are located in central Bangkok, which was a few miles from the historical section, which we visited. We did see the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of the Interior circled by razor wire! Our guide refused to discuss politics, but assured us we were in no danger.

Our next stop was the temple of dawn (Picture 7), which may be our favorite. If you look carefully, there are steep stairs that go almost to the top—we chose not to! What is most interesting is how it was decorated. If you look at Picture 8, you will see that the decorations are made of broken dishes. It’s actually Chinese Porcelain, which was shipped from China in containers. Some containers had broken dishes, so the Thais recycled these and used them to decorate temples.

That evening we re-visited Sala Rim Naam, the Thai cultural show and dinner at the Mandarin Oriental. Picture 9 shows one of the dances. This was a top recommendation when we were here before and didn’t disappoint this time, although I think they toned down the spiciness for tourists (which disappointed us). The food is great, however, prepared by their cooking school. There were 14 different dishes served and we had to be rolled home! Picture 10 finishes the evening—Bangkok after dark.

The next morning we went to the Royal Palace. On the way we passed the flower market, where bags of fresh flowers are used to create the gold and white offerings used at Buddhist temples. Picture 11 shows some of the flowers still in their bags.

The Royal Temple overwhelms; the amount of gold is amazing. Picture 12 shows a golden pagoda and a temple, which we were not allowed to enter. The golden pagoda is covered in 23-karat gold veneered mosaic tiles. To give you some idea of how much gold that is, an ounce covers 400 tiles, each one less than 1 square inch.  That picture also shows the crowds we dealt with. It’s the height of the tourist season and there were places we could hardly move.

Picture 13 shows the exterior decoration on the second building in Picture 12. Lots of gold, lots of sparkly glass, lots of monkeys and people dressed like monkeys. Picture 14 shows a view across the palace grounds—one building, one pagoda, one statue after another. The one thing we saw and were not allowed to photograph was the Emerald Buddha. It is so sacred that the King (currently the Crown Prince) dresses it seasonally with gold and jewels. It’s not solid emerald and it’s not solid jade as some resources say. Our guide told us that it’s a solid piece of jasper. The palace complex is beautiful and all owned by the King!

Our final stop was at Wat Pho, the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. It’s virtually impossible to get a good picture because the building housing it is not much larger than the Buddha statue, which is 150 feet long and 50 feet high. Picture 15 shows the length of the Buddha and Picture 16 shows the height at the shoulders, with Rick in the foreground for comparison.

It was a great couple of days. On to Singapore….