Reclining Buddha and Dinner Show (Friday, November 6th, 2015)

First thing this morning we got a text with a picture from our oldest daughter, showing us that it had snowed at home. Oh, we are sure not ready for that!

As we headed down stairs to breakfast we noticed that we had a message, so we went to the front desk and waiting for us there was a package. We picked it up and took it to breakfast with us. As we were eating, we opened it up and it was from our friend Saovanee that had given us the wonderful tour around Bangkok two days previous. 

It was a set of beautiful elephant salt and pepper shakers. It reminded us of the clay elephants we had made two days before at the Sampran Riverside. What a thoughtful gift from a wonderful friend. We will enjoy them very much! 

After breakfast we decided to walk down the street from our hotel to a wholesale shopping district called Pratunam market. It would be about a 15 minute walk, so we thought that would be fun before our Gate-1 orientation meeting later this morning.  The walk took us by a lot of the usual street vendors.

There are hot woks of oil at just about every stand we pass on the street

As we got further from the hotel, the area got more and more interesting. We had to cross a large set of train tracks, and there were some very interesting shops along the way. We saw a glass cutting shop (all done my hand) and a metal shop where all of the was recycled which we really liked to see.  We saw several workers preparing the used metal for resale.  All were working with very simple hand tools as they squared up the ends so they could be resold. 

We got to the wholesale shops, and because it was so early only a few of the shops were beginning to open. So the wholesale building felt a little uncomfortable with everything closed up. We didn’t stay long and then headed back to the hotel. 

Looking down from the pedestrian bridge into the wholesale market

On our way back a train was on the tracks, and it was right there next to us, like 4 feet away as it sped by. Pretty scary compared to what we are used to but was just a way of life for all others that were waiting for the train to pass.  

These trains really go speeding through town!

We finally thought we were starting to get used to Bangkok, but with each new area, it feels like a new world all over again.  

One of the interesting things we saw on our walk was Thai women commuting to work on motorcycle taxis.  Since it wouldn't be appropriate to touch their driver, they ride sidesaddle, and rarely held on. 

This woman was holding on to the back, but that is unusual

I'm sure she's only holding on because of the railroad tracks

 They even do this on the highways.  They have great balance!  It is just fascinating to us.

And this hard working man delivering rice first thing in the morning

Our Gate-1 orientation meeting was from 10:00 to 11:00 and then we had about an hour to ourselves before our first tour left. We enjoyed meeting Mike who would be our Tour Director for the next 2-weeks, and getting to know a little bit about the other people we would be traveling with.

Steve and I took advantage of our hour by walking through the park again and grabbing a couple of coffees at 7-11. We enjoyed our coffees on the bus along with a banana and Cliff Bar for lunch as we drove to our temple tour. This was our first time of many to come where enjoyed the luxury of our Gate-1 bus, our driver Pong and our busboy Yut who worked to keep the bus clean and comfortable for us.

The drive through Bangkok was as interesting as our others, and we once again noticed the fascinating mix of ancient and modern. We drove through Chinatown, by the Bangkok Flower Market and then on to the colorful Indian Market where lots of textiles are sold. 

China Town

I think the power lines in China Town are even work than other parts of Bangkok

The Bangkok Flower Market under all of it's umbrellas, to keep the sun off the flowers.

Another view of the Bangkok Flower Market

Our tour destination was the Wat Po Temple, the oldest and largest temple in the city, with the incredible giant Reclining Buddha, over 150 feet long and almost 40 feet high.  It is so large, and in such a small building that you really can't get a single picture of the entire Buddha all at once.

The crowds to see the Reclining Buddha were large, making picture taking a bit of a challenge!

The Buddha's head is the first thing you see as you enter the front of the building

As you make your way through the building, most of the Buddha comes into view.

But you have to look the other direction to see the feet.  You can't view the entire Reclining Buddha all at once.

The all important selfie

After we walked through the building, we turned around and walked back through the building behind the Reclining Buddha.  On this side of the building there is a large line of offering pots.  The Buddhist people believe in reincarnation, and are supposed to give an offering for each of their remaining lives, but since none of them know how many lives they will have, or how many they have already lived, they leave an offering in each pot just to be safe.

The line of offering pots goes from one end of the Reclining Buddha building to the other, with an offering being left in each pot

Our final view of the Reclining Buddha as we leave the temple

We had time to look around the grounds at the pagoda’s where the ashes of the first 3 kings of Thailand are entombed, and then we had a chance to go in the temple itself. 

These guys were standing guard all over the temple grounds

And his friend

The three pagodas where the ashes of the first three kings of Thailand are buried

The grounds of the temple

The pagodas are very ornate and colorful

Over time the gold wears off of the Buddhas and they have to be prepared and have the gold reapplied.  That is why we sometimes see the black Buddhas

As we walked through the temple, a monk was giving a lesson to a group of school kids that were there on a field trip.  It was fun to listen in, even though we couldn't understand a word.

 We then drove to Royal Avenue where most of the Government offices are located. We enjoy the sights that we see while we are driving around.  Like the two license plates below.  Interesting...

Thai license plate written in English

Thai license plate written in Thai

And this is not an unusual sight.  It's hard to get pictures from the bus, but this shows it well enough.

We were supposed to return to our hotel to clean up before our evening adventure, but traffic was so heavy that they bypassed the hotel.  The City of Bangkok was having a bike ride for dad day, so they were closing many of the roads for the event. They were anticipating in excess of 20,000 riders to participate. 

Bangkok traffic is heavy on any normal day, but with the road closures it was nearly impossible to navigate the city.  So our bus driver took us straight to Asiatique, a large modern shopping center on the river. There is a large variety of different shops here, but it also offers a beautiful setting to sit, relax and enjoy the sights. We chose to bypass the shopping and enjoyed a table by the river instead.  We were joined by two other couples from our tour, so we all had a chance to get to know each other a little bit while we watched everything that was going on by the river.

We enjoyed watching the multi-copter that was flying over the river

As well as the jet-boot stunts

We then joined up with our tour for dinner and a Thai dancing show at the Calypso. 

The food was definitely tamed down for the american pallet, which allowed everyone to enjoy it, the dancing was very good and the service was excellent.  It was a very nice way to end our first day as a group together.  We headed back to the Century Park Hotel, Bangkok on the bus, and traffic had eased up quite a bit.

A side note about Bangkok...according to Mike, our Tour Director, there are 11 million in people in Bangkok during the day, and 9 million people that actually live in Bangkok.  Traffic is so heavy because there are 2 million people that have to commute in and out of the city each day, plus everyone else that is moving around.  Mike says that if he leaves his house at 5:00 his commute takes him less than 45 minutes to go approximately 10 miles.  If he leaves at 5:30, it takes him about 1 1/2 hours.  If he leaves at 6:00 he will likely be late to his 8:30 start time, so he elects to leave at 5:00, get to his location and then sleep in his car for an hour and 1/2 before he reports to work....CRAZY!  They are attempting to expand the Sky Train to the suburbs to help with the daily congestion.  Bangkok is 1,500 square kilometers so that's a lot of expansion that needs to be done on the train line.