Saturday, January 21, 2012

Thailand: Good Luck for You. - Day 1 (Bangkok - continued)

The first temple we came across is the famous Wat Pho. Luckily, it was quite a late hour, so it wasn’t so invaded by tourists. I don’t remember seeing typical Thai temples in pictures and got absolutely enchanted by the immense quantity of elaborated ornaments carefully clad in ceramic tiles, shining pointed roofs and armies of Buddhas of all sizes, including the giant Reclining Buddha.



Inside the temple there was a wall next to the exit was lined with small metal bowls on stands. A woman with her two little sons passed me by and they all started dropping little coins into the bowls as the temple filled with pleasant clinking sound…


We stretched out on the grass in a park, watching children fly kites, and chewed up our mangos, to regain forces. We were so bombarded by new experiences and emotions that, apparently, our organisms forgot we were supposed to have jet lag!

Already at night we came across the famous Khao San Road, which in fact didn’t have much to see besides ‘ fellow travellers’, shops, bars and Thai women selling wooden croaking frogs. Speaking about shops, it is amazing how many tailor shops exist in Thailand. But wait a minute: does it really seem like that a T-shirt-and-shorts tourist, leisurely strolling along Khao San Road chewing at the straw of his soft/strong drink around midnight, really needs a suit???
By some lucky chance we came across Soi Ram Buttri (‘soi’ practically means a small road, a kind of an appendix of a bigger ‘thanon’ (road)) and landed at an absolutely great, cozily lit place called Sawasdee House, which that moment on became our favorite chill-out spot in town.


This great day was crowned with an extreme bumpy ride on Bangkok’s most (in)famous means of transport – a colorful tuk-tuk (better hop on at night, if you don’t want to see in practice why so many drivers and pedestrians wear masks!).


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