Thailand – Friday PM

The chedis at Wat Pho

To recap our Friday AM adventures in Bangkok – slow waking, walk through city, tuk tuk ride, Royal Temple, Golden Buddha, and our first reclining Buddha.

On finishing our hour solo tour through the Royal Temple, we found our tuk tuk and driver waiting in the shade. While a nice gesture, we should have been suspicious at that point, as our driver obviously saw us as an opportunity for profit. We zigged, we zagged, and many minutes later, completely disoriented, we emerged from the back streets of Bangkok at a run-down boat landing. Our request to go to the Grand Palace had been partially fulfilled, as the final destination of the boat was the Palace but only after a couple hour canal tour.

As we scrambled to figure out this non-guide book adventure, we ended up in a situational alliance with two German women that found themselves in the same position that we were. Fortunately and unfortunately for us, the women had several more weeks travel experience in Thailand and were ready for a resolution to their plans. They quickly took charge of negotiations with the slightly shady boat entrepreneur, and soon we set sail on a boat together and with some understanding of at least where we were headed. And thus, the canal tour began.

Our German friends had spent the prior month traveling all through Thailand. One was a teacher and the other worked for Berlitz, a company that teaches languages to business persons. In their mid and early thirties, they were fun companions who were making the most of their adventures. Eric and I sat to the side of the boat and they sat in the middle facing forward. Our canal tour boat was long and semi-squat by comparison to other boats that we would take in future days in Thailand. Our driver was a Thai man who sat towards the back of the boat, elevated by cushions as he steered us through the wide river that headed south out of Bangkok toward the canals that jut off in every direction and create a series of house-lined streets of water.

From the river, we could see many of Bangkok’s elite hotels but also the remnants of Bangkok’s pre-Asian financial crisis boom. Enormous skyscrapers sat incomplete, outlined only by concrete pillars as if children’s coloring book pages that were never filled in properly. I had heard and read about the impacts of the crash, but here I was starting to see a reality so influenced by the bad policies of many years prior. From unfinished buildings to an elevated subway system expansion line that was finding use more as a trellis than as a weight-bearing structure. If Bangkok continues to recover, these blemishes could soon be erased but hopefully the lessons they signify not forgotten.



The tour took us by our first “floating market” about 30 minutes in, although this was really just a single floating souvenir shop. One of the highlights of the tour was to be a stop at the Snake Market, but it was too much for us. We disembarked to look around but were met with a very sketchy zoo/circus-like environment that was not appealing. We could see a man fully wrapped with a boa snake but were frightened off by the very poor conditions that the animals appeared to be in. In particular, there was a dog that appeared to be so sick as not to stand up and thus was soiling itself. It was a troubling sight, yet, for all the problems of the city, there was so much joy and positive action that it’s hard to think that the Thais aren’t making progress.


A passing boat on the canal.


A few second later.

The boat tour ended up lasting closer to 2 hours but dropped us at the promised destination of the streets near the Grand Palace and Wat Pho – a set of temples with the big reclining Buddha and the national Thai massage school. After some confusion in finding the entrance to Wat Pho (a scene that confirmed an underlying practice of using decoy people on the street to confuse tourists thoroughly and drive them towards paid tours), we set about exploring the site which dates back to the 16th century. It’s enormous chedis are ornately decorated with painted tile and other forms and it plays host to the largest reclining Buddha in Thailand.


Wat Pho chedis


The largest reclining Buddha in Thailand. The bumps in the foreground are toes.

The Grand Palace also held the Emerald Buddha, which seemed to hold more religious significance for visitors than the reclining Buddha. It is this Buddha that the king ceremoniously changes the dressing (yes, the statues have actual robes) on seasonally in large national ceremonies. We saw this ceremonial robe changing occurring at other locations in Thailand, also not by monks (or royalty) as young men in t-shirts were called upon for the act.


The Emerald Buddha is inside this building.

I must note the dress customs at the Grand Palace. Many Buddhists places of worship strictly enforce rules that require the covering of the legs and the shoulders. For us, that meant renting a pair of pull over pants. Although not stylish, at least we were provided an easy option for meeting their standards while not baking to death in the heat of the day. Many women traveling in Thailand carry a shawl to put over their shoulders if going sleeveless.




Food market.

A short walk through the food market left me feeling less than hungry in the heat of the day, and Eric wisely suggested we return to the hotel for some rest. After hailing a taxi and negotiating what we would later find out to be only about 50% more than we should have paid, we were off for a long and slow ride through the traffic jammed streets. Luckily, the Thais seemed much more willing to wait quietly in traffic. Such a jam in Hong Kong would have left us with major headaches.

We had a relaxed late afternoon, Eric taking dinner by the pool and I in the room with some rest, before leaving for Siam Center via the Sky Train – Bangkok’s monorail. Though there were a variety of cinemas and stores in this hip couple of blocks, we didn’t find much that enticed us to just enjoy the walk there and back and the eventual return to clean sheets.


A school bus.