Today I visited two temples, or wats, near the Grand Palace that I didn’t have time to see last weekend. Wat Pho is the wat with the giant reclining Buddha… and it really is giant! It’s housed in a huge building, but the spaces left between the statue and the walls and ceiling are quite small. The building itself is beautiful, but the statue is spectacular: gold, shiny, and appropriately peaceful-looking.
On the far side of the statue, a small donation may be given to get a tin cup full of tiny coin-like tokens. Down the wall are metal buckets, and people drop a few coins in each bucket as they walk out of the building. I’m not sure what the religious significance of this is, but the result is a light tinkling bell-like ringing that gently echoes throughout the hall, and sounds very mystical and other-worldly.
Although the statute is the main attraction here, the grounds of Wat Pho are very extensive, with lots of spiral structures (like the picture I posed last week), and many little temple buildings, some with small museum exhibits behind glass of coins or old Thai forms of dress. The famous Thai massage school is here as well. It would have been fun to get a massage, but I was way too hot and sweaty to get one without a shower first!
A 3 Baht ride across the river got me to the second wat, Wat Arun. This temple is directly on the river, and I took pictures of it last week from the boat on my way to the Grand Palace. This wat has a few smaller buildings set in a rough square. In the middle of the square are tall peak-like structures covered with millions of small pieces of glazed pottery. These pieces of pottery form flowers, symbols, animals, and random designs. From a distance, Wat Arun just looks like a shiny shimmer of color, but up close the detail is pretty incredible. It must have taken ages to place each piece.
After Wat Arun and a quick shower at home, I took a motorcycle taxi (my second trip!) to the nearby Skytrain station, which I then took to the other interns’ apartment for our night out on the town. Their apartment was easy to find because it’s baby powder pink, and right by the Skytrain station. Although their rooms are a bit more modern than mine and they have a rooftop pool (I’m a little jealous), I like the location of my place much better, especially since I can walk to work rather than commute.
The 5 of us took the Skytrain again to meet 2 of the firm’s employees for an introduction to Bangkok’s nightlife. First, we grabbed dinner. We all shared Thai beers and 5 or 6 dishes, and everything was pretty tasty, especially the peppered ostrich! We then hopped in taxis, which took us to a club with the unfortunate moniker of “Booze.” After showing ID and getting our hands stamped (mine still says “feel good feel booze”), we walked into a dimly lit space. The bar was against one wall, a stage with a live band against another, a DJ by the glass doors, and a staircase against the fourth wall leading to a small loft area. The floor was covered with round tables and chairs, and a few couches and a second smaller bar were located upstairs. The place was packed and loud: the music was typical Thai and American pop and rock, but the volume was turned up WAY too loud. We literally couldn’t hear each other—the only way to talk was to yell directly into one’s ear, so the few conversations we did pull off could only be one-on-one.
After taking over the leather couches in the loft, we ordered a bottle of booze for all to share. We hung out for a while, talking (sort of), listening to the music, people-watching. There was no dancing—apparently Thai people don’t really dance. The only discos in Bangkok exist for tourists. But when the band took breaks and put on the bass-heavy hip-hop, it was frustrating not to have a dance floor! One of the other interns and I have tentative plans to find a dance floor in the future, even if they are just for foreigners.
No comments:
Post a Comment