Buddha Battle

Since my weekend in Ayutthaya/Pattaya was so incredibly exhausting, it seemed like a good idea to stick closer to home this weekend. Bangkok is enormous, so, even though I'm feeling more and more comfortable in my home territory (the area between Prom Pong and Ekkamai BTS stops), most of the city is still a mystery to me. I'm going to try and tackle it bit by bit, going to one touristy must-see per weekend. This weekend's adventure was to the Grand Palace. While the Thai royals no longer live in the residence, the palace walls still enclose some operating government offices and a beautiful wat known as Wat Phra Kew.


Our trip (I went with a coworker who just arrived in Bangkok on Friday) began like so many others in Bangkok do: a skytrain trip to the central pier. Bangkok started as a city of canals, centered around the Chao Phraya river and radiating outwards. Although recent rapid expansion has decentralized the city (seriously, there is no city center, this place sprawls like you wouldn't believe) many of the older monuments and buildings are found near to the river. The ferry was super crowded-- with both tourists and locals-- this past Saturday. My biggest complaint about the express boats is that it is a bit difficult to figure them out. The docks have many posters, signs, and eager representatives to tell you about the tourist boats-- but nothing for the normal express boats. Also, they do not announce stops and the docks are very poorly marked. If you are on the left side of the boat going up river you better be counting the stops as you go, otherwise, there is little chance you'll see your stop. You must anticipate getting off the boat as well. They don't wait for people and apparently it is fairly common for someone to fall in the river as the boat pulls away. Anyway, many, many tourists disembark at the Grand Palace, so we just got off with the crowd and jostled our way onto land.

Once we got off the boats we weaved our way through a windy market and out to the street. It is impossible to miss the Grand Palace as it is surrounded by an enormous white wall. Of course, it is not quite as easy to actually get inside said wall. Many conmen crowd the path to the entrance, telling you that the Palace is actually closed for several hours-- but not to worry, they will take you shopping until it opens! After maneuvering around them, we finally found ourselves inside the palace.

The very first thing we saw was the crown jewel of Wat Phra Kew: The Emerald Buddha. They don't let you take pictures of the inside of that particular monastery so I've stolen a picture from Google images to show you what it looks like:


After hearing about how the Emerald Buddha is the most sacred object in Thailand and how the Temple of the Emerald Buddha is more or less Thailand's Sistine Chapel... I must say I was a bit disappointed. Don't get me wrong, the place was gorgeous... it was just that the Buddha was so small! He looked especially tiny sitting on an enormous mountain of gold. The story behind the Emerald Buddha is fascinating. It is carved out of a block of green jade (not emerald!) and was discovered in Chiang Rai, Thailand in 1439. When it was discovered it was covered in plaster and seemed to be just an ordinary Buddha. When a bit of plaster flaked off, the green showed through, revealing the jade beneath. The Buddha ended up in Laos for several hundred years until King Rama I captured the capital of Laos, Vientiane, and brought the Buddha back to Thailand. Later on in our trip we perused a museum of coins and royal artifacts. In the museum we also saw that the Emerald Buddha has three different outfits made out of gold. The Buddha was currently wearing the outfit for the rainy season but also has outfits for the cold season and hot season. At the beginning of each season the king himself changes the Buddha's garments.

After looking at the Emerald Buddha we wandered about the Wat and the Palace grounds. Here is a picture of the front of the palace... which they wouldn't let us into.

It's pretty impossible to describe how ornate and beautiful the buildings in the complex were. Rather than try, here are a few more pictures. I strongly suggest you go by my flickr and look at the rest.


I my favorite thing about Wat Phraw Kew would have to be the ornate illustrations of the Ramakien (the Thai version of the Indian Ramayana epic) that are painted on its walls:


Although it was midday and boiling hot, we made one last stop before getting on a boat back home: Wat Pho. Wat Pho is just a block south of the Grand Palace and is the home of Thai massage. Apparently the technique is perfected at this wat and masseuses can take classes and get licensed at the wat. And, like all wats, Wat Pho has a Buddha. And not just any Buddha: a 150 foot long, 50 foot tall reclining Buddha. It was impossible to take a picture that included the entire Buddha but here are my best efforts:

I found this Buddha to be more impressive than the tiny Emerald Buddha. To each his own!

Other than that, life is going well. At work I'm mostly observing classrooms and working on revamping our standards. I'm trying to gradually fill up my schedule outside of work with activities in the hopes of meeting people. To this end, I played ultimate for the first time on Sunday. Despite nearly dying in the heat I plan on returning next week. If I'm going to live here, I'm going to need to be able to run in the humidity!