Bangkok, Day 4

I left early this morning to get to the market before the rush. Chatuchak Market is widely known as a good market. It was huge, very clean and had an amazing array of goods for sale. I don't tkink that I covered all of it but hard to tell as you tend to get lost after a while. I must have been totally engrossed because I didn't even take any pictures.

I bought a white cotton pants and long-sleeved top there. It will be my "going to temples" outfit.



Next I went over to Chao Phraya river on the sky train. They use the river as a canal to move from one part of the city to another. Only one train runs down there. Take the sky train to Central Pier and walk to Sathorn dock. There are different boats of varying prices. This is the water taxi for 20 baht. It was quite nice and you get a good view of the riverside. It is better than the long boat I might add. That is just a way to throw money away.




I took the taxi down to the stop for the Reclining Buddha. It is in Wat Pho. These statues are one at each side of all doorways in from the street.



The reclining Buddha is amazing. I gad a great picture of his head but accidentally deleted it and you sure can't get all of him in a picture. You could park a 747 in this building. Next best alternative, feet.

The story is that they once had a standing Buddha which fell over. They replaced it with a reclining Buddha.

There are a lot of these in the area surrounding the temples.

Blue sky. The first I have seen here. The factories must be closed today.

In one room there was a whole line of female statues. The women gathered on the floor in front of these. There was another room with a similar row of male statues.

There were 9 wonders in this temple each enclosed in a separate building.

Throughout the grounds were these clay sculptures.

This is one of the buildings. People sit on the ground in front to pay their respects.

This was inside the biggest building.

Before I left the temple I had a massage, a full hour with herbs. It was nice but afterwards I just wanted to go back to my bed. It would take me at least an hour to get back there so I decided to skip the palace for today.

The flower of the day is the beautiful water lily.

This is Tha Tien station for boats. I got the "tourist boat" back to Sathorn station. The taxis stop only at designated stations and the tourist boat will let you off wherever you like. It was more but only 25 baht.

Got back to the hostel and prepared for leaving in the morning.