Our flight back to Japan, from Phuket through Bangkok, was a “red eye” so we didn’t need to arrive at the airport until late afternoon. We hired a taxi to take us to a few places before dropping us off at the airport. The first place we went was to the south, to the top of Mount Nagakerd, where Phuket’s Big Buddha is being constructed.

The bronze Buddha on the left is dedicated to the queen of Thailand. The Big Buddha is, you guessed it, dedicated to the king.

This is what the grounds are supposed to look like when everything is finished. Like most things we encountered in Thailand, I’m guessing this place will be partially finished for years to come.

Ellie, once again, couldn’t enter without covering up.

Posted on January 22nd, 2010 under Thailand. Tags: buddhist, ellie, phuket. Comments Off on Big Buddha of Phuket

I’ll wrap up Thailand’s Grand Palace today with another flurry of photos.

This Thai man was working on the grounds. The above, close-up shot doesn’t fully revel his environment so I went for a wide angle shot, below, as well.

Just like Denmark and Norway, the king of Thailand has his guards too.

Above is the Chakri Maha Prasat Hall. We didn’t see any live elephants in Bangkok, but we saw many in Phuket a few days later.

I caught these two hanging out on the grounds of the Grand Palace.

The place almost looks like Disneyland… Older and not so phony though…

These two, Thai Buddhist monks sported far larger, fancier, and more expensive camera equipment than my little TZ7.

This last structure is called the Aphorn Phimok Prasat Pavilion.

Posted on January 6th, 2010 under Thailand. Tags: bangkok, buddhist, buildings, clouds, people, skywatch. Comments Off on The Grand Palace

After exiting Wat Pho through the back we made our way up the east fence (pictured above) to get into Wat Phra Kaew (which includes the Emerald Buddha and the Grand Palace). There was no entrance on the east side either. Finally, when we got to the north side we found the only way in.

The admission to this place is the only thing I found expensive in Bangkok. It was 350 baht (about $11) each. That’s about the same fee as the expensive temples in Kyoto, Japan (the ones in Tokyo are free and the ones in Kamakura are either free or close to it), but this is Thailand where most people make less than 250 baht per day. For example, the meal we had just eaten, for four with drinks, was less than admission for one of us. But the guidebooks said this was the place not to miss so we paid, and we were not disappointed.

One, quick, funny story about Ellie’s shirt in the above photo… She had on a dress with tights underneath. Even though the tights weren’t tight and went below her knees and her dress almost went down to her knees the guards would not let her in, saying she was too immodest. So Linda took her to the bathroom where her dress was pulled down below her knees and put a souvenir, Bangkok t-shirt on to cover up where her dress was. We made it through with this far sillier, and no more modest, outfit with no questions asked.

The frescoes along the inner walls of the temple are fantastic. You could spend a day just examining them. A guide who could of told us the stories painted on the walls would have been nice.

Several Thai artists were freshening up the murals.

Posted on January 4th, 2010 under Thailand. Tags: bangkok, buddhist, people. Comments: 3

There was more to Wat Pho than the Reclining Buddha. We didn’t have time to see it all since we still wanted to see the Emerald Buddha and Grand Palace before everything closed in a few hours. But there were many Thai-style buildings, Buddhas, and interesting grounds to explore at Wat Pho.

The air was surprisingly clear for (I’m guessing normally smoggy) Bangkok. I like the way the gold edge on this building caught the sun with the blue sky background. (You can click on it for a much larger view.)

The above Buddha statue is different than any I have seen before in that he has disciple statues facing him.

Not only were the skies blue, but they had some of my favorite kind of clouds added to the mix as well. I couldn’t have asked for more picture-perfect scenes.

Posted on January 3rd, 2010 under Thailand. Tags: bangkok, buddhist, clouds, people, skywatch. Comments Off on More from Wat Po

After our meal, mentioned last time, we headed toward the complex that houses the Emerald Buddha (Wat Phra Kaew) and Grand Palace. Unfortunately, there are no signs telling you where the entrance is and we approached from the west and turned south. The entrance, we eventually found out, is on the north side, but the walls around it go on forever.

Numerous scammers tried to convince us that the place was closed for one reason or another in order to get us into a Tuk Tuk that an accomplice was operating. Eventually we made it to the south of the Grand Palace walls. While there we decided to check out Wat Po.

The highlight of Wat Po is the giant, gold Buddha inside one of the many buildings. Photos don’t do this Buddha justice. I tried numerous angles to try and capture its essence, but I just don’t get the same impression from the photos as I did in its presence. The statue is over 150 feet in length (imagine half a football field if that helps).

You could fit a dozen people in the Buddha’s gold feet alone.

The bottom of the Buddha’s feet and the eyes are the only parts not covered in gold.

The building around the gold Buddha adds to the atmosphere. In addition to the pillars, which make a full view impossible (except from the end), the walls and ceiling are covered in frieze and paintings, and the sound inside is of metallic rain.

Once you round the Buddha, you will see where the sound is coming from. People drop coins into 108 bronze bowls along the wall on the Buddha’s back side. Offerings at such places always seem tacky to me, but the sound created by the coins hitting the bronze bowls actually added to the atmosphere.

Posted on January 2nd, 2010 under Thailand. Tags: bangkok, buddhist, temples. Comments Off on Wat Po (or Pho) – The Reclining Buddha