{"id":4065,"date":"2010-01-02T18:17:26","date_gmt":"2010-01-03T01:17:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/?p=4065"},"modified":"2010-01-01T23:33:56","modified_gmt":"2010-01-02T06:33:56","slug":"wat-po-or-pho-the-reclining-buddha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/2010\/01\/wat-po-or-pho-the-reclining-buddha\/","title":{"rendered":"Wat Po (or Pho) – The Reclining Buddha"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ryan<\/a><\/p>\n

After our meal, mentioned last time<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"Phra<\/a><\/p>\n

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).<\/p>\n

\"giant<\/a><\/p>\n

You could fit a dozen people in the Buddha’s gold feet alone.<\/p>\n

\"bottom<\/a><\/p>\n

The bottom of the Buddha’s feet and the eyes are the only parts not covered in gold.<\/p>\n

\"buddha<\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"mural<\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[243],"tags":[245,101,147],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4065"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4065"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4153,"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4065\/revisions\/4153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}