It was our second day in Bangkok and we’re up early because today we are going on a tour. Our tour guide was already waiting for us at the lobby when we got down. She introduced herself to us as Oil. Our itinerary included visiting the Royal Grand Palace and three famous Wats in Bangkok.
Our first stop was Wat Traimit, the Temple of the Golden
Buddha in Chinatown. The Golden Buddha was at the top level of Phra Maha
Mondop. Sadly, we tried to have a full-sized photograph of this building from
the ground but our basic camera can only do so much.
Oil was telling us some facts about the temple and the Golden
Buddha but we’re oblivious to what she was saying. We’re okay to know that we
are looking at the world’s largest solid golden Buddha. The Buddha, like the
lyrics from a song was ‘shiny, shimmery and splendid’. It was the first time
we’ve seen so much gold.
For a little donation you can take a bottle of Holy Water from the temple. We took three for Thb30. It didn’t taste any special, just water prayed over by a monk or a priest. Maybe we could have made good use of it other than drinking it because we were thirsty.
Outside we also passed by a ‘big silver wishing cup’, not sure what it’s called. We stood in front of it, made a wish then casted a coin. You have to shoot the coin inside the cup for your wish to come true. Then we rang the bells around it as instructed by our tour guide.
We went next to Wat Pho, the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. It’s the largest temple in Bangkok. We were greeted by a giant stone statue upon entering the temple. It’s one of the many temple gate keepers around the temple.
As the name says, this temple is famous for the huge Reclining Buddha statue it houses. The huge Buddha statue was covered in gold leaf and looked so regal. Somehow it reminded me of Cleopatra, maybe because of its position.
The soles of the Buddha's feet have been inlaid with mother of pearl illustrating the signs of a true Buddha.
We saw some locals put coins in every bowl they passed by. Oil told us that this is for good luck or if you have a wish.
As we moved around the temple compound, we saw various Buddha images, giant gate keepers and chedis. The chedi of the four kings were tiled with mosaic pieces and were dazzling.
We also went inside the Ordination Hall. Oil told us that the
main altar with the large Buddha was all made with gold and crystal. The hall
was covered with beautiful mural paintings.
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