The Other Big Mango
Monday, January 5th, 2009Bankgok seems to have a lot nicknames – City of Angels (but that’s LA?), Venice of the East – but the Big Mango is my favorite (see the post from last month in Australia for a picture of another one). In addition to the names, it has a lot of everything else too. Shopping centers that put South Coast Plaza in the OC to shame. Boats dodging each other on the Chao Phraya river. Amazing food that’s spicy and cheap too.
It also has a lot of temples and we visited a few of the “best” including the Wat Phra Kaeo and Wat Pho. It seems like there is a temple on every street and photos just don’t capture the beauty and quiet that surround you.
My favorite sight was a few monks in their bright orange robes with a digital camera taking pictures of each other in front of Wat Arun. We were doing the same thing, of course, but I found the mix of high tech and reverence to be a perfect symbol of this place.
Along with the obligatory view from the temple, I’ll leave you with an ad from the front page of our morning newspaper. Could be the next hot trend…
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