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56: Wat Day

Tuesday, January 10th, 2006

Wat Day:
(Pictures Links come later)

I walked around the old part of Bangkok all day visiting some Wats (Temples).
I had seen many of them a year before when I was in Bangkok but I didn’t mind seeing them again since they were rather impressive buildings and although I had seen many of them before I was still (or again) amazed by those Wats.

So I started off very early (6:30am) hoping to catch the feeding of the monks at Wat Arun, the Temple of Dawn on the west bank of the Chaop Phraya River

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I took the Sky Train to Central Pier where I arrived around 7am to catch the Express Boat to Tha Tien Pier near Wat Po. From there I was going to take a River Crossing Ferry over to Wat Arun. The boat trip to Tha Thien took maybe 25-30 mins but to my surprise as soon as the boat stopped at the last Pier before Tha Tien it changed to the other side of the river bypassing Tha Tien and driviong further up north. I got off at the next stop Wang Lang and changed to the neighbouring Pier, paid 8 baht to get on a boat back down to Tha Thien. Boat arrived I jumped on and ask the conductor for Tha Thien. She charged me an extra 4 baht, I wondered why but soon found out. The boat did not stop at Tha Thien and only at the next stop down, Tha Rachini. So I passed Tha Tien twice without getting there. by now it was 7:45 am and getting rather late for the feeding of the monks. Well tought luck if I miss it, I miss it 😉

I spoke to someone else on Tha Rachini Pier and they told me that not all express boats stop at all piers, I have to watch out for special flags on the boats. Of course.. I read about this in the guide book *grrr*. Eventually I hopped on the right boat to Tha Tien, got the river crossing ferry form the pier next to Tha Tien for 3 Baht and there I was, Wat Arun!

Of course by then it was too late to see the monks lining up for alms but I visited the Temple which was quite impressive. It has several towers all decorated lots of in ceramic flowers, statues etc.

Afterwards I took the ferry back to the other side. Felt hungry as it was lunch time so I stopped at the riverside restaurant at the pier to get some fried rice dish.
I was sitting right next to the non-existing window and could watch the river. There were lots of fish? in the water shooting up to the surfice and a split second later swimming back into the depths of the river. Unusual behaviour for a fish I thought since I could not see flies of any sort on the water. I reckon they were breathing air but then they can be fish and they looked like it..

Anyway after having eaten I left the Pier and walked to Wat Po, one of the biggest Wats in Bangkok or at least one of the most famous ones because they house a huge lying Buddha. Having taken lots of of the Temple Complex left Wat Po and planned to go to the Grand Palace. However I had run out of Memory on my camera (I had problems with my portable disk so could not backup picture from compact flash card to the disk) so I had to find an Internet Cafe to do this. I knew there was little chance to find one near the Wat/Palace so I walked towards the Giant Swing Area.

After having sorted the memory card problem I walked back to Grand Palace but by now it was too late as (unknown to me at the time) Grand Palace closes at 15:30 and it had just turned 15:00 (Grand Palace is too big to see in 30 mins).

I passed the main entrance to Grand Palace and kept walking towards the River where I knew was an Express Boat Pier. Just in front of the Tha Chang Pier is a little square with food vendors. Effectively Street Stalls selling cooked thai food (various curries, grilled chicken, fish, pork etc) as well as fruits and non-savoury things (sweet buns etc)
I took some and also had some of the thai curries (the portions are small so you get two or three different ones; price was 20 baht each inc rice, that’s about 30p or 45 cents)

Having stuffed my face (again) I walked down a little alleyway and found some interesting corners where people were preparing and cooking the food that was sold at the square. The “kitchens” were open air and essentially built on planks above the river. Took some “interesting” but it does not quite catch the mood there. I did worry a bit about my wellbeing after having seen where and how the food was produced but I did not have any problems the next day.

It amazes me how you can produce edible food under these conditions.

Back on the Express Boat to Central Pier I had of course another adventure! It was a bad day for boat trips as I did of course not make to to Central Pier initially. I was dreaming away watching the scenery and did notice that we stopped at central pier. I thought we were still north of Central Pier especially because the trip up took much longer than south (due to going against the current). So the boat left Central Pier and continued further south. Two stops down it tied up and I was told I had to change boat to continue. I did so still thinking central pier was south from where I was. Next boat left and it drove north. Wrong Direction I thought so I got off of the next pier. While I was waiting there for the next boat I realised that I was one stop south of Central Pier. *Oops* So when the next boat came along going north I jumped on and soon was back at Central to get on the Sky Train back to my Hotel.

Talking about prices the express boat costs about 10-20 Baht (20-30p) for one way. Due to my detours I did probably pay about 50 Baht ;-). It’s shame I never made it to the feeding of the monks but other than that it was a nice, interesting day touring the city.

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