Bangkok Part III

Welcome back to Bangkok - where your shoes must be removed before you head into any temple. 

The Golden Buddha.  Very interesting fact, many of the Buddhas that were made of gold or any other valuable mineral were painted over during war times,so that if it was taken the captures wouldn't know it's worth.  The Golden Buddha has that history, and when they found out it was gold they must have been pretty excited!

From the Golden Buddha we moved on to the Reclining Buddha.  To say it's big is an understatement.

Pretty spectacular.

The feet were mother of pearl and have a very unique design on them,

Wat Pho, where the reclining Buddha lays, is a beautiful area.  The architecture is amazing, and there is so much to look at!

We found out when we got there that all these little temple buildings are graves where the ashes of the deceased are placed.

We walked around for a while just admiring all of the colors and shapes!

There were some Thai kids walking around asking us questions in English and we had to write our response on their piece of paper.  Great way to practice their English and it was pretty cute too.

A monk walking around the temple.

Happy Thursday!

Breakfast a la Park Plaza - Bangkok, Thailand

I can't get enough of the fresh fruit.  They had it for breakfast and dessert.  I could have had it for all of the meals.

Pineapple and guava juices.  Along with the amazing fruit came the amazing juice.  The orange juice was actually orange and they had a variety of juices I had never even heard of. 

Noodles, noodles, noodles - Thai people love their noodles.  Not a normal American breakfast but I gave it a try, and must say the noodles are good no matter what time of day.  They made omelets to make us feel more at home I think :)

Fresh fruit and meat bar.

The variety of juices.

Ahh love the fruit!!  I miss it, and am a little bitter because it's kind of ruined my taste buds now! 

Hope you all have a great weekend, see you back here next week! 

Bangkok Part II

Welcome back to Bangkok.  This is one of my favorite pictures of the whole trip; looks like a stairway to the sky.  I took it on our walk up to the top of Wat Saket. 

The bells at Wat Saket.  The bells are used for a couple different things at the temples.  They are used to wake up the monks, or to announce the prayer time.  They are also thought to remove spells or evil spirits from a place or a person, and the sound purifies a holy place.  I rang all of these bells, which means I am pretty pure!  Not that I needed it to begin with ;)

The hike down - it was really a beautiful place to walk around and enjoy.

On our walk toward the river through downtown we came across a few chickens.. just hanging out. 

We walked down the Maha Rat road which runs right along the river through downtown.  It's a big market area so you'll find many interested things for sale on the street, such as dried fish as in this picture.

Some fruit and vegetables that will be sold the next day.

We also walked down the flower street, where all the flowers were being delivered.  Pretty interesting to see.

Then it was time to take a tuk-tuk ride to get back to the hotel and get ready for dinner.  Traffic is always busy, and always interesting in Bangkok.  Don't say you haven't been warned! 

Bangkok Part I

Welcome to Bangkok, my name is Rachel and I'll be your tour guide through the city!  Here is a view of downtown from our hotel, we stayed a little bit outside of the city in the Sukhumvit area.

As we walked through Benjakiti Park I thought the brooms were interesting and had to snap a quick picture.

The King of Thailand is very old and very sick, so there were a lot of shrines loaded with flowers with respect to him all over the city.

It is HOT in Bangkok, here's a kitten trying to nap in the shade of one of the temples.

Buddha's at Wat Hua Lamphong. 

The bells at Wat Hua Lamphong.  I loved the new versus old architecture right next to each other. 

The next morning we ventured off by ourselves.  The first stop was the Vimanmek Mansion. It was the home of King Rama V, and it is the largest teak structure in the world.  We couldn't bring our cameras inside, so I can only show the outside, but it was very uniquely decorated.  A mix of Thai and Victorian architecture and design.  Also note - that you have to wear pants or a skirt that covers your legs fully.  If you forget, they have little skirts that you can buy.  

Backside of the mansion, the grounds are really beautiful and very well kept.  We really enjoyed walking around the estate.  There are also guided tours in English and in Thai every couple of hours, so if you can plan it so you arrive when they start that is the best way to see the mansion.

More to come.. I took around 600 pictures while I was there, lucky for you I have narrowed down, but I still have quite a bit to show!  

Update from Thailand