Due to our late and indirect flight from Bhutan yesterday, our projected 3 hour flight to Bangkok yesterday morphed into nearly 8 hours and we had no time for the activities originally scheduled. We had only a few hours to sightsee in Bangkok today but it was SOOOO hot, I'm glad we were finished by lunchtime.
We visited Wat Pho, home of the chanting monks and a famous reclining Buddha. The grounds included a wonderful collection of Chinese stone sculptures that were used as ballast long ago in junks sent to Thailand to pick up jasmine rice. The ballast was traded for jasmine rice and left in Bangkok when the junks returned to China filled with their cargo. (The cobblestones paving Philadelphia's streets in Old City also arrived as ballast; I think Bangkok got the better deal.)
Monks gather to chant twice a day in the temple. You can watch the morning ritual, but must sit on the floor crosslegged. It is a position of respect, as the soles of the feet are then pointed towards oneself instead of at the monks or an image of the Buddha. (If you cannot sit that way, you must stand outside the temple door.)
A garden of colorful geometric stupas were outside the monks' temple.
The reclining Buddha is 160 foot long with toes (still under construction) made of mother-of-pearl.
Lots of smaller Buddhas sat nearby,
while decorations on a nearby temple provided a tutorial of pressure points for the traditional Thai massage school that is in the Wat Pho temple complex.
A walk through the sweltering streets took us to the Grand Palace, a complex of buildings that has been home to the kings of Siam since 1782. Remember "The King & I"? That was Rama IV. The current king, Rama X, ascended after his father, the popular Rama IX, died last October after a reign of over 70 years. The country is still officially in mourning; he will be cremated next October. Meanwhile his body lies in the Grand Palace, while thousands of mourners dressed in black congregate outside the palace walls awaiting their turn to enter the palace tu pay their respects.
Also outside the palace, we passed a quartet of white horses which were being trained (probably for next October's funeral) to step at a very slow pace to the beat of a muffled drum.
Within the Grand Palace complex are residential and government buildings, temples, stupas, pavilions, etc.
The buildings are dazzlingly opulent and ornate. Stupas are in Cambodian, Thai, and Ceylonese styles. It's hard to take it all in.
The Temple of the Emerald Buddha (which is technically a chapel rather than a temple, as there are no residential quarters for monks) is home to one of the most revered Buddha images in Thailand. Its namesake Buddha is only about 26" high, beautifully made of jade and clothed in gold.
From the Grand Palace we were taken to lunch. Usually beer is my go-to drink in a developing country. It's cold and tasty and safe to drink. Sometimes, as I learned at lunch today, it comes with an irresistible incentive.
Back at the hotel. Elaine and I each had a two hour extremely thorough and somewhat painful massage from graduates of the Wat Pho massage school for an amazing $30 each, including tip. Despite all odds, I fell asleep during it.
And then it was time to head home. We joined our farewell dinner for about 20 minutes before catching a cab to the wonderfully named Suvarnabhumi airport. The rest of our group left a couple of hours later, traveling to L.A. by way of Beijing. We flew to Philadelphia via Frankfurt, truly circumnavigating the globe. My friend and former co-worker Tina picked us up in Frankfurt and took us to her home during our 6 hour layover, where we enjoyed a wonderful breakfast spread prepared by her husband.
After traveling for 34 hours, we landed in Philadelphia. The hardest part of the return trip was finding Elaine's husband in the parking garage. Now, after laundry, we'll began the long process of synthesizing all of our experiences, memories and new friendships acquired during our amazing trip to the mountain kingdoms.
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