Bangkok Part 2

Night Market 3/27

After resting yesterday afternoon, Susan and I headed out to Chinatown for dinner and then to the night market.  On our way to Chinatown we we were planning on seeing a Wat with a Buddha lit by candles.  As we were walking to the Wat we saw the Giant Swing.  When Susan pointed it out to me I was quite surprised because there is no swing.  It's just the very tall metal poles to hold the swing.  Evidently they attach the swing during ceremonies.  I just found it quite weird that they would call it the Giant Swing when there isn't actually a swing.  We stopped long enough for me to take a picture and then continued on our way to the Wat.  The Wat was beautiful; as they all are.  It's amazing how many they have here; like mosques in the UAE they are everywhere.  Anyway when we arrived there was a service going on and many Buddhists were praying and reciting something.  Very interesting to witness, but I felt like I was intruding on something very spiritual as I was walking around taking pictures.  Just like a mosque, when you enter a Wat you have to take your shoes off.  A sign of respect.  We walked around the grounds for a while, then collected our shoes and searched for a taxi to take us to Chinatown for dinner. 

Chinatown was packed and quite intense!  Food and people everywhere.  The concierge said that any restaurant we chose would be good, but it was difficult to choose.  There were so many, and most of them just served seafood.  We eventually found one off the beaten path that served more than just seafood.  Now, when I say restaurant it's not what you think.  We ate in the street and the food was cooked right there.  Just like the lunch at the weekend market.  I ordered fried rice with crab meat, and it was delicious.  I am pretty sure my crab was alive 5 minutes before I ate it.  OK maybe not literally 5 minutes, but I'm sure it was fresh and they most likely killed it right there before cooking it.  It was delicious!

After dinner we headed to the night market.  This was not like I had imagined at all.  I was thinking something along the lines of the weekend market, but I was way off.  It was packed and there were a lot of "nighttime" activities being offered all around us.  Not something I needed to witness.  Not that I saw anything other than ladies dancing and people advertising the services they offered, but it was still more than I needed to see.  Needless to say, we didn't stay all that long.  There really wasn't anything worth buying there anyway.  So we headed back to the hotel so I could get up early for my tour in the morning.

Auttayah Tour 3/28

I had a 7am pickup from the hotel scheduled so I got up quite early at 5:30 so I could have breakfast before I left.  There was no time for any made to order breakfast this morning so sausage will have to wait until tomorrow morning.  The tour driver picked me up promptly at 7:00 and we headed to get some more tourists before going to the bus parking lot. 

There were about 25 of us on the tour and as soon as we all boarded we headed out of Bangkok.  The drive out of Bangkok is very nice.  Very green, with rice paddies lining the roads when you get out of the city.  The drive to Auttayah was about an hour.  Once there I saw the Summer Palace.  The Palace is amazing.  There are a lot of western style buildings there, as the king who designed it really liked the western architecture.  Of course there was a temple there along with many other statues.  I think my favorite building was the gathering house.  It is made in the Chinese style and it's beautiful.  I loved the Chinese calligraphy on the walls and the murals.  I also liked the gardens; they were so green and had statues of animals cut from bushes.  Amazing how people can do that.  After touring the Summer Palace for about an hour we headed to the Wat ruins at Auttayah.

The ruins are beautiful.  Striking how they can still be somewhat standing after all this time and the way they were built.  Kind of reminded me of Petra, although Petra was in much better shape.  At the Wat ruins you could still see the place where the Buddha would have been placed.  The most impressive part of this part of the tour was the Buddha head that was on the ground surrounded by tree routes.  They say that it fell off the Buddha during a storm, or was cut off during the war, and a tree grew around it and that Buddha protected it so the roots wouldn't cover the face.  There was also a statue of Buddha surrounded by headless Buddhas.  During a war (can't remember which one) non Buddhists came and beheaded all the Buddhas.  It was kind of odd walking around looking at Buddhas without heads.

From the Wat ruins of Auttayah we headed to 2 other Wats.  Pretty much the same as the others I have seen other than the huge reclining Buddha.  Massive.  Very long and tall.  This one is made of stone unlike the one in Bangkok which is made of gold and slightly bigger than the one at Auttayah. 

After our tour of the Wats we headed to the river for the river cruise and lunch.  The river cruise was neat because I got to see traditional Thai houses and the way of life along the river.  Something not so touristy.   The houses are built on stilts so during the rainy season their living quarters aren't flooded and also so the children have somewhere shaded to play (that is if the house isn't actually in the river; some were and some weren't).  The tour ended at the River Plaza and we were taken back to our respective hotels.  Maybe I'll just relax tonight!

Oh by the way it's freezing here!  Well at least for me it is!  It's been gray and overcast the entire time and it even rained today.  Not much more than a light drizzle, but still rain.  It was very windy as well, which meant that I stayed inside for most of the boat trip.  I just didn't bring my winter clothes; they're all in the States anyway!