Photographs of Thailand, Batch 3 of 6
Yes, more photos. This batch is all Bangkok, all the time, focusing on various temples and Royal Enclosures and a bit of the street scene.
These are from Wat Pho, the one with the Giant Reclining Buddha
The Buddha himself:
Wall paintings:
A little shrine:
Bottom of column:
Monks leaving the Wat:
Outside the complex:
Inside the complex:
I love the incredible blue:
Details of decorations:
One of the innumerable shoe signs:
One of the smallest temples in the complex, this one was almost deserted except for a young mother teaching her child how to pray:
Painting on one of the statues:
From there, we walked to the Wat Phra Kaew and the Royal Palace. There is was where my eyes first went numb from the colors. But first, we were greeted by the following sign:
And soldiers looking like they meant business:
The area for this Wat (the holiest in Thailand) and the Palace is huge:
And inside, my breath was taken away:
Detail:
I fell in love with the outside the hall where the Emerald Buddha is kept (you can't take photos inside it):
Detail:
Close-up on figures from earlier:
Pidgeon, totally oblivious to the gilt and colors around it:
Yes, more gold and colors:
The Palace, OTOH, is a bit more European-looking:
The guards:
Of course, the elephant:
View on the temple:
There were a lot of school-groups there:
And off to the mundane streets we went, after all this magnificence, seeing many little shrines like this, another universe from the golden Wats, on the way:
Streetscape:
Kao San, a bustling, and foreigner-filled hangout street of many shops and more backpackers:
The street Pad Thai stand. It was yummy:
More Kao San:
From then on, to Democracy Monument, designed, amusingly, by Mussolini's favorite. Who apparently immigrated, took Thai name and became a Thai citizen. (It was all in the 1930s).
Anyway, on the way to there, we were, once again, confronted with Thai King-mania, from shops with slogans like 'We love our great King' to pictures everywhere.
Must say, when he was young, he was quite a hottie (here he is in a uniform, being nice to an elderly peasant):
Victory Monument itself, singularly uninspired, IMO, even if (apparently) crammed with symbolism. The walk there was fun though:
From then on, to Wat I am blanking on the name and don't have my guidebook with me. Yup.
But I think I might have liked the quiet alleys and streets around it even more:
In case visiting all these Wats left you with a lingering case of piety, you can purchase a Buddha of your very own in one of the many shops lining the streets. In Bangkok, as in Europe in the past, trades/kinds of goods sold are often segregated by streets: streets with shops selling nothing but doors, nothing but shoes etc. In this case, nothing but religious statues:
And on to Wat Suthat, one of my favorites, and oddly, off the beaten path (no busloads of people there), just us, a few worshippers, some men repairing Buddhas, a student reading a comic book in the shade of the religious hall (oh the irony!) and an old man reading the paper.
Most of my Wat Suthat pics are, however, in the next batch.
These are from Wat Pho, the one with the Giant Reclining Buddha
The Buddha himself:
Wall paintings:
A little shrine:
Bottom of column:
Monks leaving the Wat:
Outside the complex:
Inside the complex:
I love the incredible blue:
Details of decorations:
One of the innumerable shoe signs:
One of the smallest temples in the complex, this one was almost deserted except for a young mother teaching her child how to pray:
Painting on one of the statues:
From there, we walked to the Wat Phra Kaew and the Royal Palace. There is was where my eyes first went numb from the colors. But first, we were greeted by the following sign:
And soldiers looking like they meant business:
The area for this Wat (the holiest in Thailand) and the Palace is huge:
And inside, my breath was taken away:
Detail:
I fell in love with the outside the hall where the Emerald Buddha is kept (you can't take photos inside it):
Detail:
Close-up on figures from earlier:
Pidgeon, totally oblivious to the gilt and colors around it:
Yes, more gold and colors:
The Palace, OTOH, is a bit more European-looking:
The guards:
Of course, the elephant:
View on the temple:
There were a lot of school-groups there:
And off to the mundane streets we went, after all this magnificence, seeing many little shrines like this, another universe from the golden Wats, on the way:
Streetscape:
Kao San, a bustling, and foreigner-filled hangout street of many shops and more backpackers:
The street Pad Thai stand. It was yummy:
More Kao San:
From then on, to Democracy Monument, designed, amusingly, by Mussolini's favorite. Who apparently immigrated, took Thai name and became a Thai citizen. (It was all in the 1930s).
Anyway, on the way to there, we were, once again, confronted with Thai King-mania, from shops with slogans like 'We love our great King' to pictures everywhere.
Must say, when he was young, he was quite a hottie (here he is in a uniform, being nice to an elderly peasant):
Victory Monument itself, singularly uninspired, IMO, even if (apparently) crammed with symbolism. The walk there was fun though:
From then on, to Wat I am blanking on the name and don't have my guidebook with me. Yup.
But I think I might have liked the quiet alleys and streets around it even more:
In case visiting all these Wats left you with a lingering case of piety, you can purchase a Buddha of your very own in one of the many shops lining the streets. In Bangkok, as in Europe in the past, trades/kinds of goods sold are often segregated by streets: streets with shops selling nothing but doors, nothing but shoes etc. In this case, nothing but religious statues:
And on to Wat Suthat, one of my favorites, and oddly, off the beaten path (no busloads of people there), just us, a few worshippers, some men repairing Buddhas, a student reading a comic book in the shade of the religious hall (oh the irony!) and an old man reading the paper.
Most of my Wat Suthat pics are, however, in the next batch.