Note: Finally managed to pen this down during the long travel from Kandy to Colombo. Catching up on the travel blogs, lest another leisure travel is on the offing and everything will pile up :P Family Siem Reap travel on the works. Wanting to write about that long trek in Kbal Spean as a separate entry as that was particularly interesting :) Enjoy this one. Posting more, hopefully soon!
Having covered the floating market early
on, we geared ourselves for spending the rest of the day touring the temples.
Recalling how Jeni and I did it in the past, I asked the boatman to drop us at
the pier nearest Wat Pho and the Grand Palace.
There were a lot of tourists at that time
and the pier was awash with people. It took us awhile to find them. When we
finally did, there was a tout who was convincing us to take another temple tour
instead as the Grand Palace is close for a holiday. Good thing we did not
listen to him as it was a ruse.
Wat Phra Kaew, which can be found in the Grand Palace complex, was amazing and I could tell Mama
enjoyed it a lot. The temple is also known as the temple for the Jade Buddah that was regarded to be very holy to the Thais. And indeed you'd feel the solemnity of the place.
Mama and I were wearing shorts. Though it barely is a notch
above the knee, we were still asked to wear something over it. Ate Tata was
wearing tight-fitting leggings and was aked to wear something over them as
well.There were available sarongs for rent.
The good thing was that we brought shawls with us and we used that
instead. I was wearing a travel staple sheer blouse (no ironing needed) with
only a tube-bra underneath so I was quite wondering whether to wrap the shawl
from under my arm pits or from around the waist :P I was serious about keeping
proper temple decorum though and so made a note to self about being mindful of
this in future travels.
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Mama and Ate Tata with wrap-around shawls
to cover shorts and tights :) |
We had to pay an entrance fee and it was a
bit pricey. We did hesitate because there was still Cambodia to go to and it
Tunga and Ate's case, Phuket after that. Good thing we followed our instincts
because it was certainly worth the visit.
The temples and the fixtures inside the
Grand Palace complex was such a feast for the eyes. They were absolutely
beautiful.
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| Our lunch |
We had our lunch in a quaint little cafe
just outside of the complex. The interiors were modern, American-inspired which
kind of brings you right back to the present after all that sensory and soulful
overload experience. We enjoyed our
sandwiches and soup. And it felt great to finally be able to sit after all those walking around.
After lunch we proceeded right away to Wat
Pho. It was a second time for me but I enjoyed it still the same. Taking their cue from me, we did a round of that thing where you exchange 20 baht with little
coins and you drop them in little "pots" lined against one wall. It
was said that you make a wish as you do so and make sure you have enough coins
left until the last pot to ensure that your wish would come true. I did not quite make it to the last pot but I've been blessed since then so I guess it still worked.
Last stop was Wat Arun. We had to cross the
river as it was located at the other side. Everyone was pretty tired by then.
It had began to rain too so no one was quite keen about going up anymore :P I
would have wanted to do a second run at Arun, fear of heights notwithstanding
but I was quite sure the others would hate waiting for me so we went home
instead. But we had fun still as we walk towards the street looking for a tuktuk ride. We passed by several fixtures, the most fun being that of three monkeys depicting the line, "Hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil." We had fun mimicking what they're doing.
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