The Grand Temple and Reclining Buddha

(Katherine) With no doctor’s appointments scheduled, today would mark our first real day of cultural activities - hurray! We began with Bangkok’s top tourist attraction, The Grand Palace, with a 350 baht entrance. This complex was established in 1782 and was built to contain a royal residence, government offices, and the renowned Temple of the Emerald Buddha. It also features the Phra Siratana Chedi, which is a huge dome completely covered in gold mosaic tiles.

The entire grounds are covered in multi-colored tiles which line the rooftops, pagodas, and huge Buddha statues. It was a particularly overcast day so we didn’t really get to see the tiles sparkling in all of their grandeur, but whenever the sun did peek out from behind the clouds it was certainly a site to behold! We took our time to walk along the interior walls of the palace to relish in the mural of gold leaf paintings; each panel depicted a different story, but they were difficult to fully decipher. We also got to see a model of Angor Wat, a temple we plan to visit later in our journey. We finally made our way to the temple, a mammoth structure that is completely covered in shiny colored tiles. We removed our shoes and walked inside to be met with a beaming tower of gold. Seated at the very top of a golden throne was the Emerald Buddha, which is made from a single block of green jade. He is surrounded by gold candle holders and statues, along with fresh flowers brought by devote Buddhists.

We quietly slipped into the room and took a seat behind a couple of monks while trying to make our blond heads blend into the sea of dark hair as best as possible. We assumed the proper seated position (feet pointed away from the monks) and I began to focus on clearing my mind in an attempt to meditate. Not one minute into the process, the entire temple was interrupted by a young Thai girl’s cell phone which was playing a ring tone of Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On, the theme song from the movie Titanic. I was rather tickled by the irony of how consciences I had been to dress properly, sit properly and not offend any of the locals….and yet this gal’s phone provided about a 10 second concert for the whole temple. Robert and I were both giggling for a few minutes, and it then became quite difficult to clear my mind - I now had Celine Dion stuck in there.

After exiting the temple, we had an extremely difficult time navigating our way around the rest of the property. We finally made our way around to some other buildings, but the extreme heat prompted us to pass them by and sit at a café and cool down with a cold beer. Bangkok visitors, allow yourselves at least 2 hours to visit this site, and know that your ticket includes the Mansion Museum (although we couldn’t find it) and the Teak Palace located much farther north up the river - we hope to visit tomorrow.

We negotiated with a tuk-tuk to take us about 4 blocks south to our next destination, Wat Pho, or the Reclining Buddha. This temple is one of the largest and oldest in Bangkok and holds more than a thousand Buddha images including The Reclining Buddha which measured 46 meters long and 15 meters high. His entire body is plated with gold and he has mother of pearl on his eyes and on the soles of his feet which display 108 individual designs. This Buddha is massive! It takes quite a while just to walk around his entire body….and even longer to fight your way for a decent photograph. The back side of the Buddha is lined with buckets, and you can trade in a $20 baht bill for coins which you can drop in sequence for good luck. We exited the temple and made our way through the grounds which are littered with mosaic tiles pagodas. There is also a building for learning meditation techniques….something that would have come in handy during our recent cell phone interruption!