Bangkok Day V - Wat Pho...the learning center. Shopping again!

We overheard our landlady in Urban House recommending Wat Pho to one of her occupant, so we decided to visit the temple. We have no high expectation but our trip there turned out to be marvelous. We spent almost 2 hours in the temple complex.

Early morning, we walked to Wat Pho from our hostel...passing the Amulet Market and the Royal Palace. It wasn't that far but neither near especially on a hot sunny day...along the way, we stopped by a stall selling fried fritters for breakfast...

freshly fried...very 热气...but yummy!

This temple complex was seen on TV for numerous time....finally into our first temple within the complex, it was the huge reclining Buddha temple featured in ... show. The Buddha was in fact way too huge. It spread across meters and with the building pillars around, we just couldn't take a complete photo of it other than from the typical ivory decorated feet.

one of the many entrances to the temple complex

Buddha between the giant pillars

Buddha on his high rise pillow

English man guarding the gateway for monks?

few of those golden Buddha statues in the complex

one of the many stupas in the temple complex

Besides the astonishing Buddha, the rhythmic sound of the coins dropping into the dozens of metal pot behind the Buddha was surprisingly calming. I was so excited to join in the crowd, quickly donated a note and got an accurately weighted bowl of coins. I started my walk along the metal pots....dropping my coins into each of the bowl, adding to the rhythm, ward off the bad spirit as according to the believe and forgotten about photographing...luckily Phaik and Stella followed later...so manage to get me in action... :D

The Wat Pho temple complex was really a must visit here in Bangkok. It was a very popular learning center here. There were classes running at all corner...school children of all age in their beautiful uniforms. There were also traditional dancing classes going on with parents companies. There was also a highly recommended massage center in it but for our still tight budget, we decided to skip it till the last day....only if we still have money to spare...that's the problem when traveling without doing budgeting :S

junior traditional dance class...thanks teacher!

girls after teacher...great potential!

senior class...they are really good dancers!

After the Wat Pho, we travel to the Siam Paragon via Express Boat to Saphan Takhsin, then BTS to Saladeang and a short walk to Siam Station where we took the MRT to the Siam Center Station. From the station, we walked a long way to the Erawan Shrine. This place house one of the famous Four Faced Buddha in Thailand. I have heard a lot about this Buddha from my friends and family members. Many described that this place has been so happening for it was very 灵and very convenient and reachable by MRT and situated in the Siam Center area, right in front of malls....but never mentioned to us which station was that. So we just tried our luck and stopped at Siam Center...Anyway, it was a great walk around the busiest walkway in Bangkok, impressed by those high scrappers and giant malls.

Erawan Shrine from the walkway on top...really crowded even at 12 noon

me at the Four Faced Buddha

dance...performed as a way to thank God

there were many stalls selling these flowers...offerings to Lord Buddha

congested traffic of Bangkok between sky scrappers of Bangkok

Then we went back to the Siam Paragon to visit the Thai Health and Beauty Show 2009....This trade fair wasn't as grand as I thought it would be. Anyway manage to buy good product at a very cheap price...a big tube of hand cream at 100Baht and a mango body scrub at 200 Baht...satisfying round!

After few days of tiring walk around, we finally decided to stop for a coffee at Starbuck...yes...got my venti size of ice blended Frappucino...finally my crave for coffee was answered...we sat there for almost 2 hours...自拍 and reviewing our travel experiences at most of the time...had a great time there.

my frappucino...so satisfying

We made a move to Platinum Complex...another long way on our feet...passing by the CentralWorld...another giant complex which has nothing fit for us :S. After 15 minutes walk, we finally arrived at the Platinum Complex. This complex's layout was much similar to Sungai Wan...many 6"x6" shops, very in trend stuff but relatively very cheap. I got my best bargain here. Purchase a bag at 300Baht... :D

We got back to our hotel after much difficulty getting a taxi...we stopped about 5 to 6 taxis which only the last willing to take us on the meter. All the previous were sharks, pushing for 300 to 500 Bath when the meter only took us 100...@#$%!!!

At night, we had our best dinner in Khao Shan area...we were eating in a local only stall along Rambutti Road. For main course, we got an extreme smooth home made chicken cake with porridge top with an egg and a seafood noodle...dessert, we have pumpkin egg pudding and mango sticky rice....yummy!

porridge with chicken cake

seafood noodle

huge portion of desserts...sweet :D

Slept at 11pm...Recharge for hectic schedule in Ayuttaya the following day.

This was a relaxing yet satisfying day! We would have spend more time in Platinum if we knew how it was...anyway just nice when we were very dry.