4 Days Bangkok Trip - P.7

4 Days Bangkok Trip - P.1, P.2, P.3, P.4, P.5, P.6, P.8, P.9

Golden Mount Temple + Wat Pho + Traditional Thai Massage at Wat Pho + Dinner at Suan-Lum Night Bazaar...

Soon after our lunch at Supatra River House, we took a 3 mins-boat ride to Tien Pier from Maharaj Pier. Wat Pho was about 200m ahead after coming out from the pier. Unfortunately when we reached the gate, we found the gate was closed. There was a guy, believed to be a tout, said Wat Pho was closed for the day. He offered to bring us to some other nearby temples by "tuk-tuk". But we declined. We were unperturbed and kept on walking to see if there was another entrance to Wat Pho...

While walking, a guy stopped us and asked if we were going to Wat Pho. He said Wat Pho was closed for "private ceremony" for the king ( I guess it was due to the King's deteriorating health condition). He showed us his ID and said that he worked as a plain-clothes policeman at Wat Pho. He said Wat Pho will be reopen at 4:30 p.m and he suggested, instead of us waiting here, we should visit the nearby Golden Buddha, Golden Mount and Export Market as it was now only 3:30pm. He also suggested we used the public "tuk-tuk" as it was only 4OTB to these 3 places and the "tuk-tuk" would wait for us before bringing us back to Wat Pho.

The tuk-tuk first brought us to the Golden Buddha (or fondly called Lucky Buddha)... a very small shrine! It was nothing interesting so no pix on that. We left after we made our offerings to the Buddha and asked to strike TOTO the following weekend... obviously that never happened.

The tuk-tuk then brought us to the Sam Peng Export Market... At first we thought it was like a wholesale market that we could source the local produce there, but to our disappointment, it was a small jewelry shop! Well, it looked more like a pawn shop to me! Jewelry was not our cup of tea so we just walked out... and on our way out, a guy there asked if we would like to make suits as the 2nd floor of the building was a tailor shop. But we were not keen either, so we left the place almost immediately.

We asked the tuk-tuk to bring us straight to The Golden Mount...

The Golden Mount...

The Golden Mount is part of the Wat Saket Temple located just outside the old royal city precincts, next to Pom Mahakhan Fort. From the ground, a wide stairway spiraled up and around the side of the mount. There were about 300 very small steps in all. Though the slope was quite gentle and there were numerous spots to stop and see something, but it was still a strenuous climb for both of us. If it was not me who kept on persuading, Mrs. Chialat would have given up half way.

Our first stop...

Big Bells along the stairway...

Wat Saket...

Lotus for the offering...

Once we reached the rooftop terrace, we had a stunning view of Bangkok - 360 degree...

East?

West?

South?

North?

We had a good 45 mins up there and the cool breeze that really kept us from leaving the place. But we had to...

Once we reached the bottom of the mount, where our tuk-tuk supposed to be waiting for us, was not there... Damn! It was our mistake for not telling him how long we would be up there. I thought that he must have some "urgent business" to attend before coming back to pick us up... but after 10 mins or so, there was still no sign of him. The other tuk-tuk came over to tell us our tuk-tuk guy was not coming back as he was going to the Export Market to collect his 200TB commission for bringing us there just now. Damn it!

The other tuk-tuk offered to take us back to Wat Pho for 80TB but I managed to bargain down to 50TB... Luckily I didn't pay the first guy in advance!

Wat Pho...

About 15 mins or so, we were back to Wat Pho. The gate was now opened... we bought 2 admission tickets for 40TB and wanted to book a session of Thai Massage but was told that due to the ceremony, the massage was not available today.

Wat Pho is famous as Thailand's 1st university and center for traditional Thai Massage. Damn! How could one miss?!

The entrance/Exit...

Back of Buddha's head and pillow...

The famous Reclining Buddha of Wat Pho...

Buddha's Toes...

The symbols on the soles of the Buddha's feet were inlaid with Mother-of-Pearl... but what is mother of pearl?

To put coins/notes in each of every one of these bronze bowls will bring you luck... altogether 108 of them.

Walkway inside the temple... beautiful painting on the wall and decorated pillars...

Fierce looking statues guarding the gate...

The four Phra Maha Chedi of Wat Pho were dedicated to the first four kings of Chakri Dynasty.

After half an hour in Wat Pho, we decided to leave and by now we were extremely tired... We took the boat ride back to Central Pier...

...And taking train at Saphan Taksin BTS station back to our hotel for a good rest before coming out for dinner. Most of their BTS stations were not equipped with escalator and walking up and down of those stairs were killing me!

Suan Lum Night Bazaar...

After a day of walking, climbing and temple-ing, we were very much deserved a good body massage, so we walked across the street from our hotel to indulge in an hour Thai Massage session before heading out for dinner.

Surprisingly, after the pulling, stretching and twisting(but no hanky-panky), we felt "relief" and "light" again. So we decided to go to Suan-Lum Night Bazaar...

We took the subway from Sukhumvit Station to Lumpini Station. Once heading out from the station, we saw this...

rows of shops...

Shops in the narrow alley...

But our main priority now was... FOOD!

We decided on this restaurant because... it was "brightly" lit, I guessed.

They were doing a brisk business...

Menu was handed out to us and the waitress took our drinks order first.

Here came our "drinks" (more like a dessert to me)...

Ruby Water Chestnut with Coconut Milk -45TB... The "ruby" was spongy and the coconut milk was not too sweet. It tasted quite good!

Shit... can't remember what it's called. But plenty of ginkgo and coconut fresh served with coconut milk - 45TB as well. Too sweet for my liking.

Nobody came to take our food order even we had long finished our "drink". We decided to ask for our bill and left...

We just walked next door to this makeshift restaurant...

Full of people also... but our food didn't take long to come...

Young Coconut. - 40TB

Seafood Fried Rice - 80TB. Not bad but not great either.

Fried Noodle... but where was the noodle? The noodle(hor fun) was so little that it was fully covered by the veggie. - 75TB. Tasted lousy!

The Grilled Squid... quite bland and chewy. 200TB was not worth it!

Last but not least, Tom Yam Kung again... It tasted quite good! -140TB.

After the meal, we started to explore the place but unfortunately we were too tired and didn't stay long. We finally had to retreat and find our way "home".

To Be Continued...

4 Days Bangkok Trip - P.6

4 Days Bangkok Trip - P.1, P.2, P.3, P.4, P.5, P.7, P.8, P.9

Grand Palace + Vimanmek Mansion + Lunch at Supatra River House...

Grand Palace is a must visit place when you come to Bangkok. Otherwise it is like going to Beijing without visiting Forbidden City or London without visiting Buckingham Palace.

The Grand Palace complex was established in 1782 and it houses not only the royal residence and throne halls, but also a number of government offices as well as the renowned Temple of The Emerald Buddha.

Aerial view - Just look at the sheer size of the palace. It covers an area of 218,000 square metres and surrounded by four walls -1900 metres in length.

When our cruise boat docked at Maharaj Pier, we disembarked...

Ana - our guide, waited at the pier to lead us to the van which would bring us to the Grand Palace. There were about 10 other people, all of whom were kwai lou, had also bought the "hop on and hop off" cruise ticket, took turn to board the van. We let them board first... and Ana saw that the van was getting full, she asked both of us to join her to the other van... To our surprise, instead of just a free shuttle service, Ana became our personal guide for the next 4 four hours.

This was the van that shuttled just the 2 of us to Grand Palace and Vimanmek Mansion before returning to Maharaj Pier. The van was quite new and comfortable. We managed to attract some envy eyes of others, as they may think that we were some VIPs who had a personal guide to show us around as well as a nice van with driver that always waited for us after each visit.

Mrs. Chialat preferred to sit in front for the reason she best known to herself.

Less then 5 mins ride from the pier, we reached at the palace's gate and there was a strict dress code for visiting Grand Palace - Men must wear long pants and shirt with sleeve. No tank tops and no bare feet(must have socks). Women must be modestly dressed as well. No bikini, no see-through clothes and no bare breast shoulder. if you show up at the front gate improperly dressed, here is the booth near the entrance that can provide you clothes to cover you up properly. You must leave your passport or credit card as security.

Nice building at the entrance...

After we bought 2 admission tickets for 350TB each that included the admission tickets to Vimanmek mansion which could be used later, we headed straight to the gate...

Phra Siratana Chedi.

When she heard that it was made of real gold, she tried to dig it out...

Phra Mondop.

Giant Yaksa Guardians

The Golden Chedis.

Kinnara, Wat Phra Keo.

Prasat Phra Dhepbidorn, The Royal Pantheon.

The Upper Terrace.

The Roof of The Temple of Emerald Buddha.

The Temple of Emerald Buddha. Camera was prohibited inside the temple... so no photo of the Emerald Buddha.

Beautiful decorated pillar of Temple of Emerald Buddha.

Decorated roof.

The Gallery - The wall of which contains painting depicting the epic of the Ramakien.

The Borom Phiman Mansion.

The Chakri Maha Prasat.

Beautiful garden and landscaping.

Beautiful architectural structure of the Chakri Maha Prasat.

Elephants guarding the Chakri Maha Prasat.

Beautiful structure.

The Dusit Maha Prasat.

Beautiful??

The Goverment Office in The Palace.

Change of guards... some tall, some short, some fast, some slow, some thin, some... well, all of them were thin. They should have been sent to China for training!

The Phimanchaisri Gate - It was the end of our tour of Grand Palace after exiting this gate.

The wall that surrounded the palace and the landscape outside the temple.

The view outside the temple.

Ok, this is not the gate outside the Grand Palace but the gate of our Istana Negara in Kuala Lumpur. After visiting Bangkok's Grand Palace, I feel ashamed of our Istana Negara where it does not have "history" to tell nor it is "grand" enough to brag about. But I'm quite puzzled every time when I see bus load of tourists stop outside the gate to take picture with the 2 horses. Well, after all I'm not suggesting our government to build one "mega and grandest palace" to compete, but our government really needs to put in some efforts to attract tourists. We are loosing out to our neighbour in term of tourism industry!

Amanda Samakhom Throne Hall... Ana said that she could have brought us there after the Grand Palace but unfortunately it was closed on that day.

The Vimanmek Mansion - The World's Largest Golden Teakwood Mansion.

We spent almost 2 and a half hours in Grand Palace before our next destination- Vimanmek. Once we came out from the palace, Ana made a phone call to the driver to come and pick us up. The van could not park near the Palace but we did not have to wait long. The van came in 5 mins.

The ride to Vimanmek took about 20 mins...

The beautiful mansion was built by King Rama V in 1897. The security was tight and camera was not allowed. So, this is the only pic. of Vimanmek. We had to leave our camera, phone and backpack in the locker as well as taking off our shoes before entering the mansion. It took about half an hour "manouvering" inside the mansion and Ana explained every attractions in detail to us. If you don't have a personal guide like ours, don't worry, they are conducting guided tour every half an hour.

After Vimanmek, Ana said as the government sponsored the shuttle van for us during this low season, in return the government hoped that we could support their local industry by visiting one of their factories. So she brought us to visit the 2nd biggest jewelry factory in Bangkok (or in Thailand, I forgot) - Chin Jewelry Co. We were offered welcome drinks on our arrival and I asked for coke. The factory was not that big as claimed nor impressive enough compared to the one in Phuket. So we just spent less than 3 mins inside the factory.

While we came out, the driver was nowhere to be seen and Ana phoned him. He was having lunch! He thought that we could have spent some times inside the factory to choose our jewellery. I felt bad as I guessed he must have washed down his food with water as he came back pretty quick - 5 mins max!

It was already 2:30 p.m and we felt hungry as well... I asked Ana to recommend nice Thai food restaurant and she recommended the one next to the Maharaj Pier. We invited her to join us for lunch but she politely declined. For her professional and impeccable service, I tipped her 200TB when we got back to the pier... and 40TB for the driver (of course he didn't see how much I tipped her). Both of them thanked us profusely.

Supatra River House Restaurant next to Maharaj Pier.

The restaurant is under the group of S&P, which also operates many other chained restaurants in Thailand.

4 books of menu to choose...

And we ordered these...

Ice Black Coffee - 50TB... normal and nothing special.

Ice Milk Tea - 55TB... I still prefer our Teh Tarik.

Seafood Tong Yam Kung - 155TB... It was extremely delicious. Not too sourly and not too spicy hot. Excellent dish!

1 huge prawn sliced into 2 that found in the soup. The prawn was fresh and "firm". The other ingredients were the standard squid, fish, mushroom, tomatoes and etc. But the prawn was still the star of this dish.

Thai Seafood Fried Rice -95TB... The portion was just enough for one person but damn delicious. One huge mussel "hide" underneath the rice!

The special sauce for the fried rice... hot and spicy. The fried rice was already tasted good enough so I didn't need this.

Fried Pork Knuckle - 275TB... It was perfectly fried. The skin was damn crispy whilst the meat inside was still juicy and tender. It was served with mustard but I preferred to go with Thai chili sauce. The portion was huge.

Chicken Green Curry -115TB... The chicken was tender and the taste of the green curry was just right as the spices did not overpower the taste of curry. Somehow I felt it was a tad too salty but when it went with white rice (all the dishes were so appetizing that I actually asked for additional white rice to go with it - 15TB for a small serving), it tasted quite OK.

Eventhough they served quite a variety of cakes but we just didn't have enough "room" for anymore dessert.

To Be Continued...