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".
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