Chasing Tigers: "We are Siamese if you please..."-- Lady and the Tramp

Ah Bangkok. Capital of Thailand, formerly Siam. The overnight train rolled into Bangkok somewhere around 8 am, I think. It was literally the best sleep I’ve ever had on an overnight train. After checking into the New World Lodge Hotel, I set out on my own around Bangkok. First stop, the Grand Palace. Now when you come upon the palace there is a wall and you walk in and you are bombarded by people who want to give you a tour… which I just kinda refused *this is a mistake, you should definitely take the tour, especially if you don’t have a good background on Thai history… or else you walk into the Grand Palace and you are absolutely floored by how incredible it really is. I would have to say this complex ranks up there with the pyramids and the Parthenon in my books. There is so much to see and sooooo much going on, that the pictures don’t really do it justice, but I’ll give it a try anyways.

Of course the first thing I see when I walk in is the big gold shiny building. This building is a part of the upper terrace of the palace.

I think these guys are awesome. They’re standing guard to the exit from this part of the Palace.

The Mondop is a repository for Buddhist sacred Scriptures on palm leaves.

Yeah, that’s me, taking a picture of myself w/ a sweet gold statue guy behind me.

This Buddha statute is absolutely beautiful, especially b/c of how plain and simple it is in contrast to the ornate background of the colorful glass tiles.

The upper terrace is surrounded by different statutes of mythical beings.

In the middle there is a miniature version of Angkor Wat.

So on all the walls there are scenes from various legends and myths… here is what I think is a god protecting the city using his tongue… I think that’s pretty cool.

Just a cool view.

Now when I walked up to this part I thought, “cool food,” then realized it’s a massive alter, and these are all donations… most likely to the jade Buddha… who I couldn’t take pictures of… at least not clear ones.

This is inside the Royal Pantheon, and I’m pretty sure that this is probably my favorite picture… b/c its awesome.

Everything before now has been stuff around the palace in the area known as the Royal Monastery of the Emerald Buddha. Just a side note… the actual Monastery was under construction… as are most things in Thailand right now. They are preparing for the King’s 80th b-day, and boy do they love their king. Here is outside of that area, and this is the Chakri Maha Prasat Hall.

In this pic is a guard dog, and in the background is Dusit Maha Prasat Hall… if you check out the detail, the mythical thing in the corner of the building is actually leaping off… how cool is that.

At this point I moved on from the Grand Palace. Wandered along a road where all they sell is charms and things for luck, and headed towards Wat Po, the birthplace of massage therapy. Now just before I went in, there was a guy who actually tried to tell me the Wat was closed for foreigners at that moment and wouldn’t be open for a couple of hours, and it was just my luck that there was one Wat open near the market that was only open on the 2nd of every month. I played along for a few minutes till he tried to get me to hire a taxi to get to the market… man was he pissed when I said I would walk. It’s a common scam in Bangkok between taxi drivers and market people. They have a deal that taxis take people really cheap, but once there tourists are forced to spend near a hundred dollars just to leave…. I wanted to go to Wat Pho, no matter what… and that’s exactly what I did. And this time… I got a tour guide, b/c well, I should have gotten one at the palace, and I wasn’t about to make the same mistake twice.

Here is Buddha.. or Vishnu... (Hindu God) it gets confusing when things overlap a lot... especially b/c in some places Buddha is an incarnation of Vishnu... sitting on the Naga. Legend has it that one day while Buddha was finding enlightenment it started to storm, and the 7 headed Naga came out and gave Buddha shelter from the storm. This is one of the most popular Buddha stories and is a common theme for statutes. On a related note, Naga’s are also huge snakes in SE Asia. In fact in there’s a picture in Laos of one that U.S. forces caught during the Vietnam war… its big… and its scary.

So this here is an acupressure map inside Wat Po. It shows all the pressure points and methods for massage.

Here is me getting my horoscope done and palms read by Mr. Sawong Kontong, a former grade school teacher. Here’s what I learned: Starting in mid august, things are gonna perk up significantly. From ages 25-26 I’ll be taking care of money, job, house issues and I should buy property. 27, probably getting married… to a foreigner. 31-33, big move…34-45 I’ll be super happy. 46-55, gonna move somewhere else in the world and need to take care of my health. 56-71, really happy. 72-73, health issues, 74-81 happy… Then when I’ll die will depend on when I stop drinking. I should stay away from the color pink and Tuesdays. I also have two paths to choose from in life career wise… either way I’ll be happy, and I’ll probably end up doing both… go figure. Overall, it was highly amusing and a ton of fun.

This here is the reclining Buddha… Its really friggin big. And here is the legend: When Buddha was about to die, he laid down and propped his head up. He said that when his head fell, he would die.

Unfortunately, they build a room around the statute so that it becomes really hard to photograph the whole thing.

But these are his really big feet.

Here’s the best I could do getting the whole thing in at once.

And for luck, I put coins in all of these here pots.

And another Buddha shrine.

In this statute, the figures are practicing Yoga, meditation and Thai massage. Which is exactly what I did next, seeing Wat Po has the school for massage medicine in it. Thai massage hurts. Highly painful, hitting pressure points, etc. Not my cup of tea.