1. Grand Palace & Wat Phra Keow 
Accomplished to wake up fresh at 7AM, I guess it's becoz yesterday we didn't force our self to get tired, took a shower and everything finished at 7.30 went straight down to the coffee shop for the so..so.. standard 80's hotel breakfast. Afterwards we ran to the BTS station from the mezanin level (the hotel is connected to the BTS station directly) bought the tourist ticket for THB 100 which could be used all day anywhere as long as using the BTS. Got down at Saphan Thaksin station then walked a bit to central pier, it's really easy to go to the pier as there are direction signs everywhere at the BTS station in sanskrit and english.
the Orange boat
We took the Orange boat, as the colour of the boat indicates the route, it cost THB 15 paid it at the boat, got down at Chang Pier for getting to Grand Palace (GP) and Wat Phra Kaeo (WPK).
When we got down at Chang Pier we were lost, not knowing where to go, as we were directly greeted by traditional food market when we got out from the pier. Thankfully we saw a couple who were tourist too, but they looked really confident as if knowing where to go, so me and Srie we followed them, and it was true we finally got out from the market and saw the big white wall that surrounds the palace across the street from the market.
As we get inside the wall (outside paying area), and after taking some pictures, we were quite lucky to see the procession of changing palace guards.
Turns out GP and WPK are in the same area (inside the white wall), so the ticket for tourists that costs THB 250 are for these two places, we chose to geti into WPK first. Passing the ticket checking point for WPK we were greeted by this beautiful colorful temple in front of us with a statue to be prayed to and 2 giant mystical statues behind us guarding the entrance gate, at our left and right are colorful wall painting of stories surrounding the WPK complex. One thing about WPK & GP though... it's really reallly hotttttt.... I know it makes a perfect day of no rain and makes great pictures with our cam but at that time I really really regretted for changing my mind of using a a short sleeve shirt instead of a long sleeve and forgetting to use sunblock for my arms and hands, only applying it on my face and neck.
At a part in WPK near the elephant statues a very nice little breeze blew, it just felt like an oasis especially at the colorful ceiling they installed lots of small bells, so they chinks as the slight breeze blew it just added the perfect experience.
Satisfied getting around WPK and taking loads of pics, we started getting around the GP complex, we started at looking the king's throne, too bad it's forbidden to take pictures inside the room ,so we only take pictures inside. What's interesting about it is that inside the throne room there are statues and room dividers from China (I guess it's between country gifts from a long time ago... showing long term and quite close relation between these two countries)
Getting out from the king's throne we were automatically brought to the grand garden inside the palace, it's very clean and tidy but crazily hot coz there were no big trees for us to hide below it. So after taking pics again around the garden we went inside the artillery museum, it's located on the lower ground of the main building of the palace, divided in two, one is for the guns and the other is for sharp weapons. I'm more of a gun girl, I can't stand around sharp weapons it really made my stomach curls imagining how they uses the trident, large daggers, spears.... on a person of your enemy, with all the guts coming out euuuggghhhh.... yuckkyyyy..... :P (I know... my imagination just ran wild seeing those things) :P
Decided that we have seen enough of the Grand Palace and it's time to move to our next destination, we went back to Chang Pier and had our lunch at the food court there, too bad the food there is not that good.
2. Wat Pho & Wat Arun
Finished with our lunch, we went to Chang Pier which is just 5 meters away from the food court to use the same orange boat to Tien Pier (it's just 1 pier away) for Wat Pho, truthfully it's said that Wat Pho is only +/- 900 meters from GP and in the same side of the river, but with the crazy sunny day and heat it's just a no no to walk, we chose to do the practical way of using the boat, besides it cheap and won't tire us :D
Once we arrived at Tien Pier we saw another pier beside it for another type of boat to cross the river to the other side to go to Wat Arun, wow... turns out it's really easy to go to Wat Arun, when I was reading at the internet it looked like it would take quite an effort to go there, and becoz of this in the itinerary plan that I've made for our trip I didn't put it there.
The same situation as in Chang Pier, right after getting put from the pier area we are greeted with market, but this time is not a food market but a traditional market, they sell salted fish and the famous Thai durian, and again ... due to the crazy heat and smell of uncooked salty fish I just lost all my appetite for eating durian.
Inside Wat Pho, it's not as nice and grand as the grand palace, even could be considered a little bit messy and not under taken good care, but at least there were lots of trees, so it's much more cooler and comfortable there. Truly, the most interesting about Wat Pho is its "reclining Budha" which is so huge it's so hard to get a good angle to take a picture of the Budha, besides that Wat Pho is also known for it's teaching for the traditional Thai massage (also for the common people can learn or have a Thai massage there). even the wall paintings in that temple are pictures of human body plus points to do the massage (these wall paintings are not in the same temple as the "reclining Budha" but still in the area of Wat Pho).
In the temple of the "reclining Budha", at the side going to the exit door, there is a ray of clay pots which is used to be filled with THB 50 cents coins. For the coins, we donate THB 20 and we get a half full bowl of uncounted THB 50 cents coins, so every bowl has different amount, then we fill in those clay pots, it is said that if you filled all the clay pots with all the coins till the end, you will come back to Thailand. Luckily I got to fill all the clay pots with my coins, but Srie didn't get it to the last clay pot.
Satisfied with Wat Pho, we went straight away back to the small pier next to Tien Pier and cross the river. As I've mentioned before, this boat is different that the orange boat we used earlier, it's a smaller boat but because of it's design, an old lady with his son selling vegetables with their cart (looking for their cart they have finished selling as it is already empty) are crossing to the other side too are able to cross with their cart on the boat.
There are not much to see at Wat Arun, as I have read in the net that there is nothing really special from Wat Arun when you see it from near, the temple itself is covered with ceramics, sometimes it even looks as if they put plate of china and glued it on the wall of the temple :D
Not knowing what else to do, finally I decided to walk up the ladders to the top, it's a long trip to Wat Arun from south of Jakarta ;) so it would be a waste if I don't do what I can do there while I'm there...... STUPID stupid decision :D after finishing the 1st part of the stairs, which is quite high already... the second part is much worse, it's way more steeper and the steps are smaller, it's just about a span. To go up I have to hold both the railing left and right to make me more stable, at the top when Srie took my picture from below (smart girl, she doesn't want to go up :P ) I looked down (to face the camera of course), immediately regret came in to my mind and I was in frantic not knowing how to get down as it looked way steeper from up there then below, and getting down must be harder then going up.
Finally after being dizzy looking down, I walked around the top of Wat Arun to calm myself too, the view is really great, you can see the Chao Phraya river, it's a pity I left my camera with Srie, so I can't show the view here, and the soft breeze is just great though the sun is still striking it's force. Ok... time to go down. With lips unstoppingly hushing prayers, I tried to go down holding both of the railing on my left and right facing down, besides being steep and only having small steps, the height for each steps is very high, when I stood up on one step I could feel the next upper step is on my behind.
Finally when I reached at the bottom all I could say was "Thank you Lord, I arrived safely" while trying to catch my breaths back and tried to stand straight again with those wiggly feet. Seriously... that incident made me traumatized with stairs for around 2 weeks.
3. Shoppping @ MBK
IT's already in the afternoon when we went back from Wat Arun, took the boat again to cross the river to Tien Pier and exchange boat to Central Pier to go to the BTS again, coz we want to complete our journey of the day with shopping at Ma Boong Krong (MBK) for local gifts from Thailand for family & friends.
Turns our what I read and heard about MBK was true, there were lots of local gifts there especially at the 6th floor, you just have to bargain for stuffs there, though it's quite hard. After getting around there I just realized that I'm not feeling well at all, I had sunburn (my first sunburn in my life), dizzy and nauseous. I've had it, I'll never forget to use sunblock again.
We had dinner at MBK too, and went back to the hotel around 9 PM, packing our luggage and went straight to bed, coz tomorrow we have to start early in the morning as our flight to Singpore is at 7.05 AM.
No comments:
Post a Comment