We were quite adventurous this morning - we got up early and went to see Jim Thompson's house using the sky train again. We were glad that we did, because it was really nice - it's actually 6 houses, all made of teak, brought to one place by a canal. The gardens are beautiful - full of flowers and trees. It's like a mini jungle. We had a brief tour, and then walked around the gardens on our own. Jim Thompson himself disappeared in Malaysia and nobody knows what actually happened to him! On the way back to the train we met a man who chatted to us for a while and then got onto the subject of gems - this is a well known tourist trap. People earn a comission for taking tourists to gem factories, so we kept saying that we weren't interested in gems, and managed to leave, but he was very pleasant to talk to!
This afternoon we had another tour. Firstly we went to Wat Trimitr which has a 5.5 tonne gold Buddha. It used to be covered in concrete, but when they moved it many years ago some fell off and they discovered that it was gold underneath!
The Grand Palace was beautiful and very large. It had lots of spires and many statues of angels, demons, king of the monkeys, and of course Buddha. Everything is covered in little tiles and mirrors and glistens in the sun. There is a LOT of gold both inside and out. We had to take our shoes off a lot to go into the various temple areas including the one with the Emerald Buddha (made of jade) which is very famous.
We then walked through a market which was interesting - lots of things for sale, including some food which must be pretty strong because when the steam from the cooking blew across it made my eyes sting!
Next we went to Wat Po which has an enormous reclining Buddha. It is huge - it's not very thick gold like the Buddha in the last Wat that we visited, but it's so enormous that if it was they'd never be able to move it. I think it was 46.5 metres long. After that we came back to the hotel and I think we might be in for another nap - absolutely exhausted! It's been much hotter today. |
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