As I mentioned in my last post, I spent Chinese New Year Day hiking through Bangkok and visiting a few special temples along the way. Here are some pictures and descriptions of the five temples I visited.
I started the trip by taking the subway to the end of the line at Hualamphong. After a short walk, I was on the edge of the Chinatown area and my first stop: Wat Traimit. This temple was built in 1832 and houses a beautiful solid gold Buddha that was supposedly built in the Sukhothai period (around 1300). No one realized that it was gold until 1955 when the plaster covering broke off and showed the gold underneath.
The image is currently housed in a small temple building, but construction has started on a very impressive looking new building. The small room and the hordes of red-shirted visitors (celebrating Chinese New Years) made it difficult to view and fully appreciate the image, so I look forward to seeing it in its new home soon.
After leaving the temple, I walked down Charoen Krung Road a bit and was starting to get a bit hungry. So, I stopped for a bowl of noodles. They were, of course, delicious. I ordered the very simple dish of sen lek nam (thin white noodles with soup). You can see that they also added a few pork and fish balls to the mix. The soup is served with sugar, chilis, vinegar, and fish sauce in the yellow container (which, by the way, is advertising Lipton Ice Tea)
After refueling, I continued my walk down Charoen Krung Road and noticed a lot of activity in a vaguely Chinese looking entranceway. A multitude of red shirts were pushing their way in and out, so of course I had to go find out what was going on. It turns out that the entrance led to Wat Mangkon Kamalawat, a huge Chinese style temple. It was built in 1871 by followers of the Mahayana Buddist sect (as opposed to most Thai temples, which are Theravada Buddhist).
The picture here is of the courtyard, which was decorated with red Chinese lanterns for the holiday. The temple buildings were packed with people, almost all of whom were crying. But it wasn't from emotion, it was from all of the smoke from the burning incense!
I made my way through Chinatown and turned north towards Ratchadamnoen Road. I took a small detour through a park that used to be the site of a large jail. There is supposedly a "Penetenary Museum" here, but I did not go inside.
Eventually I made it to the Giant Swing and the very large Wat Suthat. The Giant Swing (Sao Ching Cha) is one of the symbols of Bangkok. I had seen it before, but had never been inside the adjacent temple. Inside the temple is a very large Buddha image from the Sukothai period. But I thought the coolest part of the temple was the amazing colored paintings that covered the wall. I wish I knew more about the stories shown, like one scene of two elephants fighting a giant crab.
My next two stops were on the other side of the river, in Thonburi. So I walked past the Grand Palace and to Tha Chang (Elephant Pier), where I boarded a 2-baht (5 cent) ferry across the river to Wat Rakhang Khositaram. Rama I lived here before he became King, and the wooden building where he slept is still standing. Also of interest, are five large bells that Rama I gave the temple. (Hence the name Rakhang, which means bell.)
The next and final temple on the tour was on the same side of the river, but it was a bit too far to walk. So I took the ferry back across the river, then walked a bit, and then boarded another ferry to take me to Temple #5. But the walk turned out to be an interesting stroll through the famous flower market near Sapan Put. It appears that it's mostly a morning market, and by late afternoon most of the activity was cleaning and moving produce around.
By the way, if you are visiting multiple temples in one day, make sure that it is an odd number of temples. That way you maximize the "Good Luck" that you deserve for your dilligence. So I was quite relieved to arrive at my fifth temple of the day, Wat Kalayanamit, as the sun was nearing the horizon.
It also was packed full of red-shirted worshipers, including one who had the same great taste as myself. The temple houses a very large sitting Buddha and one of the largest bells in Thailand, which of course I had to ring with a huge wooden mallet for good luck.
Tired, a bit dirty, and hungry, I headed back to the river to take the boat downstream to Sapan Taksin and the end of the Skytrain. I rode back home from there in air-conditioned comfort after a great Chinese New Year hike.