The Original Harmony

We started the day with a Thai breakfast noodle soup with some sort of meat (we think it was beef but not totally sure). Whatever it was, it was quite good, though I did make the mistake of putting in too much hot pepper flake. The pepper flake looks pretty much like the Italian variety, but it is MUCH hotter.

We then decided to go to the Great Palace and Wat Phra Kaew. Unfortunately we went the wrong way, so we ended up wandering Bangkok for about an hour before we got there. (For those of you who don't know, a Wat is pretty much a Buddhist temple, but the ones we went to today were fairly large compounds. The picture is part of Wat Phra Kaew.) The palace was closed today but the wat was open. Wat Phra Kaew is home to the emerald Buddha (made of jade) which is the most sacred in Thailand. The whole area took us about two hours to explore which included a trip through the wat's museum.

After Wat Phra Kaew we made our way over to Wat Pho, another compound home to what is probably the most famous Buddha in Thailand, along with about 1500 others. After our experience of just wandering around Wat Phra Kaew we decided to hire a guide. He took us around the compound and was able to explain everything we say. It was great, and only about $10 for the hour or so he was with us.

Wat Pho is also home to a Thai Massage school, and massages were only $10 so we each decided to get one. Some parts were a little bit brutal, but when it was over we both felt much better.

It was about 5 when we finished our massages, and we hadn't had lunch. We grabbed a bunch of bananas for a snack and started heading back to our guesthouse (somewhere between a hostel and a hotel in quality). On our way we passed a few interesting side streets so we decided to explore those too. I found a mask shop that looked pretty cool, I might stop there before we head home. We also got orange juice here, some of the best I ever had, all fresh squeezed and one of the brightest orange colors I have seen in something natural.

After all this we made our way back to Phra Athit Road, near our hotel, for some dinner. We found a neat looking place that looked pretty full so we decided to stop in. It was a little more expensive tha most places (two meals and two beers cost us about $5) but the food was very, very good. As it turned out the place seemed to be quite popular with the local 20's crowd (probably college kids from the nearby university). We were outnumbered about 5 to one by Thais; not an easy feat in this part of town.

That brings us to now. Its getting close to bed time but I might grab a small bite to eat before we go upstairs.

Two last notes. For those of you who were wondering how different Thai Thai food was from American Thai food, I'd say not very at all (at least not in Bangkok).

Also, the strangest food I have found so far? Lay's potato chips, a popular flavor in these parts seems to be Grilled Lobster...go figure.

-Tim


UPDATE: I put a new picture in here. This was one of the "Giant Guards" outside Wat Phra Kaew. They stand about 25 feet tall (just a guess) and there are a bunch of different ones throughout the complex.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 08, 2006 at 9:00 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.