Tuesday, 1 September 2009

Bangkok - กรุงเทพมหานคร

It was good catching up with everyone in Amsterdam, but time had come to head back in the direction of Australia. On the way back we had a stopover planned in Bangkok for 5 days.

We had a great time and have already planned our next trip to this wonderful vibrant, buzzing and very cheap city.

2009 Bangkok-006 Shopping in MBK 2009 Bangkok-007Very weird ice cream
2009 Bangkok-008 Streetfood & Singha beer 2009 Bangkok-060 Dried Squid, cheap !

Wat

There is more in Thailand than food… you guessed it… Temples. We took the very efficient SkyTrain and the less-efficient river ferry service to Wat Pho (วัดโพธิ์), the temple of the Reclining Buddha. Wat Pho is the one of the largest and oldest temples in Bangkok and is home to more than one thousand Buddha images, as well as one of the largest single Buddha images: the Reclining Buddha, the Reclining Buddha is forty-six metres long and fifteen metres high, decorated with gold plating on his body and mother of pearl on his eyes and the soles of his feet.

2009 Bangkok-022 46m of gold 2009 Bangkok-023 The feet with the inlay of mother of pearl
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nice ‘n easy
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Hans donating a roof-tile to the restorations of the temple.

Close to Wat Pho is the Grand Palace. The Grand Palace is a complex of buildings in Bangkok, Thailand. It served as the official residence of the Kings of Thailand from the 18th century onwards.

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The Palace
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2009 Bangkok-036 Stray pussycat, always taken good care of by Buddhists

 

Food

2009 Bangkok-066More food… A Korean-bbq type of cooking, but with Thai ingredients. IMG_0426 Of course the menu is only in Thai.. so you need some help. And you have to write down your own orders on a post-it.
IMG_0435 You eat inside, but the kitchen is out on the street. At least no smelly curtains. IMG_0433
The mystery order came out well!
2009 Bangkok-074 With our friend Ayre at the night markets. 2009 Bangkok-075 The night markets at Memorial Bridge.

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