December 27, 2012. Our first day in Bangkok. We slept well after 20 hours of flying and getting to our hotel about 1 AM. We awoke refreshed and not tired, which was good because we had a busy day of sightseeing, featuring four of Bangkok's most picturesque sites: three temples and a palace.
Click on photos to enlarge them.
Wat Traimit is probably most famous for the Golden Buddha: three meters high, five tons of pure gold.
Seeking the monk's advice.
A dance competition among schools, one of several we saw during the day.
The Grand Palace is perhaps the most over-the-top decorated place we've ever seen, with palaces, spires, halls, and temples in profusion. Below are three more examples:
Wat Pho is another temple complex, famous for its huge reclining Buddha.
Worshipers at the base of the reclining Buddha.
The Thai were not clear what Western people looked like, so they focused on the hats.
Perpetual ongoing maintenance of the thousands of Buddha statues.
Wat Benchamabophit is a relatively modern Thai temple, made of white Carrara marble and intended to mimic western cathedrals. The stained glass is an interesting variation
and the interior looks both similar and different.
Nevertheless, the stone lion
and the red and gold tile roofs show clearly that this is a splendid Eastern temple.
