Bangkok, Chinatown

We started our last day in Bangkok by visiting the Traimit Witthayaram Temple which house the solid gold Buddha image.  This Buddha is 5.5 tons of solid gold and is worth over 250 million dollars. Cast in the 13th or 14th century when the Bermese invaded Siam the people covered the Buddha with stucco and glass to disquise it and it remained that way for hundreds of years.  It was in an unimportant temple until 1955 when it was being moved and the stucco got chipped revealing the gold beneath that its value was recognized and it was moved to its new home.  It is beautiful to see and it is something to imagine what it must have been like for those who thought they broke the image only to discover that it was made of pure gold.

We then went on a tour of China town.  There was a vegetarian festival going on and there were dozens of merchants selling delicious smelling foods along the roadway.  These booths are set up for 10 days every year and draw large crowds.  Wandering the streets of China town and experiencing all the different sights and smells was a lot of fun.  We stopped at a couple of stalls and Nok bought us samples to try.  The jack fruit was particularly delicious.  After a delightful lunch in a local restaurant we went to visit the Golden Mount Temple.  Climbing 300 plus stairs around the temple we arrived at the top and were rewarded with panoramic views of Bangkok.  It was a wonderful way to complete our short visit here before heading to the airport hotel to get ready for our adventure to Bhutan.

The solid gold Buddha 

Eric receiving a blessing from a monk

Nok getting us some jack fruit to try. Notice the size of the fruit on the bottom of the cart

These energetic men are pounding out a delicious Chinese sweet that we enjoyed hot from the wok

Huge pots of vegetarian food for sale along the roadway

Stores with not an inch of wasted space 

Bags of soup for sale for a quick and tasty lunch

The choices were endless

This young chap was carrying bags of dried fish stomachs which are used in soups and such. They were for sale everywhere so are obviously very popular but I am not going to rush to find some.

The images in the Chinese Temples were quite different than the Buddhist ones we had been seeing

Not exactly the type of spa most of us like to go to but many were having facial treatments on the sidewalk 

Replica of the temple we climbed to get great views of the city

Temple complex directly below with the city panning out behind. The smog was much worse on this visit than when we were here two years ago.

Worshippers hang bells on this figure which stands in front of the stupa on top of the temple

As seen in this photo canals run through Bangkok and the homes and buildings are built right up to the edges of it. It does provide another way of getting around in this very busy city.