A Day in Bang

We set in for a day of tourism before working tonight. Staying on Khao San road can be very noisy, but at the same time, very local. It’s in the older part of the city, within walking distance to most historical attractions, and also many street vendors selling food and souvenirs right outside the hotels. The down side, at night it gets rowdy with the local lady boys trying to seduce backpackers and locals advertising for ping pong shows. Walking to the Grand Palace, which is home to the king of Thailand, and also a temple complex that looks as if my ten-year-old niece held it hostage with her Bedazzler. It also houses the Emerald Buddha. Luckily my skirt was long enough, where I didn’t have to pay a 200 baht deposit on some neon orange flowing pants for “modesty.”

We then walked to Wat Po. Which was under construction. Last time I tried to find this temple with a friend, we ended up lost in a mall for three hours waiting for the rain to subside and ended up back in a hotel eating pizza and watching a movie. So I was happy when the people we asked for directions actually knew where it was, and didn’t lead us to the other side of the city. This is home to the largest reclining Buddha in the world. Made of gold with mother of pearl feet. It’s hard for me to look at all these idols and not think the money would be better off somewhere else. If I melted this one Buddha, how many people could I feed? How many schools built? How many homes? Instead the gold is used for a palace-sized replica of Siddhartha, who was actually just a great teacher, who didn’t want to be worshiped or bowed to. In his lifetime, he actually sent away students who started to worship and bow to him as a god. It seems that every “religion” when left to man’s devices, turns into something is was not meant to be. Siddhartha, a teacher, is now a god, guarded by bedazzled demons.

We got our stuff together out of hotel storage and proceeded to the opposite end of the city to meet our host for the night. A jewelry designer/rugby player who has lived in Bangkok for the past 6 years, and is centrally located. Walking distance from my observations for the night.