An early start to the day (for us!), 8AM!
It appears that Thai meteorologists are no better than our own, yesterdays forecast was for 0% chance of rain. When we woke up it was pi$$ing down. Our first stop was the Wat Arun (the Temple of Dawn) if you want more info https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_Arun. Buddhism is the predominant religion in Thailand, and there are temples everywhere, they add a splash of colour to the city.
Way back when, well the 1700’s or so, Thailand bought a lot of china and ceramics from China, unfortunately the packaging of these goods left a lot to be desired, and much of the shipment was broken. Not wishing to waste the goods that had already been paid for, the remnants were used in the building of the Temple of Dawn as the pictures below show.
Above is the complete tower, decorated the same way all the way to the top
What’s the password??
Thankfully the rain had stopped by this point as the next part of the trip involved a ride on a “Long Tail” on the canal.
View from the Long Tail
The long tail name comes from the long drive shaft that connect the engine to the propellor. The engines on these boats are large, I’m guessing 6 litres or so AND turbo charged
One of many monitor lizards that we saw
Canal work in progress with the equipment on a floating barge. The barge had no engine, it was propelled using the digger bucket to pull it along.
Some of the houses along the canal. They ranged from shacks to mansions.
And of course Temples
A long tail coming out of the lock
Our boat driver stopped an bought some old bread to feed the fish. It was a feeding frenzy when we threw it in. I am told they were cat fish
Long tails exiting the loch
Where does one sit?? Luckily there were “western” toilets available as well!
Next it was back to the van, for some reason we had 10 seat passenger van to ourselves. We headed off to the Grand Palace. Again, I’ll give a reference https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Palace, it saves me typing! Below are some of the pictures. The place was beyond description, even the photo’s won’t do it justice.
What’s the password (again). This poor guy had to stand their for 3 hours in the heat and humidity!
The door above is inlaid with mother of pearl, the lower picture is a close up of the detail
The palace above is loosely modelled on Buckingham Palace as it was designed by the same architect. A different one designed the roof!!
This lamp outside the palace may be familiar to Londoners
That’s why!
The elephant mounting station! The King would get dressed in the building and come out on top of the white platform. The elephant would be secured on the lower platform, the King would hop on, and off they went
Wasps in a flower!
Our last stop of the day was at the temple of the reclining Buddha.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_Pho
I’ll let you read about that as this has taken a long while to write. There was a problem with WordPress not accepting the pictures earlier which took a while to sort out.