Day two in Bangkok: The real adventure begins I set off to the Grand Royal Palace with the intention to take photos of Wat Phra Kaew which I had missed out the day before. As I was walking along Sanam Luang park, I saw a temple through the trees across the street which I hadn't noticed before. I crossed to read the sign outside and found out it was Wat Mahathat. I had originally written it off because the Lonely Planet guidebook claimed it was not as interesting to see as much as go to for meditation classes. I stepped in through the gate, and a Thai man approached me to chat. After the usual questions (where do you come from, how long have you been in Thailand, where are you going next, etc.,) he explained how to navigate my way to the actual temple.

After removing my shoes, I entered the temple and found the guidebook to be sorely wrong. It was well worth some time to enter and see. There was a rather large gold seated Buddha statue, perhaps 20 feet tall not including the stand, inside a tall and voluminous center hall. It appeared that the temple is in the midst of a major restoration, but a majority of the work had already obviously been done.




A set of doors in the process of being repainted. The color photocopy of the original doors shows that Wat Mahathat was very much showing it's age before the restoration started.

I continue walking around the temple grounds, until I got to an area where there were numerous sitting Buddha statues behind glass, running along the inside wall of the exterior the grounds. Thinking that it was appropriate and respectful, I made a "wai" to one of the Buddha statues before taking a photo of it. A wai is to put your two hands together, palm to palm, with all digits extended and without any sapce between them.

Looking to the right I saw a monk ("Phramaha" in Thai) and an older woman sitting at a desk by the side entrance to the temple grounds. Since he was looking right back at me, I made a wai to him as I said hello - "Sa-wat-dee khrap." He motioned to me to come over, and so I did. He asked me where I was from, and how long I had been in Thailand. The he said "You sit here please."

Something to know about the Thai language is that the grammar is completely different than English. Translated directly, most requests would sound as though they are commands to a Westerner. So what this monk was saying to me in his mind was "Please -- have a seat". This difference in grammar may be the biggest reason why many Westerners, know as "faraang" in Thai, become frustrated in attempting to communicate with native Thai people. Understanding the syntax and grammar of the Thai language helps greatly in knowing that native Thai people are trying to be as polite as possible.

I sat down next to the monk and the woman, who I wai'ed and said hello to. The monk said "Excuse me please," and then proceeded to speak with the woman. He then made a wai, and spoke a prayer, as best as I could figure. Finally, she got up and left. The monk began talking to me again, and I gave him an account of my whole "story" to date. He gave me his card, and told me his name is Charan. He told me that I should call him phra Charan. This is different than "laypeople" who you would address as "khun". Both phra and khun basically mean "you" in English, but khun is used informally for friends and strangers. phra Charan said, "I eat lunch. You follow me please." So I did.

We went to a small courtyard between some very small homes outside the temple grounds, where there was another monk sitting at a plastic table which had two platters with a pile of small clear plastic bags containing food. I hadn't noticed before, but this is the way that Thai's carry food "to go", say for taking to work, for instance. It's the equivalent to American styrofoam or clear hard plastic containers. They carry almost anything in these plastic baggies, including hot and cold drinks. And when I say hot, I mean too hot to hold!

Phra Charan explained to me that a monk is not allowed to eat at the same time as a layperson, and that they can only eat from sunrise to noon. It being close to 11:30, he told me that he and the other monk would eat first, and then I may be allowed to eat from the large selection of food afterwards. Realizing I would get to try some real Thai food (not the farang restaurant kind,) I could not argue. He chatted with me while they ate. When I told him that I had been to Wat Pho the day before, he suggested that I visit Wat Arun, across the river, because it is even more impressive than Wat Pho. I added it to my list of "must see". When they were done eating, the prayed - in a chant.


After eating, I talked more with phra Charan, and asked him about the collection of alms - the food which is donated to them every morning - of which he had shared with me for lunch. He told me that I could follow him on the "biin ta baat", as it is called in Thai, and take photos. He seemed encouraged by the fact that I told him I would be putting the photos up on this travelog for all of my friends, family (and whomever) to see. I agreed to meet him at the courtyard at 6:00am the following morning (Sunday). He said I could bring my backpack, but it would have to be left in his home/apartment.

I then headed off to see if I could find a Thai massage at the Wat Pho massage school, as I had read about in the guidebook. I caught a tuk tuk to get there. He dropped me off at the opposite of the corner of the Wat Pho temple grounds. I looked around for the massage school, and saw a massage business to one side of the short street leading to the river pier. I asked where the school is and they told me to go around the corner and head south. I got as far as the next pier, where a Thai man approached me, dressed rather nicely with pressed slacks, shirt, and tie. He asked me the usual questions, and I explained what I was looking for. He told me that that school was closed, but they did not give massages. I should have gone to the massage business where I asked for directions, because many graduates of the school work there. He then suggested that I should take a river boat tour if I was looking for good photographs - especially if I was planning on going to Wat Arun, which I was.

He told me that he could help me get a solo boat and could come along as he was not working that day. He explained that he is a teacher at a school between the two piers, and that he would often take his students on a river boat towards Thonburi and then back to Wat Arun as a "field trip". We went to the end of the pier where there were no boats waiting - just an animated older woman. As she beckoned a boat, I asked the man - whose name I wished I had written down - how much would this solo boat tour cost. 800 Baht, he told me, after asking the woman. $20. Steep. But he told me he could tell the driver when to slow down so that I could take photos of anything along the river side. I was wary of it being a scam of sorts, but at 800 Baht, they definitely wouldn't need to hit me up for the "hard sell" of souvenirs or the like. I relented and we set off to a small river, called Khlong Bangkok Yai, heading west. The man delivered as promised, having the boat driver stop and even back up while I took photos of a bunch of spirit houses next to peoples homes.

The spirit houses, called "sanh paht poom" in Thai, are a place for wandering spirits to reside outside of a home so that they don't bother the occupants. The larger the home, the larger and more intricate the spirit house. They are decorated with Buddhist symbols and small statues to make the spirit house a more "desirable" place to be.





Note the one kid holding his thumb and index finger below his chin. This is a common photographic pose for Thais.

After a full hour of going up Khlong Bangkok Yai, and then returning by Khlong Mon, we arrived at the Wat Arun dock. Dock fee: 30 Baht. I went through the front entrance, paid my fee, and pondered this sign:


In the northwest corner of the grounds where the giant "chedi" (tall temple tower) was located, I found a Buddha shrine where a monk was praying for people, and decided to sit for a bit. There were people dropping donations into a box, and then picking up a bowl of coins and dropping them in a bunch of small metal bowls neatly arranged on some tables. I had my audio recoder with me and thought I may want to record the sound, so I pulled it out.

Two small boys who were playing in the area came over to see what I was doing, and the only way I could explain it to them was to have them talk (and scream) into the microphones and see the lights blink and the level display move on the recorder. Not thinking they completely understood, I then pulled out my laptop, and played the recording back to them. They were pretty thrilled by that. One of them spoke a smattering of English, and while I was trying to pack up the audio recorder, asked me if he could sing a song. I took it back out and clipped to two microphones on to my pants - one on each knee. Below is a photo of the two boys - Kitee Phan and Moothan Hawat, and a link to a recording of their singing, as well as the sound of the coins being dropped into the metal bowls.


Click here for the recording of them singing. (1.8 Megabytes)
The boys were very kind to me; they shared something very much like a fudgicle with me after the finished their song. Chocolate flavored, I think. I packed up everything, and then let Moothan turn the camera on me.


Just as I was about get up to start taking photos, a young woman comes over and starts talking to the boys, patting one on the head. I was a bit surprised by this, as I had read it is completely unacceptable to touch a Thai person's head (except with someone you love - in the privacy of your home). Doing so can result in being puched - no joke. I later found out that it is okay in some situations to pat young boys (and in few instances, girls), on the head to show maternal or paternal affection. But not always from the parents, as I quickly found out.

I asked her if she was their mother, and she looked slightly flustered, answering "No, not mother." I asked her what her name was. "Lamai," she said. When she tried to say my name, she had a hard time with the "th" sound - a very common problem in most of Asia. Then she started to ask me the usual questions, except for the last one, which I did not at all expect. She asked me if I would like to help her and some other people with practicing their English. Thinking to myself, "Well, I am planning on being an English teacher," I thought - why not.

I followed her to a small office next to the rear entrance of the "chedi" grounds, where there was a study group in the midst of reviewing a poster with images of fruits and vegetables, each with their name in english below. They heartily greeted me with smiles, and I sat down on the floor with them. For the next hour and a half, we talked about where had lived in the U.S., and my whole story of why I was traveling in SE Asia. At the end, they told me that they were having another study group starting at 1pm the next day. I told them I would try my best to return. They told me that they would very much like me to come back again.

Then I took photos of the "chedi" of Wat Arun in the light of the late afternoon sun.




Wat Arun Ratchawararam (the full name), was the Grand Royal Temple to King Rama II. The "chedi" (or jedi or stupa as it may be called,) is 67 meters tall (219 feet). Read a bit more about it here.

Being completely wiped out from such a fantastic day, I took a tuk tuk back to the guesthouse.

  ¶ 10:03 AM