9 + 1 Temples Trip (Part 2)

Continue from the previous part....
After we left the pier, we were on a mission to find something to eat and fast!!  Off of Ta Chang, there were so so many food vendors and small restaurants.  It should be easy to get lunch, right? NO... There were just too many.  We just couldn't decide.  So, we ended up at the Royal Navy club สโมสรราชนาวี, basically because it had an air con (even with the unusual cool weather during that time, it was still hot during mid day).  The food was ok, not bad but not outstanding either.  At least, we could rest and it was clean.
After re-gained our strength, we resumed the second half of our journey.  We followed the wall of temple of the Emerald Buddha, and along the way, passed so many vendors selling used stuff and Buddha images. 

Our destination was not hard to find. Wat Pho วัดพระเชตุพนวิมลมังคลารามราชวรมหาวิหาร, วัดโพธิ์ was only an opposite of a street away.  This is the temple of King Rama I and it is also considered as the first university in Thailand because it houses a large selection of ancient text of various areas.  It was recognized by the UNESCO in the Memory of the World Programme.  Wat Pho also hold a record of having the most pagodas (approx 99 pagodas).
Actually, I took my foreign friends there several times.  It is such a huge place...could easily get lost in there.  The most popular site in Wat Pho is the Reclining Buddha.  The size of this Buddha statue never failed to awe me as well as it intricate workmanship.  It was kind of amusing to see people fighting (in a peaceful sense of course) their way to get into the right spot to take picture of the whole Buddha body.  I once did that but, now I just quickly walked away and let others enjoy the opportunity...well, I did have a quick snapshot.

Another thing that I enjoyed, was the fresco inside the temple.   It always made me feel so proud and wanna show it to others...the beauty, super details and dedication that needed for this kind of creation.  I'm honestly not an art person and I have to say that its quite difficult for me to describe it so, here is pictures I took.

Not much time to linger, we gotto head to next temple.  But first, we gotto get out of this temple.  It was like a holy maze.  It took us quite sometimes between admiring the art and looking for the EXIT sign.  Well, we did get out and wasted no time to wave and wave and wave for taxi.  They were so annoying!!  We are all Thai, why would they refuse to take us?  At last, we found a very kind taxi driver who, despite him constantly complaining about the traffic around our destination, took us in anyway.  He said that because our intention was to pray, he should not refuse us.  How nice!  Lucky us that, by the time we arrived, the traffic was much less congested.  It took us around 10 mins, maybe a little more. 

We arrived at the base of The Golden Mountain ภูเขาทอง.  Initially, when my friends told me that they wanted to pray at Wat Saket วัดสระเกศราชวรมหาวิหาร, I didn't connect it to The Golden Mountain.  I mean I knew that the Golden Mountain was a part of Wat Saket but, didn't think that we will be going UP.  Well, UP we did!!  It was good that the path wasn't difficult to walk and there were a few resting area along the way.  Still, I was sweating and panting by the time we got to the top.  On each resting area, there were bells for people to ring for good luck.  That was quite normal.  However, I found this sign at one of the resting area.  The top part was a pray, that was normal as well.  It was the writing in red that caught my eyes.  It basically said that "If you want to be beautiful, you must sweep the floor of the pagoda".  So we thought...hmm..next time we should come back with a broom... But wait a minute, how much sweeping do we need to do to become a model? hahahaha
A little history lesson about this temple... Wat Saket was built back in the Ayutthaya period (just the temple).  During the reign of King Rama III, it was restored and the King also commissioned the building of the Golden Mountain.  However, it wasn't completed during his reign.  King Rama IV then adjusted some of its design and ordered the Buddha relic to be placed up on the pagoda. The golden pagoda was completed during the time of King Rama V.
Apologize that I didn't take picture on the inside of pagoda.  So many people were praying at the relic that I didn't want to blocked the traffic and took pic.  I did took pictures of the view though.

The journey down was rather quick and we were heading to our next temple.  We already saw our next temple on the way to Wat Saket so, we basically retraced the route.  It's kind of hard to explain the direction so, here is a map with our last four temples.  Just want to show off a bit...from here on, we didn't take any transportation at all..just walked and walked.  We are so proud of ourselves.

I think it was around 3:30pm or 4pm when we reached Wat Suthat วัดสุทัศนเทพวราราม.  The walk was almost unbearable but, because of the short distance, it wasn't worth it to take taxi.   
This is the first temple in our trip that was originally built in the Chakri Dynasty.  The building was commissioned by King Rama I.  However, it was completed under the reign of King Rama III.  The ubosot was impressive.

The inside was even more spectacular with Beautiful fresco.  I was just sitting there, gaping at the sight all around me.  How could our ancestor create all this?  It was like they just printed the picture out (if they had the technology) and stuck it to the wall.  It was such a perfection and dedication.  Even the ceiling!!  How can I describe??  Well, see for yourself.

Another thing that struck me was the silence.  There weren't as many people or tourists as some other temples but, there was a constant traffic of people came, prayed and left.  However, it was so peaceful, a few people were meditating.  I think this is really how a temple atmosphere should be.
I would love to sat there for a bit longer but, we had a mission to complete.  So, we left.  While we were waiting for green light to cross the street n front of the temple, I had a little moment to look at another landmark, the Giant Swing or Sao Chingcha เสาชิงช้า.  The purpose of Sao Chingcha was for a Brahman - Hindu ceremony to celebrate and welcome Phra Siva.  However, the swinging ceremony was discontinue during the time of King Rama VII.  Heard that it was stopped because people were getting hurt or even died falling of the swing.  All we have now is some old pictures of the ceremony. BTW, this is not the original swing, it was repaired and replace a few times.  The height of the current swing is 21.5 meters.  How did people swing on that thing anyway?
Once it was our turn to cross the street, we walked along Dinso road ถนนดินสอ, to side of City Hall.  But before, heading to the next temple, we decided to stop for an afternoon tea, local style.  

How could we not stop at Mon Nomsod มนต์นมสด, right?  Along the way, we were talking about what made Mon Nomsod so good and so irresistible.  After all, it was just toasted bread with simple toppings (butter, sugar, condensed milk, Thai custard, jam etc).  Anybody could make it, right?  We could even make it at home.  But, when we think of Mon Nomsod, it almost like a comfort food, something that need to be shared with friends.  The toast at Mon Nomsod does not taste as good if you just eat it on your own.  Another thing that we think associate with its great taste is the crowd...lots of people often mean good food, don't you think?  We had to squeezed ourselves between groups of people to have our seats.  We ordered probably the simplest combination, butter with condensed milk and sugar, accompanied by cold milk drinks.  It was yummy.  
After some rest, we gave up our seats and move on.  The way to our next temple was quite easy.  We just had to walk straight, passed Democracy Monument then, turned left on Phra Sumen road ถนนพระสุเมรุ.  Walked a bit further and we found Wat Bawonniwet วัดบวรนิเวศวิหาร.  But before we stepped into Wat Bawonniwet area, we found two beautiful buildings.  I presumed that these were the residents of the abbots.  I really like the architecture of buildings during the era.  It was so elegant.

Passed these two buildings, we found the side entrance to Wat Bawonniwet.  This temple was built during the reign of King Rama III.  Its architecture was the combination of Thai and Chinese style.  His Majesty King Rama VIII was ordained and resided at this temple.  So, it was an honored to actually be there.

Here was another place that kept me gaping.  Actually even before entering the ubosot...just look at the detailed decoration of the window.  The ubosot was so grand and richly decorated.  Like Wat Suthat, the inside atmosphere was very calm and peaceful.  I just felt happy that I decided to come on this trip.  

Well, we have done it, 9 temples!  We accomplished our goal...At first, we only hoped that we could get to half of the list.  So, where did we go next, home? No no no.  We still had one more to go.  There was another temple that my friend wanted to go and it was not too far.  So, there we went.
From Wat Bawonniwet, we only needed to walked a little further and a few more turns to get to Wat Chana SongKhram วัดชนะสงคราม (what a great name! The direct translation is 'Conquer a war').  Only the name could lift someones spirit and empower them...I think.

Wat Chana Songkhram was built during Ayutthaya period.  This wasn't its original name.  The temple was renamed during the time of King Rama I and you bet, it had to do with us winning wars against Myanmar.  
OK, we were totally and completely done with 10 temples.  

There was this banner at almost every temple we went.
Sorry I didn't take picture of English banner.

Even better, we found out that we almost completed the visit of 9 royal temples. We only missed one which was the Wat Phra Khao or Temple of the Emerald Buddha.  Well, we have done well.  
After satisfied and fulfilled spiritual needs, it was time to fulfilled our bodies' needs (or our stomachs to be exact).  And for this, we headed to Yaowarat (Chinatown), in search of something yummy.  To be honest, we weren't that hungry because we just had our afternoon tea like 2 hours ago but, we couldn't say that the mission was completed without a tasty dinner to wrap all up.  
We were looking for a taxi and damn! why did we have to have a run in with evil taxi?  The first taxi asked for 200 Baht!!  These taxi gave us a bad reputation and they should be arrested!  Just ruined our mood.  Eventually, we found a decent taxi to take us to Chinatown.
Our first stop was a small restaurant, just off Yaowarat street.  This restaurant offers fried mussels and oysters (ร้านหอยทอดนายหมง).  Because we weren't so sure if it was the right restaurant and our stomachs were really demanding food, we only ordered 1 plate of soft fried oysters.  I don't know if it was just my imagination but, I thought I could feel the owner (maybe he is he son) eyeing us with annoyance.  Couldn't blame him though.  Well, it was great, kind of greasy but, still great.  The oysters were cooked till tough and the aroma of egg was so good.

Then, we moved on to the center of Yaowarat.  At first, I kind of wanted to try new place but, couldn't decide and ended up at one of my favorite, Kuay Jub Uan ก๋วยจั๊บ อ้วนโภชนา.  There are quite a few kuay jub places on Yaowarat street but, this one located right in front of an old movie theatre so, it's quite easy to spot.  I'm not sure if I should call it a restaurant or a street vendor.  Yes, they basically cooked noodle on the pedestrian and most tables were on the street but, it was big.  Bigger than some restaurants around that area.  I really like the soup.  It was kind of light and tasty.  Warning: people who are sensitive to spiciness should be caution.  Sometimes, I wandered if they accidentally drop a whole bottle of pepper into the soup an found that it tasted good???  Cuz, it sure felt like sipping pepper soup.  In a way, it's kind of refreshing.  Another unique thing is the fried dough ปาท่องโก๋, just didn't think that it would match with kuay jub but, it so did....so good.
We took a taxi back to where we started, our office and there our journey ended...for now.