Exploring Bangkok: Wat Pho Temple And Siam Square

Exploring Bangkok, Thailand’s capital city.

In Bangkok for brief 3-day stopover, en route to Phuket, we opted for a half-day guided tour to see and learn as much as possible about this exotic city (an inexpensive offer booked on spec at the airport, which turned out to be an excellent private tour with chauffer and professional guide).

We were staying at the Narai Hotel which had been highly recommended as centrally located and great value for money. The staff were professional and helpful, the bedroom spacious and comfortable, and the impressive international buffet was wonderful.

The guide met us at the hotel and we were driven to Rattanakosin, the old historic city which we’d glimpsed from the river cruise on the previous day.

Wat Pho is one of Thailand’s famed Buddhist temples, a fascinating 17th century complex with Chinese guardian statues and over 90 stupas in pretty gardens.

Known as ‘Temple of the Bodhi Tree’, there two main sections – the sacred part and residential quarters where the monks live.

It also houses the official Thailand traditional medicine and massage school. Our guide explained everything we saw – such as ‘the Silk Road’ represented by 1,431 epigraphic archives carved into stone, a unique historic record.

The ceremonial hall is impressive with a huge sitting Buddha on a pedestal, and two adjoining galleries holding 394 smaller statues of Buddhas.

But the highlight of our visit was seeing the magnificent gold-plated reclining Buddha, the biggest in the world – as custom dictates, we walked around the huge 36 metre-long statue and put coins in the 108 bronze bowls…

We drove past the immense Grand Palace with the sacred Wat Phra Kaew temple inside and the precious Emerald Buddha…it takes hours to tour properly, so we decided to see it on a future trip!

Our guide was really friendly, explaining everything about the city and answering all our questions on where to eat, what to see and do.

The driver dropped us off at the well-known MBK Center – eight floors of clothing, electronics, crafts, souvenirs, and food halls… Not as expensive as the fashionable Siam Paragon, Siam Centre and Siam Discovery shopping malls, prices aren’t fixed and you can get some good bargains by bartering – there are some 2000 shops within the 89,000sqm complex!

We bought some gifts and then lunched in a buffet restaurant, tasting a selection of the typical small portions to share.

Thai cuisine features an amazing variety of mouthwatering specialties, particularly chicken or fish, cooked with fresh herbs and spices…rice dishes, noodles, tangy curries, stir-fries, and small skewers served with dipping sauces.

We ambled round the modern streets of Bangkok’s main shopping district Siam Square, immense state-of-the-art malls, each featuring hundreds of brand-name stores, just imagine being in Bangkok with teenagers, they’d love it!

This is the hub of Asia’s retail trade and a magnet for more affluent shoppers from across the continent. Step inside even though you’re not thinking shopping, and walk through the air-conditioned passageways for a while instead of along the hot sidewalks outside!

The traffic is notorious but astonishing to watch from one of the footbridges, seeing police on foot directing streams of multi-lane rush-hour vehicles… hordes of brightly painted taxis, three-wheeled tuk-tuks, large buses, masses of mopeds and the occasional somber official vehicle plus thousands of pedestrians on the sidewalks, many with bright sun umbrellas to add more colour to the late afternoon street scene.

It’s late afternoon and time to catch the Skytrain back to Silom Road where we are staying in one of the best family hotels in Bangkok. This is the business district where swish embassies and bank headquarters are located… in typical Thai style, men and women of every age are sitting in the busy little street corner parlours, relaxing with a foot or neck massage after leaving work for the day!

Downtown is a convenient base, a lively area with lots of international restaurants, and central for seeing the main sites in Bangkok – Wat Pho Temple and Siam are easy to get to on the monorail, Silom Night Market is right here and Chao Phraya River is within walking distance.

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