What Pho: Visiting the Great Reclining Buddha

The one thing I really like about Bangkok is its "temple component"; that's the phrase me and my friends coined. We resolved to have different components in our Thailand trip: hence, we had the nightlife component, hotel component, hostel component, shopping component, food component and of course, the temple component.

 

With that said, we scheduled a visit to Bangkok's greatest temple, the What Pho, temple of the (biggest) reclining buddha. We managed to squeeze the visit the morning before our flight, and since it was on a Sunday, we were hoping for traffic-free streets, which the Bangkok-gods may have heard, for it took us only a while to reach What Pho.



We paid 50 baht for the entrance to a really big courtyard adorned with magnificent temples and quite a number of buddhas. We paid a visit to each, and I managed to say a wish...well, okay, it wasn't just one wish; I guess I said three.

 


We looked around until we saw a number of tourists huddled to what looked like THE temple. True enough, it was where the Reclining Buddha was housed. He was massive. I was wondering if he was made from pure gold, but I never got to find out. Needless to say, he was a sight to behold and you almost get a certain godly aura just by looking at him.






We spent about 2 hours taking pictures and going around the What Pho. By the time we finished, it was almost midday and scorching hot. We wanted to visit the Grand Palace, which was just walking distance to the What Pho, but we figured we would skip it.


We then went out and walked about a block or so to get a taxi. By that time we were dehydrated and tired like crazy. But my camera was full and my soul was happy.



HOT TIP:

Wear slippers or shoes that could easily be removed, as this is required before you are allowed to enter a temple. Do not wear skimpy clothes (yes, even if it's scorching hot). And most importantly, be careful of taxi drivers offering you to go to the GEM FACTORY. There is no such thing as a gem factory. It's all a big scam and if you fall for it, you might end up penniless in Bangkok.

4 comments:

Elizabeth Marie said...

Ohhh how awesome! Thailand is the next place I want to go!

Kat said...

You should! It's a fab, fab country! :)

Anonymous said...

I am in love with food too! Great pics :)

I am a new follower to your blog :D

Anonymous said...

I just realised I commented on the wrong post.. The previous comment was meant to be for your previous post! OOps!

Now onto this post.. I admire Thailands architecture and culture. I would really want to visit one day! Thanks for sharing :D

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