Brilliant! Our snacks were safe last night. We still hung them up on the wall but triple wrapped them in plastic bags so the ants wouldn’t be lured to them but the real reason the ants didn’t come was because I put a circle of bug repellent around the hole they were coming out of. I watched them come out this morning, walk up to the invisible barrier, turn around and bump into their fellow ants. It was great!
A couple of times we went to a familiar restaurant just because we wanted something different. That’s one of the many things I like about the U.S. When you go to China, you get Chinese food, when you go to Asia you get Asian food, when you go to the U.S. you get Chinese, Asian, Italian, Mexican, Indian, and the choices go on and on. The choices are limited here and all of a sudden McDonald’s looks pretty good. Not this morning though, I’m missing fried rice while Andy has toast and a smoothie. We buy our bus tickets for the airport and find a tailor for Andy. For 5800 Baht ($177) Andy has tailored for him a suit jacket, two pairs of pants and a shirt. Come back in eight hours for a fitting.
From the tailor’s shop, we take a tuk-tuk to What Pho, The Temple of the Reclining Buddha. Its official name is Wat Phra Chetuphon Wimon Mangalaram Temple. The statue is one of the largest in Thailand. The posture of Buddha is of a sleeping or reclining lion, representing the historic Buddha during his last illness. It’s 50 yards in length, 16 feet high, covered with gold leaf and inset with mother of pearl. He lays in the ordination hall, also called Ubosot. It’s the place where new monks take their vows.
Outside we’re walking the grounds, taking pictures, find a place to sit and find some shade to look at the map to figure out what is near us and what to do next. As we are sitting there, a man comes up and starts talking to us, in near-perfect English. He told us about his 25th anniversary, that just happened to be today. He bought his wife a sapphire, “See here it is”, he says, and he shows me the jewelry piece he bought. He purchased sapphire because it’s always someplace on Buddha and brings good luck. How sweet. Oh, by the way, I have my tuk-tuk just outside the Wat and can take you to three other sights that you don’t want to miss while in Bangkok. They are the oldest and most historic places to see. Just 40 Baht ($1.20) and he’ll take us to those three sights. Why not? He seems nice enough, the price is great and obviously knows the city. We haven’t yet, figured out that this is a scam.
First the oldest Buddha in Bangkok. He’ll wait for us, it’s up there. We hike up this long, winding staircase to see Wat Phra Phutthabat. Its name means, “temple of the Buddha’s footprint.” The hilltop location gives us a nice overview of part of the city.
Our second stop just happens to be a wholesale jewelry store. Can you guess what they showed me? “Good luck” sapphire rings. I struggle to buy things like this. For one, I seldom buy jewelry and secondly, I don’t usually splurge on myself but today, I’m going to do it. This ring will have great significance; remembering this fabulous adventure with Andy, last month Frank and I celebrated our 33rd wedding anniversary and this ring reminds me of a similar ring my mom wore. She’s been gone 11 years now. A beautiful, sentimental gift and surprise for me.
Our driver took us to two other wholesale stores and under great pressure to buy clothes, jewelry, bags and whatnots we stayed strong and didn’t buy anything! No matter how many “For you, a special price” offers were made.
Our two final “sight-seeing” stops were to the Golden Mount, otherwise known as Wat Saket. This temple dates back to 1737, and the King’s Palace or Grand Palace. This palace is in the center of Bangkok. The palace has been the official home of the Kings of Siam/Thailand since 1782. Before we can go into the palace Andy has to rent a pair of pants. Shorts are not permitted. Neither are bare shoulders. We saw a couple try to get in by covering her shoulders with a scarf but they were not permitted. They were not happy campers.
We are back on our own. We walk back to the tailor and Andy has a fitting. The pants are done and they look amazing a perfect fit. Come back tomorrow and everything will be done by 6 pm. We had a quiet evening, resting, people watching, and emailing at the local Internet Café. On the way home, we saw a fight between two guys and a girl. They were fist fighting and stopped traffic. We’re in the city. Good night.
