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| thailand |
| central - bangkok |
| Bangkok, Krung Thep, The City of Angels, a fast-paced, polluted, dirty, stinking world of canals, street vendors selling everything imaginable, rotting buildings, wats, palaces, museums, cockroaches, tuktuks, girlie bars, prostitutes, gleaming sky-scrapers, monks and backpackers. From the Khao San Road and Patpong to Siam Square and Sukhumvit and everything in-between. I've been in and out of this city for the last three months and have managed to spend a great deal of time and money roaming the streets. It's a love-hate relationship. More than three days here and I want to pull my eyes out, but three days away and I wish I was back, drinking a Beer Chang on a streetside patio with a big plate of spicy Pad Thai. |
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| The Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew |
| Construction began on the palace and wat here in 1782. The Grand Palace, former home of the king, is now used only for ceremonial occasions. Wat Phra Kaew, or Temple of the Emerald Buddha, houses the solid jade Buddha statue, originally from Laos and taken during the Siamese-Lao war of 1828. |
| The enormous golden chedi of Wat Phra Kaew. |
| A Royal Guard outside the Grand Palace. |
| One of the highly ornate rooves of Wat Phra Kaew. |
| Golden garuda line the outside of the wat. |
| The Changing of the Royal Guard. |
| The Siamese Empire once stretched as far as Siem Reap in what is now Cambodia. The famous Angkor Wat was actually designed and built by the Siamese and not the Khmer. An extremely detailed scale model is kept on the grounds of the Royal Palace. It was built to allow the king to see and make changes on the design without having to travel all the way to Siem Reap. |
| Another of the golden chedi and Wat Phra Kaew in the background. |
| The Seated Golden Buddha of Wat Traimit |
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| An amazing sight to behold, this 3m tall, 5.5 tonne, solid gold Buddha statue was accidentally discovered in 1962 underneath a plaster exterior after some of the coating fell from a crane while the image was being moved. It was probably added to protect the Buddha when the city was under siege by the Burmese. |
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| Street Markets and Vendors |
| The question isn't what can you buy in Bangkok, it's what can't you buy? Everything from fruits and meat to batteries and Viagra can be found somewhere in the city. |
| A sea of scooters parked at the Chatuchak Weekend Market. |
| The Vimanmek Teak Mansion |
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| This house was originally constructed on the island of Koh Si Chang and later moved to its present location, near Dusit Palace, in 1910. It's the largest golden teakwood building in the world and contains over 81 rooms, halls and anterooms. King Rama V lived here in the early 1900's but later moved. The mansion is now a museum, but still used occasionally during the weekends by the present Queen and by the King for entertaining guests. |
| Wat Pho |
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| Wat Pho is Bangkok's oldest and largest wat. It is home to the largest reclining Buddha and the largest collection of Buddha images in the world. It was completely rebuilt in 1781. |
| These four chedi commemorate the first three Chakri kings (2 are for King Rama III). |
| The wat is the national headquarters of the teaching and preservation of Thai massage. Several murals display important acupressure points. |
| There is also a small garden filled with statues demonstrating the correct techniques of Thai massage. |
| But...you can litter everywhere else. |
| This impressive reclining Buddha statue is 46m long and 15m high. The reclining Buddha is meant to illustrate the passing of Buddha into nirvana. It's made of a brick and plaster core, covered in gold leaf and mother of pearl inlay. |
| Wat Benchamabophit |
| This beautiful and peaceful wat was built in the late 19th century. The base of the Buddha contains the ashes of King Rama V. |
| Monks' robes drying at Wat Benchamabophit. |
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| Monk's Bowl Village |
| This gentleman has been banging out monks' alms bowls for his whole life. The bowls are made from eight pieces of metal hammered together until smooth. |
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| Jim Thompson's House |
| Jim Thompson built a Thai silk empire and earned himself a fortune. He was originally from New York, but fell in love with Bangkok and collected pieces of old Thai houses from around the country, finally rebuilding them together as his own home, near Siam Square in 1959. He mysteriously disappeared while on a walk in Malaysia in 1967 and hasn't been heard from since. Afterwards, his house and Asian art collection were put on display and have been turned into a museum. |
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| Siam Square |
| One of the more modern areas of Bangkok complete with huge shopping complexes, world class cinemas and theatres, restaurants and the Skytrain. |
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| Wat Ratchanadda |
| This wat was completed in the mid-19th century and features a well-known market with hundreds of small and large, wooden or metal, Buddha images for sale. |
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| Inside a khlong (canal) taxi, an economical and fast way of getting around the city. The tarps are pulled up and down to protect passengers from the black, putrid and polluted water of the canal. |
| Looking out across the Chao Phraya river from Bangkok's Banglamphu district. You can also take river taxis, up, down and across the river. |
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| The Pak Khlong Flower Market |
| This market, just off the river, at the mouth of canal Lawt, is filled with flowers and plants off all imaginable shapes, clours and sizes. Long stem roses for a dollar a dozen, orchids and lilies and marigolds (used ceremoniusly) are also everywhere to be found. |
| Siriraj Medical Museum of Forensic Science |
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| This museum, located in a hospital, has five different sections focusing on Forensics, Pathology, Thai Medical History, Parasitology and Anatomy. The museums feature innumerable preserved birth deformities and even the preserved bodies of infamous Thai murderers. The most famous being, Si-Ouey, who murdered children and ate their hearts and livers. There are also several forensic photographs of different murders and the skeleton of the museum's founder stands watch at the entrance. This museum was one of my favourite places in Bangkok, apparently it gets more visitors every year than all the other museums in Thailand combined. And don't worry, it's very respectful of the dead, many of the preserved fetuses have small gifts and offerings around them, like choclate bars or small toys. If this interests you there are many more photos here. |
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| Damnoem Saduak Floating Market |
| Over 200 years old and about 80km lies this floating market, filled with wooden canoes and market-vendors in indigo-dyed clothing with straw hats, selling vegetables and fruits. Well, at least that's how it probably looked before the tourists started coming. Nowadays, unfortunately, this is a big tourist trap. Hundreds of people paying way too much to float through the market and take photos and most of the fruits and vegetables for sale have been replaced by cheap souvenirs sold by pushy vendors, just like back on the Khao San. It wasn't worth seeing. |
| Vendors sitting atop poles in the canal selling souvenirs to tourists as they walk by. They collect money and hand the product over by way of a long bamboo pole with a plastic cup stapled to one end. |
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| One of my favourite dishes, cheap and tasty, Thai Fried Rice with Chicken. |
| Chicken roasting at a streetside vendor's BBQ. |
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| Thanon Khao San |
| The Khao San (Raw Rice) Road is where most backpackers spend their time in Bangkok. Everything you could ever need or want can be found here, cheap. CD's, DVD's, backpacks, clothing, knives and brass-knuckles, fresh fruit, books, airline and bus tickets, fake ID's, money changers and some of the cheapest (and dirtiest) accomodation in Thailand. I managed to spend about three weeks staying on the Khao San road. Some days i loved it and others I couldn't wait to get away. You have to see it to believe it, especially at night, when all the neon signs are turned off and the cheap sidewalk bars open up...and all the crazies come out. I saw a couple of 'Bible thumpers' preaching at full volume to the masses the other day, and a pedi-cab driver whose covered his cab in tinsel and dresses like one of the guards from the Grand Palace while blasting dance music from a ghetto-blaster. There was a guy dressed up like Spiderman collecting donations for the tsunami victims, a man with a telescope selling "A look at the moon" for 10 baht. |
| Names and photos of the tsunami missing and deceased, updated daily. |
| Monks chanting. |
| Naomi, my friend from Vancouver, and her friend when I ran into them one night. |
| This one was really freaky, called hydrocephalus. |
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| The Khao San road at night. Crowds of tourists battle it out with Thai prostitutes, drunken college kids and vendors selling food, liquor, clothing and souvenirs. |