Right before Christmas I flew back to Bangkok, my time in Vietnam was at an end. I hadn’t planned on returning to Thailand at all but when some friends of mine told me that they were coming by to spend the holidays I had to return to the place that started my SE Asia adventure. When I landed in the airport everything felt different. I was more confident after spending the last 3 months backpacking around SE Asia. I was the tour guide instead of being guided around, there was still a lot that this city had to offer and much for me to learn but I wasn’t as naive. I rolled into my favorite hostel NapPark and gave my friend a hug after she got from behind the desk. After dropping my stuff off we caught up about my travels in Laos and Vietnam. Before I went to bed I wandered around my favorite food stalls and grabbed a couple snacks.
Wat Pho, the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, is one of the most famous temples in Bangkok/ Thailand. Surprisingly, I had yet to visit it. When I first landed in Bangkok King Rama IX, was having his cremation ceremony and you were required to wear black in most of the Old City. So I avoided that area and then whenever I came back to Bangkok I was always passing through. Now that I had some friends here I was finally able to see this majestic place.
The Buddha is 150 feet long, and he barely fits inside the temple that houses him. As you can see from the header photo his head appears to be mere feet from the ceiling. I imagine they had to build the temple around him because placing this statue inside after the face doesn’t seem like an option.
The temple complex is 80,000 square meters making it one of the largest in Bangkok, and with over 1,000 buddha images placed across the site there is so much to see besides the main reclining Buddha. There are beautiful gardens filled with statues like the one above. I could have spent hours wandering and exploring all the cloisters and courtyards but sadly hunger called and so we made our way to a delicious dinner. I took my friend to a little restaurant which has this dish of fried noodles and ginger that my makes my mouth water just typing this out.
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