City of Angels

I'm probably making this up but I think Bangkok is the "City of Angels" if not I apologize. I hoped from one capital to another, this time in Thailand to its "ultra-modern" capital. Bangkok is huge and fairly well developed (more on this later) and houses one of the most well known backpackers spots on the globe....the infamous Khao San Road where anything is possible. During the day there are shops and stalls, at night this place lights up like Vegas and is a raging party, all night long. Sex tourism is a huge thing in Thailand, especially Khao San Rd area (though its worse in other parts of town), I think its disgusting, but its quite amusing to see these nasty old guys courting around these skinny little young Thai girls. And if you every want cheesy tourist gifts they are all over the place, particular the women trying to sell you these blocks that look like frogs that have make frog noises....or if you are in the market for suits there are probably a dozen or so places in this quarter mile strip to fulfill your needs. And 7-11's are everywhere, there are literally 2 stores across the street from each other on Khao San Rd. It's a fun place to watch life go by if you ask me.

I fortunately came to Bangkok on a weekend which meant the weekend market was open. It has 15,000 stalls there and sees about a quarter million people everyday its open. It was mostly clothing and accessory shops, not my forte, but it was neat to see. To get there I got to ride on the Sky Train, basically a super fancy above ground metro. Its air-conditioned which is heavenly as its about 100F everyday here with nasty humidity and its super clean. On the way back from the market I stopped by Siam Paragon which just so happened to be the nicest mall in the history of the world I'm sure. It was ridiculously well maintained and had lots of fancy stores. The only reason I stayed for more than 5 minutes was because of the AC. The place was commercialism at its best and there were teenagers running around updating their wardrobes I suppose. I must note that I don't quite understand SE Asian teenage culture, I think they dress funny...and I'm sure they would say the same about me, but "trendy" clothing to them is quite hysterical looking I think.

I also got to visit the Grand Palace and Wat Pho. And wow...they were impressive. The Grand Palace isn't all that great, but in the complex is Wat Phra Kaew, definitely the coolest modern Wat that I've seen on this trip. The place was elaborately decorated beyond belief. I've probably said that a bunch to describe the stuff I've seen but this one is the hands down winner for over the top detail and beauty. It houses an Emerald Buddha that has a crazy history, but I thought looked ehh....not that impressive in my opinion. It was the outside of all the buildings that captured my eye. The detail, most of it in gold, of the outside of these buildings was immaculate. There was a golden stupa (I think they call them chedis here), statues of religious figures all over, and really cool landscaping.

Wat Pho houses what I like to call the "Lazy Buddha", most people call it the reclining Buddha because my good pal Mr. Buddha is lying down in it. There are 13 (I might be making that up) poses of Buddha each representing a different thing, like Buddha dispelling evil, or Buddha cleansing the earth. The reclining Buddha represents Buddha entering his final nirvana. There are reclining Buddha statues all over the place, but this one is famous because its roughly 50 feet high and 150 feet long. Its core is made of 80,000 bricks covered in plaster and then gold. The eyes and bottom of the feet are made of mother of pearl. The Lazy Buddha is really cool, my favorite Buddha statue. The size of it was just amazing, standing at either the head or the feet and looking down its length is quite impressive.

Bangkok certainly takes the cake for going over the top with its religious displays, I suppose its deserving that its called the Vatican of Buddhism.