Took advantage of the free temple tour available through the timeshare setup. After a late pickup because the van was stuck in traffic we were finally on our way. Just a small group, two other couples and us. First stop was the Wat Benjamabopit (Marble Temple). It's nicknamed the Marble Temple because it's mad from imported Italian marble. It is one of the finest examples of modern Thai architecture. It was built around the turn of the century (last one, not this one).It has a large central hall with a bronzed Buddha with two side alters. Outside in coutyard is a collection of 53 Buddha statues displayed in the rear cloisters. There are Buddhas from around the world and show artistic development of Buddhas.
So we hopped back in the van and headed to Wat Traimit (The Golden Buddha) located in a corner of Chinatown. It's claim to fame is that it once sat in a neighborhood covered in stucco which is thought to have been applied during the time of Burmese invaders to protect it. Because of the stucco noone realized the value of the statue and it sat neglected for centuries. In the 1950s a company bought the land and was using a crane to move the Buddha. It dropped and the stucco was cracked. A rainstorm that night further weakened the covering and the next morning a resident noticed a metallic glow emanating from the crack and ordered the stucco removed. Underneath was the 5.5 ton golden image. Local monks say that it is 75% pure gold but no scientific tests have ever been done on it.
Last stop was Wat Po, where the reclining Buddha is. The complex itself is Bangkok's oldest and largest remple complex. The main claim to fame is this is where Bangkok's first established university teaching traditional sciences was located in the 1830s. Traditional Thais massage is still taught there. Crammed into the courtyards are chapels, rock gardens, bizarre statues, bell towers, bots and chedis. We were there primarily to se the Reclining Buddha. The Buddha itself dates from the 16th century and is 45m long and 15m high. The shed that it is in quite claustrophobic so it it hard to squeeze in to see the whole of it.
Being a "free" tour it did neccitate a quick stop to try to sell us gem stones but that was rather painless and over with in about 20 minute. Of course by now we were starving as it was past 1pm so we asked the driver to just drop us by a skytrain station instead of back at the hotel and headed downtown to the MBK center just to check it out and eat in the food court. They have quite an array of food available in the food court and cheap too but it uses a coupon system. With coupons in hand we happily ate our late lunch.
In deciding what to do next I wanted check out Panthip Plaza, the IT and electronics mecca so we headed that way walking through the variously named Siam mall complexes. The walk in reality was not that far but it was late afternoon, we had been up early (and late the night before) so we didn't have a lot of energy left for 6 floors of goodies. Fraser found some MP3 players he might want to get the girls so we'll probably drop back by before the end of the week. Seeing as it was rush hour and we were not that close to a skytrain station we took a tuk-tuk back to hotel. Interesting to say the least through rush hour traffic!
Was quite tired when we got back to the hotel, all that walking so Bev and I went upatairs to the Massage Spa and made appointments for 8:30pm, a traditional Thais massage for her and an aroma (western) style one for me. We met up with Fraser in the lobby at 6 to walk down to a BBQ place Fraser had seen down one of the side streets but it was closed. Since we were near the skytrain Fraser decided to go and check out a nearby night market while Bev and I walked back to a restaurant next to the hotel. As usual we were the only farangs there. So with a little pointing and such we ordered our meal: a spiciy sea food soup for Bev and a chicken based one for me. After that we ordered some BBQ pork with dipping sauce and sauted veggies. All was good. We stayed there until almost time for our massages. That was basically it for the evening. Wanted to get to be early because we were getting up early the next morning in order to meet our guide for a trip to the floating markets and points west.