Golden Buddha

Two more things I wanted to see in Bangkok were the Golden Buddha and Khaosan Road, the old-time hippie/touristy bit. Vicki wanted to see the Reclining Buddha; again. The best way to get to these things, and others in the historical district, was to take the Skytrain to the river and then to buy all-day passes on the hop-on/hop-off river boat system. Which we did. In addition to the sights above, we also saw a bit of Bangkok's Chinatown, which we had omitted in 2008 (after a month in China, how good could a Chinatown be?!), as well as Wat Arun and bit of the Royal Palace. And then the night-time cruise back down the river to Sathorn Pier and the Skytrain back to Nana and our hotel.  It was a long, 22,000 step day, which I'll recount in this and the next three posts.

Us embarking upon the Chao Phraya (the river; major river of Thailand)

River scene

Long-tail boat; not the last we'll seen of them

Condos; the skyscrapers here are typical Asian, mostly
steel, glass, and concrete, until you get to the top, where it
gets possibly interesting or maybe even nods to architectural
history 

Ashore now: container store

Skirting Chinatown, en route to the Wat Traimit, where sits the Golden Buddha;
enlarge and look through the gate to see another wat/stupa: attempted artsy-fartsy
shot

Inside the main building of the Wat Traimit; wats are monasteries, with all
kinds of buildings, educational, residential, religious

I assume this doesn't apply to blogs

You have been warned

And there, on the top floor, He sits

Looks pretty much like any of thousands, maybe tens of thousands of Buddhas
in Maravijaya pose throughout Thailand; but WAIT! as it was discovered a few
decades back, when trying to move Him, this guy is made of SOLID gold,
weighing in at 5.5 tons; largest golden sculpture in the world; had been plastered
over centuries back to avoid looting by invaders 

As in the UK, you can donate to the monastery via your phone; smart merit

Rare dorsal view

Making merit is very big in Thervada Buddhism; also other religions, we have
noticed

Impressive palm sculpture

Vicki, there

Wat Traimit