Bangkok Chinatown

It's best seen at night, they say, but we were there and didn't think we'd have the stamina to come back in the evening. We wandered the streets a bit, had a great Thai lunch at Tammour (spiciest ever, 3-alarm for me) and then waded into the covered alleys, which proved to be the great experience of the day.

River side gate

Stupid elephant tricks

Fuller Brush man

Popular restaurant on street

Now into the alleys

New Year's goods piling up everywhere

Cardboard costumery

Massive quantities of food everywhere

Dried squid

There are street food stands in Bangkok that are Michelin starred; this one only
Michelin Red recommended

Mushroom district

Rib stand

Architecture above

As elsewhere in Bangkok, you can buy pretty much anything
on the street

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

Chatuchak Weekend Market

Something we definitely did not do in 2008 was the Chatuchak Weekend Market, allegedly the world's largest, with 15,000 stalls. A younger but larger version of Instanbul's Grand Bazaar perhaps. We got there quite early, actually before it opened, at 9AM. Jet-lag. As the day and heat wore on, it became quite crowded, and, having got the gist of the thing in a few hours, we departed perhaps even before lunch.

It's a long way to Tipperary

No business in Bangkok is too small to have a shrine; here's
one of our hotel's, appropriately sleek and modern

Aboard the sometimes crowded but nonetheless air-
conditioned Skytrain; it took us a moment to figure out
who the orange guy was in the depiction who had priority
seating ahead of us seniors: monks)

More of the usual metro warnings

After a short walk from the Skytrain station, we are there

Helpful map

And signage

And now just some random market and shoppe scenes...

Franchise opportunity?

Among the hundreds of hall ways

Giant blue prawn; there are shoppes of every description...food, garment, eateries,
massageries, trinketries, jewelwries, household goods, furniture, collectibles....

Aromaries

Brew-in-the-bag coffee

Only delivery traffic is permitted

Multi-tasking men's room; perhaps a subtle reminder to wash your hands?

Headed back to the Skytrain...a line of cabs and buses delivering people to
Chatuchak