Images of Bangkok

Bridge over the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok.

Long-tail boats in the Chao Phraya River.

Ian on the water taxi.

Space for monks is reserved on water taxis and public buses.

A giant demon guarding the gate to the Grand Palace complex.

The library, known as Phra Mondop.

Almost everything on the palace grounds was covered with shiny mosaic tiles.

Some young students visiting the palace wanted to take a picture with the farang (foreigners), so we kindly obliged.

An image for the Ramayana epic.

Garuda, mythical bird-like creatures, lined the outside of the Temple of the Emerald Buddha (Wat Phra Kaew).

Soooooo many tourists!

A Thai tuk tuk, slightly different than a Cambodian one. Tuk tuks originated in Thailand and were so named because of the sound their engines made.

Some kind of strawberry parade.

The massive reclining Buddha (15 meters high and 45 meters long) at Wat Po.

Ian and the Buddha.

A temple at Wat Po.

Taking the commuter ferry across the river (for less than 10 cents).

We saw hundreds and hundreds of Buddhas (many of them gold) in Bangkok.

From the top of Wat Aran (Temple of the Dawn).

View of the Chao Phraya River from the top of Wat Aran.

It was a steep (and slightly scary) climb to the top, but totally worth it.

As we were walking around the city, we passed a number of stores selling Buddhist religious articles, including every size and manner of Buddha imaginable.

An ornate gate at another wat.

A small canal in Bangkok, the city that was once known as the "Venice of Asia."

Thai Buddhist flags.

Bells lined the winding path to the top of another wat.

View of Bangkok at night from the top of the open-air Vertigo Bar, 61 stories up.

Amber (one of our fellow students in the Singapore class) posing outside Cabbages and Condoms.

The corn sundae was not my favorite.

Bangkok train station. We took the commuter train to Ayutthaya (just 50 cents!).

A temple in Ayutthaya, which was the capital of Thailand from the med 1300s until the 1700s.

The devout bought small squares of gold leaf, which they applied to Buddha statues in the temple.

An impressive display of Buddhas.

Ian flanked by two big Buddhas.

A VERY cool image: this head from a Buddha head is lodged at the bottom of this tree. No one is quite sure how it got there, but some believe that vandals may have been trying to steal it when they realized it was too heavy to carry, so they left it at the base of the tree and over time, the roots grew around it.

More ruins in Ayuthayya.

I just liked this shot.

We skipped the elephant tour because it was rather expensive and didn't look very comfortable. An interesting sight, nonetheless.

A nicely painted tuk tuk truck.

The "platform" to catch the train back to Bangkok.

We tried durian before leaving Bangkok. It's a mushy fruit (the consistency of overly ripe bananas) encased in a hard, spikey shell. The taste was tolerable, but the foul smell eminating from the fruit can be unpleasant, so they are banned on the subways in Singapore.