Bangkok Trip(8-9 Aug 2007): Day 1

WAT BENCHAMABOPHIT

Golden Mount

TUK TUK

Buddha at Wat Indravihara

Swasdeeka !
Welcome to Thailand! Air hostes said...plane touched down at 10:45PM local time. Then it was 12:30am, i was still waiting in the 'on arrival visa' counter. Damn it! give me visa soon man! feeling very hungry, tired and sleepy. Reached hotel only by 1:30am, next comedy is where to get food now.... ho no.....just went roaming around in the streets, there I saw a small light blinking far off from a pull cart, see what it is ..... ha ha wow ... prata (Barotta), very suprising to see people selling prata. An Oasis in the desert yo! ate full, went to sleep.
Next morning after trying really really hard, got up early at 10am. My friends are coming only today evening hmm ..... have to roam around alone till then.... :-(.....Got a TUK TUK, thats how auto-rickshaw is called in Thailand, he asked me 200batt to see three places.Don't know whether its too much, but was very lazy to haggle or get another tuk tuk. So got in it and he took me to the first WAT ..... wondering WHAT is WAT? WAT is temple in Thai. Thailand has around 400 buddhist wats with buddha in sitting, standing or sleeping positions, even buddha himself would be suprised to see so many of his statues.
My first WAT was WAT INDRAVIHARA, this one had a big buddha staning like a gaint. I was like a david in front of this Goliath, with a camera in hand instead of a catapult to shoot him. Nice shot have a look....

Next destination was WAT BENCHAMABOPHIT, god knows how they pronuce these words. The went to the GOLDEN MOUNT, climbed and climbed to see a sitting buddha and a stupa.
After lunch, I lost my way....ha ha first day in bangkok is really getting interesting.... after some sign language with a TUK TUK driver manage to find my way to the hotel. In the evening when to Church of Rosary, closed, don't know what to do, got a TUK TUK and when to WAT TRAIMIT.

Did some foot massage in the evening for the first time, a bit painfull though, the thai women did it was very professional, she measured every muscle and nerve in my foot. After the massage, felt really good and relaxed. Atlast my friends arrived at around 1030 pm cursing the queue at the visa counter. It seemed they had a bigger queue... ha ha ... felt good :-)