Wat Pho, Bangkok

I had to spend a week while my wife completed a seminar at a major hotel. She commuted by water taxi, while I took the same to visit Wat Po and Wat Arun. These are somewhat overly restored monuments, but represent the high point in Thai cultural traditions.

3 more images

Also known as the "Temple of the Reclining Buddha", because of the, well you don't need me to tell you that. I'm very much impress with the size of the buddha, it's massive! It's covered entirely in gold, measure 45m long and 12m tall. It was built by Rama III and illustrates the passing of Buddha into nirvana. 108 mother of pearls ornaments in the soles of its feet represents the characteristics of a Buddha.

4 more images

There you will find the reclining buda, the biggesttt collection of buda images,, the Medicine Pavillion and the most respected massage school in the city.
Some Chedis are ornamented with thousands of porcelain fragments as you can see in Wat Arun too.

When in Wat Pho you can partake in many buddhist rituals. You will have to pay for the items for some of these rituals but don't worry the money goes to maintaining the Wat and monks and not to any touts.

Lighting incense putting it in front of the buddha then praying at a buddha and putting gold leaf onto the buddha statue. Not sure the significance but will update when i do.

Using flowers to drop water on each others head.

You take a piece of paper from a box in front of the Buddha which u then take to the desk and get given a script telling you your fortune.

Dropping 1 baht into 100 tins along the side of the wat you will get your 100 baht changed to pennies at the desks inside the Wat.

The oldest & largest wat in BKK. Was built in the 16th century during Ayutthaya period and then almost completely rebuild by King rama I. it features the largest reclining Buddha and the largest collection of Buddha images in Thailand.

This is in my eyes one of the nices temples in Bangkok. A massive reclining Buddah which is 46 meters long and is also the largest and oldest wat in Bangkok.
It also has an extensive collection of panels, bas relieves and chedis.

3 more images

The temple of the reclining buddha is a very large complex of pagodas, it houses of course the reclining buddha, the largest buddha Ive seen at 40+ meters long. It is easily accessible via the jetty pier in Chao Phraya river. There will be some folks trying to convince you that the temple is closed or that you have arrived too early for its openning, or for any other reasons...just ignore them and continue walking until you find the temple entrance.

Of course, you must visit Wat Pho while in Bangkok. Don't worry, you won't forget it! As soon as you're within 1 squarekilometer from Wat Pho, all the locals start asking where are you going and directing you to Wat Pho. So, you couldn't possibly forget it.

Wat Pho is a nice place, though and well worth seeing. Since there are thousand and one pages here taken from the lying Bud, I attached something completely different here. Guys with funny hats.