Wat Arun and Wat Pho

Day two and we set out on our adventure without our local tour guides (Ryan and Meagen). But we were armed with our directions, and with the key phrases we need to know such as:
Sawadeekaaw - hello / good-bye
Copkoonkaaw - thank-you
Ka - yup (to show you agree but also to end for politeness)
My ow (as in ouch) - don't want
Hong nam - bathroom
And most important: Yen agat soy nung (where we were staying - Yen agat is the name of the road; soy means street/road; and nung is number one)

After taxi and sky-train rides, we took river transportation to navigate to two of the large temples; taking the public ferry (cost of 13 baht) to Tha Tien and then a water taxi (3 baht) to Wat Arun. The traffic on the river was almost as busy as the traffic on the roads.

Wat Arun (admission 20 baht) is a smaller, but older Wat (temple). It’s most prominent characteristic is the 82 meter high prang (tower). It also has ornate floral mosaics made from broken, multi-hued Chinese porcelain, a common temple ornamentation in the early Ratanakosin period.

Wat Pho (admission 50 baht) has the largest reclining Buddha and the largest collection of Buddha images in Thailand. It is also the country’s earliest center for public education. The Reclining Buddha is 46 meters long and 15 meters high and illustrates the passing of the Buddha into nirvana (i.e. the Buddha’s death). The figure is modeled out of plaster around a brick core and finished in gold leaf.

There are over 1000 Buddha images at Wat Pho. Wat Pho is also the national headquarters for the teaching and preservation of traditional Thai medicine, including Thai massage, so Candace and I had to give this a try. We’re not quite sure why a foot massage (60 minutes) included not only a massage of the feet and legs, but also the neck and shoulders, but we certainly weren’t complaining – it felt wonderful.