A few days before heading back to California Rotchana and I decided to do a little sightseeing at a couple of the temples in Bangkok. Temples are called Wat in Thailand and the two we went to see were Wat Pho & Wat Arun.
Wat Pho was our first stop for the day. This temple is famous for it’s 160 foot long “Reclining Buddha”. The complex also has over 1,000 Buddha statues and is home to a working Buddhist monastery. We went on a Monday so it wasn’t too crowded, but there were still quite a few tourists and locals.
On this trip I only brought my 24-70mm lens. It’s a great lens, but I wish I had my wide angle lens with me for the Reclining Buddha statue. I wasn’t able to capture the entire statue as I would have liked, but it was still impressive to view.
I could have spent several hours wandering around the complex. There were a lot of neat statues and decorative work. The amount of detail in these temples is quite impressive.
After about an hour or so we took a boat across the Chao Phraya river to Wat Arun. The main attraction there is a pagoda about 250 feet high that has tall, steep steps that allow you to climb about halfway to the top. From the viewing area at the top of the steps you have a nice view of the temple complex, the Chao Phraya river and the surrounding area. It’s quite a contrast seeing some of the older temples with skyscraper towers as a backdrop.
If you ever find yourself in Bangkok I recommend taking the time to visit these temples, as well as many of the other temples in the area.
