In Dusty Shoes - Thailand (part 2)

idjosko (20)in #travel • 6 years ago

We stand up cheerful, full of enthusiasm, eager to get as much as possible from the atmosphere and tourist attractions of Bangkok.

Like thousands of other tourists, we start touring the most important landmark of this city: the complex of the Great Imperial Palace with temples.

In front of the high white walls surrounded by these shrines, many sellers of various souvenirs and local handicrafts are printing. They can not easily be easily circumvented because they live by tourists who ride in the rivers in Bangkok. They easily start the conversation, interested in the country we come from. Apart from rare exceptions, they do not recognize the name of the country we belong to, as well as the region in which it is located, but to the significance of our Novak Djokovic they see their eyes, and put their hands on the heart, expressing in this way the enthusiasm of our planetary famous tennis player.

At the entrance to the Complex Palace, a large number of tourists who are not adequately dressed provide security to a special building on the changeover, because it is not allowed to enter the temples if you are too scattered, in short trousers while your shoulders and knees must be covered. Many people are losing their time due to their lack of knowledge, because the ranks are large, leaving an additional unnecessary cost of obligatory replenishment.

Although it is only 10 o'clock in the afternoon, it's hot as a hell, so it's not recommended to move without flashes with water. After a few hundred meters, we show tickets and enter an unknown fairy tale, in which I felt like Alice in Wonderland. It was our first encounter with this architecture, while we did not get used to it, we were pretty much covered with countless sarcastic images that were shifted before our eyes.

We liked temples with beautiful wavy roofs that overlap one on the other at higher levels, in combination of green, orange and ocher. The plates from which the roof is made perfectly adhere to each other, are high gloss, which often attracted my view. The roof joint is additionally accentuated by a tan-clad ornament, a mythical bird, which contributes to the impression of elegance. The external walls of the temples are indescribably beautiful, with a dominant golden color combined with green, blue and orange that intertwine in the form of mosaics. Extremely interesting are the series of small skulptures on the walls of the temples, dragons on both sides of the entrance, a great proud sculpture of the temple guard. Here, the huge accompanying tcz take the form of bells. Afterwards, we saw them all over Thailand, and they almost always seemed to be of pure gold.

Between the buildings is greenery, small trees, artistic designs that additionally contribute to the scenery of this place.

This complex, opened at the end of the 18th century when Bangkok became the official capital of Thailand, is still serving for ceremonial purposes, where the most sacred city of Thailand is located. We take off the shoes before we step in the fascinating temple

We leave the Emerald Buddha (Wat Phra Kaew) on a long shelf, spontaneously stopping to talk, drowning slowly into the heart of this temple. We enter the world of absolute silence in which many Thai people pray.This is the only temple in Thailand where the monks do not live, which sufficiently speaks of the significance of this great sanctuary. On the side walls there are a series of pictures from the life of Buddha, extremely beautiful, while in the central part, the most elevated part is the magic sculpture of the Buddha, about 60 cm high in yoga poses. It is designed in one piece of green task, although small, has a great significance because it is the most important and most sacred relic of the Thai. Three times a year, when the winter, summer and winter season is changed, the personal king who only has to touch her comes to change the Buddha's clothes from pure gold, which needs to bring happiness to his people every season. According to the legend, this statue was created in India, at 43 BC, and came several times to the hands of various owners, moving to Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma. Recording is forbidden, and is strictly controlled, but sporadically, it does manage to make a flash-free photo.

We go out and look further, drowning in the crowd, while watching us watch the terrible dragons and other weird temple keepers. We also look at the great model of the famous Cambodian temple, Angor Wat, as a reminder to everyone that this is the largest religious complex in the world, was once under the control of Thailand, rejoicing that we will see it in two days. There are also small black elephants that symbolize the independence and strength of this nation. We look at parents by holding their children by their arms, visiting three times around these elephants, who need to transfer some of their strength to the chicks that are just getting to know life.

From Khao Sao rd. walking is in half an hour take, or in about ten minutes by tuk - tuk. The ticket is 350 BHT per person.

We move to the other in which the Imperial Palace is where the kings no longer live and serve only for certain ceremonial occasions. The long building, with a roof of glossy green -oker tiles, was broken by an inserted central entrance with a staircase. For us unknown reasons, there is far less tourists in relation to the whole complex of imperial palaces.

The space is cheerful, there are more places to walk, the garden is concealed, while the slow watch does not blink, regardless of the simpathetic provocations of the tourists. One of the kings of the Rama dynasty wanted to bring some Western style, so the British architect was engaged. As it usually happens, critique of patriotism overwhelmed his desire, so the roofed roof was replaced by the typical Thai with the Siamese motifs, but the nickname of this building continued to live as a "westerner with a Thai chariot."

We leave the complex of Imperial Palace and gentle sand, accompanying the outer wall, reaching the next street where we step down, swaying through the crowd of street stalls, reaching the temple known for the huge statue of the leaning Buddha (Wat Pho).

The entrance to the temple, located in a side street, opposite the shop selling various types of dried fish, does not seem to announce the spectacularity that is contained in it, it is the largest and oldest in Bangkok.

We are welcomed by pretty girls who fill out a questionnaire on their country for the needs of the Ministry of Tourism. Here is also the school of the famous Thai massage, whose certificate guarantees the acquired tradition and quality worldwide. We are being taken again, and we enter the temple where the Buddha lies on the side, covered with gold leafs in the length of 46 m, the height of the five-story house.

We feel the feeling of awe, sensitivity, and admiration. Head and foot size, which are 3 m long, cause unbelief. Painting is not forbidden, which we use. It is forbidden to touch the feet that are like the eyes of the eyes. The feet are adorned with a hundred symbols on the basis of which the true Buddha is recognized. The size of the Buddha, a huge surface covered with gold, anxiety and faith that is reflected in the eyes of the hosts, will attract our attention and, unlike other tourists, we stay a bit longer in this hall, visiting this imposing sacral object three times, containers that are placed all over the length of the Buddha.

We also go to the yardsticks that fascinate us with beautifully laid pylons, decorated with porcelain blanks in countless colors that shape different colors, among which also three columns have been cast into the cast of kings from the Chakri dynasty.