Temple tales

My hubby and I had a weekend getaway in Bangkok. I would have been happy to spend 90% of the time sleeping in the hotel (no kids! endless naps!), with the remaining 10% pigging out on awesome, cheap food (no kids to feed!), but, well, since it was our anniversary and all I thought it might be nice to actually get out and see something with my man.

We took the ferryboat that runs the Chao Phraya River, stopped at Tha Tien (pier) and strolled into one of Thailand's most famous temples -- Wat Pho. I love this place, with all its yoga-wellness-sacred-psychedelic vibes and, well, a big, BIG Buddha. Reclining Buddha. A humongous, chilled-out, beautiful golden Buddha.

The serenity of the giant statue is, however, not matched by its visitors, as it's a big elbow-fest with everyone clamouring to get that iconic picture of his enlightened head resting on his hand, and the sublime feet bottoms in mother-of-pearl.

So here's the picture that I and 10,000 other people snapped that day:


And the top of his feet (looks like the Buddha had a good pedicurist).


The statue is an amazing work of art, which overshadows the equally amazing wall murals that cover most every other surface inside the temple hall. I have a shaky grasp of the meaning behind the stories told in pictures spread across meters upon meters of wall. Whatever the meaning, however, the pictures are incredibly whimsical, lively and magnificently executed.

A sampling:








Out of all the people, creatures and deities that caught my eye, this is by far and away my favourite.....
Naughty boy!