temples

The Scamp in Bangkok, Thailand

Posted on by erranteditor

The next stop on my grand adventure was Thailand. I spent 5 days there and divided my time between Bangkok and Chiang Mai.

The guide I had in Bangkok was seriously one of the best humans I have ever met. Chaiya Poboonma is in his early to mid-20s if I had to guess, and was just a big ball of sunshine. He got me to the hotel and ensured I was checked in and cared for. I had the rest of the evening to myself. I wandered a bit and found another 7/11 to pursue treats and interesting flavours of crisps. Asia really did not disappoint with the fun crisp flavours and interesting desserts. I was not brave enough for the late-night street food, but it did smell delicious.

I stayed at the True Siam Rangnam. Of all the hotels that I stayed at during this trip, this was my least favourite. The hotel was clean, but the room was very basic and not super comfy. I think it was a surprise after coming from the luxury spa in Cambodia. The gym I had been going to at the time had made some videos of home workouts for us to do over Christmas, and I tried to do one of the workouts in the hotel room and it was just not comfortable. I did get a good laugh over the hot trainer doing an ab workout and complaining through the whole video though.

Chaiya and the driver picked me up bright and early the next mourning to see the highlights of Bangkok. Chaiya was knowledgable, but also really fun about the way he told me about the different temples and palaces. He also had a thing about photos….he knew how to take amazing photos. I’ve never had so many photos of myself taken in one day.

and all of the photos are fantastic.

The first stop was the Wat Traimit in Chinatown. The temple was founded by three Chinese friends sometime in 1820’s-1850’s, and was originally called Wat Sam Chin Tai (the south temple of the three Chinese). The temple is best known for housing a 9ft tall, 5.5 ton golden Buddha statue.

The statue is a bit of a mystery. It was built in the 13th or 14th century, and at some point, it was covered in stucco and coloured glass to conceal just how important it was. In 1801 the statue was sent to Bangkok to be in one of the many temples built in the new capital city.

In 1955 the statue was being moved and the stucco cracked, revealing the golden statue underneath. The statue is actually made in nine parts that all fit seamlessly together and came with a key on how to take it apart for easier transport. It was truly magnificent.

Our next stop was to Wat Po, the home of a 45-meter reclining Buddha statue. This temple also served as the first school for Thai massage.

The last stop on the guided tour was the Royal Grand Palace, the most revered national royal monument in Bangkok. This place was crazy. It was so full of people and large tour groups. The palace is massive. It is 218,000 square meters and protected by a wall that is 19,000 metres. It has served as the home of the King of Siam since 1782.

While there are many impressive structures and things to see in the palace, one of the most important is the statue of the Emerald Buddha. According to Wikipedia:

is an image of the meditating Gautama Buddha seated in a meditative posture, made of a semi-precious green stone (jasper rather than emerald or jade), clothed in gold.[1] and about 66 centimetres (26 in) tall.[2] The image is considered the sacred palladium of Thailand.[3][4] It is housed in the Temple of the Emerald Buddha (Wat Phra Kaew) on the grounds of the Grand Palace in Bangkok.[1]

For the three seasons, there are three sets of decorations for the Emerald Buddha:[3][19]

  • Hot/summer season from March to August – a stepped, pointed crown (makuṭa); a breast pendant; a sash; a necklace, a number of armlets, bracelets and other items of royal attire. All items are made of enameled gold and embedded with precious and semi-precious stones.
  • Rainy season from August to November – a pointed headpiece of enameled gold studded with sapphires; a gold-embossed monk’s robe draped over one shoulder (kasaya).
  • Cool/winter season from November to March – a gold headpiece studded with diamonds; a jewel-fringed gold-mesh shawl draped over the rainy season attire.

The sets of gold clothing not in use at any given time are kept on display in the nearby Pavilion of Regalia, Royal Decorations, and Thai Coins on the grounds of the Grand Palace, where the public may view them.

The photo is from Wikipedia because photos are not allowed inside the chapel, and it is considered a very spiritual place.

We wandered around the rest of the palace and had a mini photoshoot to prove that I had in fact, been there.

I had the rest of the day to do as I pleased, so I went to the Pratunam Market to look around. It was way too overwhelming, so I found a nicer mall with a food court and got myself some tasty chicken and then headed back to the hotel. I did stop in all of the 7/11s that I passed. The crisps continued to delight.

I ended the day sat by the pool in the hotel enjoying the warm weather and my book.

The next day I boarded a flight to Chiang Mai. I travelled on yet another budget airline for the 5th flight of the trip.

The Scamp in Siem Reap, Cambodia

Posted on by erranteditor

While my time in Vietnam was short, my time in Cambodia was shorter. On December 26th I took a short flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Siem Reap.

Siem Reap is the second largest city in Cambodia and is known for its proximity to Angkor Wat. I got there in the afternoon and was greeted at the airport by my private guide and driver. They took me to the Hari Residence, a luxury spa and resort just a short walk from the main market. I spent some time relaxing by the pool and wandered to the market. In true Kim fashion, I got a bit lost on the way to the market, but it let me see a bit of the city that was off the tourist path.

The hotel room was super luxurious and had the best bathtub I’ve ever seen. The room service was amazing and the food was perfection. Cambodia was the part of the trip that I was most looking forward to. I really wanted to visit Angkor Wat, and when I was looking on Tour Radar for trips to this part of the world, the visit to Angkor Wat was part of what sold me on the booking.

After the best bath and a good night’s sleep in a massive comfy bed, my guide picked me up for a day at the Angkor complex. The day started off a bit rocky because my phone was not fully charged, which meant that my phone and my mini charger were not fully charged. I was a bit panicked that I wouldn’t be able to get as many photos as I wanted, but by some miracle, my phone lasted the whole day. And what a day it was.

Angkor Wat is a Hindu-Buddist temple first built in 1150 and sits on over 400 acres. It is considered the largest religious structure in the world by the Guinness Book of World Records, and is on the official flag of Cambodia. The temple is a representation of Mount Meru, which is considered to be the centre of the spiritual and physical universe in the Hindu religion.

and I had a private tour. Yes, a private tour of the amazing structure. I wish I could remember the name of my guide. He was a soft-spoken man in his 40s who had been in the army. He was tall and had a weathered look about him, like he’d spent his life in the harsh sun. He talked to me the whole time we were in the temple and he was an endless font of knowledge. I was enthralled as we walked past the walls of stories etched into them. The etchings are beautiful and there are so many things to look at as you move through the galleries. I wish I had taken better notes and written down some of the things that my guide said, but because I was so absorbed in just being there, a Wikipedia explanation of the decoration will have to do.

Integrated with the architecture of the building, one of the causes for its fame is Angkor Wat’s extensive decoration, which predominantly takes the form of bas-relief friezes. The inner walls of the outer gallery bear a series of large-scale scenes mainly depicting episodes from the Hindu epics the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Higham has called these “the greatest known linear arrangement of stone carving”.[71] From the north-west corner anti-clockwise, the western gallery shows the Battle of Lanka from the Ramayana, in which Rama defeats Ravana; and the Kurukshetra War from the Mahabharata, depicting the mutual annihilation of the Kaurava and Pandava armies. On the southern gallery, the only historical scene, a procession of Suryavarman II is depicted along with the 32 hells and 37 heavens of Hinduism.[72]

On the eastern gallery is one of the most celebrated scenes, the Churning of the Sea of Milk, showing 92 asuras and 88 devas using the serpent Vasuki to churn the sea of milk under Vishnu’s direction. Mannikka counts only 91 asuras and explains the asymmetrical numbers as representing the number of days from the winter solstice to the spring equinox, and from the equinox to the summer solstice.[73] It is followed by reliefs showing Vishnu defeating asuras, which was a 16th-century addition. The northern gallery shows Krishna’s victory over Bana.[74]

Angkor Wat is decorated with depictions of apsaras and devatas with more than 1,796 documented depictions of devatas in the research inventory.[75] The architects also used small apsara images (30–40 cm or 12–16 in) as decorative motifs on pillars and walls. They incorporated larger devata images (full-body portraits measuring approximately 95–110 cm or 37–43 in) more prominently at every level of the temple from the entry pavilion to the tops of the high towers. In 1927, Sappho Marchal published a study cataloging the remarkable diversity of their hair, headdresses, garments, stance, jewellery, and decorative flowers depicted in the reliefs, which Marchal concluded were based on actual practices of the Angkor period.[76]

The next stop on the tour was Angkor Thom, which is famous for its series of colossal human faces carved in stone. The faces may be that of the king, or guards to protect the king, but it is a bit unclear. The street is lined with lions/warriors leading to the temples and they are really something to see up close.

Little did I know that my guide saved the best for last. The jungle temple, or Beng Mealea is a hidden, lesser-known temple that has become part of the earth again. It was by far the best place I visited on this entire trip (minus the elephant sanctuary in Thailand which I’ll share later). This BBC travel article discusses the history of the temple.

For me, it was amazing to hear the birds and to walk among the ruins. My guide took lots of pictures of me and let me wander around on my own. I climbed to the top of one of the temples and tried not to die in the heat. By the end of the day I was a sweaty noodle and the happiest little scamp.

For those of you who are Tomb Raider fans, you will recognise this temple from the 2001 Angelina Jolie movie. My guide rolled his eyes when he told me that, which made me laugh for some reason. Clearly someone thought that fact should be included in the tour, and I am sure that there are people who enjoy that….I just wasn’t one of them.

I ended the day by the pool at the hotel and looked through the hundreds of photos that I took of the temples. It was everything that I hoped it would be, and cannot recommend it enough for anyone who loves history and wants to see a true wonder of the world.