Say Wat!?

The Amulet Market is across the street from the Wat Pho and Wat Phra Kaew temples. It is block after block of vendors crowding the sidewalks with their blankets and tables covered with various Buddhist medallions and statues (as well as random trinkets and street foods). We started our day there, arriving by ferry via the Chao Phraya river. The crowds and smells and action are taking some adjusting for Addi. The Thai people generally love kids anyways, but Addi (with her blond hair and blue eyes) got special attention. People kept wanting to touch her, talk to her, look at her eyes, kiss her on the cheek...one lady even sniffed her! All in a very warm and non-threatening way (we never felt even remotely in danger or anything) but I think it was a bit intense for her.

We retreated to the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew and were speechless upon entry. The book calls it "the spiritual core of Thai Buddhism and the monarchy, symbolically united in what is the country's most holy image, the Emerald Buddha". It is the most ornate place I have ever seen. Dressed in our borrowed sarongs, pants and shirts we wandered past glittering glass and mirror mosaic buildings, enormous and heavily detailed murals (Addi obsessed on the mural image attached, of course wanting to know if he was mean or nice and how did we know for sure) and gleaming gold towers. We were able view, but not photograph, the Emerald Buddha which is surprisingly tiny (66cm) and sits atop a extremely ornate and tall gilded shrine.

Addi asked endless questions that I couldn't answer and that I don't see stopping as we plan to visit several Wats (temples) is SE Asia. Jodi, I really need for you to write a book with non-denominational answers about life, death, God(s) and religion for curious toddlers. So if you could get on that I'd like it by next week? Im not kidding.

From there we walked to Wat Pho, home of the giant reclining Buddha. This 46m long and 15m high gleaming gold figure is meant to represent Buddha's passage into nirvana. The bottoms of his giant feet are decorated with the 108 characteristics of Buddha in mother of pearl (you can see the tips of the tes in the attached photo!). As we exited the sanctuary, we made 108 wishes for good luck by dropping a token into each of the 108 pails. It is very, very difficult to think of 108 unique wishes- I learned a little bit about myself by noticing which I kept repeating. The roof of the hall is being ret-tiled and for a small donation, we were able to write a message on the back of one! It is fun to think that we will have contributed a secret little part of the sanctuary for Buddha in Nirvana for unforetold years.

We had drinks at a cool spot overlooking the river and Wat Arun. This gorgeous temple is built on the spot where a small shrine once stood; an omen to the then-king to build the second capitol of Thailand-Bangkok! We were beyond exhausted at this point, so didn't tour it. Instead, we watched the sun set behind the main tower and were once again awestruck. Lights came on at dusk that turned the structure to gold. Brilliant.

We had an interesting cab ride home where the taxi driver (who was initially rather upset that we demanded he use the meter-but was won over by Jim's gum offering) asked Jim if he wanted a" bum-bum" which we took to mean hooker (keep in mind, Bonnye, Greg, Addi and I were all in the back seat!) And then proceeded to hoot at some Japanese girls in the car in front of us. Wat a character.

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