Day One: The Grand Palace, Wat Phra Kaew, Wat Saket, and Wat Suthat. Day Two: Wat Pho, and Wat Arun. Day Three: Caught a head cold. What better way to start the speedrun than taking the passenger ferry down the great and muddy Chao Phraya River? Damn. I look at these old photos from early 2015 and have to both laugh and cringe a bit at my younger self. How different I used to look! How chubby and sweaty. That unfortunate haircut and inelegant pose. What kind of a small boy, half-man, soft animal I was, both outside and within! Funny what the years can do to my perspectives on things... The Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew The Grand Palace: the official residence of the King of Siam. An organic jumble of halls, courtyards, pavilions, gardens, lawns. And an inorganic jumble of tourists, both foreign and Thai. But that aspect of the visit is easy enough to ignore. It's stunning. It's so bloody stunning. And as for Wat Phra Kaew, situated within the palace complex, it's the most sacred Buddhist temple in all of Thailand. Also commonly known as the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, Wat Phra Kaew houses a green gemstone Gautama that's considered the nation's most sacred image of the Enlightened One. Wat Saket Wat Saket. The Temple of the Golden Mount. A panoramic view from atop an 80-metre high artificial hill. It was a steep and winding 318-step climb, hence the photo of a damp and dumpy me posing against the hot and smoggy Bangkok cityscape. Wat Suthat Wat Suthat Thepwararam. Another elegant structure. Endless images of Buddha. The iconic Giant Swing stands in front of the temple, a towering and crimson gate-like structure. Come and enter, it says. Come and look further. Wat Pho Wat Phra Chetuphon Wimon Mangkhalaram Rajwaramahawihan, to give it its official title. What a great name! The Temple of the Reclining Buddha. 46-metres long goes its golden repose. There are 108 bronze alms bowls in the temple. Go ahead, grab some coins and drop them in. The sound rings sweetly and good fortune is sure to follow. Wat Arun Wat Arun Ratchawararam Ratchawaramahawihan. This is probably my favourite temple of the bunch, named for the Hindu god Aruna, charioteer of the Sun God Surya. Encrusted ceramic complexities. Dazzling architectural richness. Its structures spear into the pale, cloudless sky. Hours could be spent here, walking and gazing, gazing and walking. Its striking centrepoint spire, or 'prang', symbolises Mount Meru, the sacred peak of Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist cosmology and the nexus of the material, metaphysical, and spiritual realms. Climb up this tower of porcelain puzzle pieces. Don't be shy. Climb up it and take in the wide and languid Chao Phraya. It's not quite the apex of the multiverse one might hope for in a Mount Meru, but at least the electric rush of Bangkok seems to fade away from this vantage point. If only for a few moments.
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Cycling across the Ayutthaya Kingdom85 km north of Bangkok is a little archaeological gem known as the Ayutthaya Historical Park, once the capital of a fabulous Siamese kingdom and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Like most tourists, a friend and I visited the site as a day-trip destination from chaotic Bangkok. The train ride there from Bangkok's Hualamphong Train Station was surprisingly clean, undramatic and very, very affordable. While these days Ayutthaya is a dusty little city, sweltering in the sticky Thai sun, it was at one point one of the finest cities on the planet. It is estimated that by the year 1700, its population had reached 1 million, making it one of, if not the, largest city of its time. European travellers spoke of it as a resplendent place with fine palaces, trading vessels, and canals reminiscent of Venice. This all ended in 1767 when the Burmese invaded the kingdom and the great city, after over four centuries of existence, was almost entirely razed to the ground.
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AuthorMing is an economist, traveller, and creative writer from Melbourne, Australia. He’s a nebulous collection of particles on the lookout for a good corner to sit with a book and a cup of coffee. Archives
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