bangkok wats

the wats we visited in bangkok included wat arun, wat prakaew, and wat po.

wat arun








wat arun had a lot more pottery worked into the decorations than the other wats.









it was also more of one centralized site versus wat prakaew, which had tons and tons of buildings to visit. this was the shortest wat visit, and it was probably the least enjoyable for me as i was already extremely tired (we went on wednesday, so i hadn't really slept and had already been trekking around all day), and it was broiling. what i did find very interesting was the.. lack of respect? for some of the sculptures. for instance, one sculpture was packed in every nook and cranny with empty water bottles and pop cans. i thought it was a tad bit strange, especially when other statues were sectioned off with signs asking visitors not to touch them.








wat prakaew








wat prakaew was the place to be. it was rather crowded when we arrived. it's a very important wat, so they're strict on dress code. they yelled at a couple girls to button their tops more and pull their skirts a little lower. a lot of people appeared to have rented/borrowed outfits so they could enter.
this temple was more like a village. i've never seen so many intricately decorated buildings.



mini angkor wat














we saw the emerald buddha. he is not actually emerald, though. he is a very large piece of jade. i'm not quite sure why they call him emerald. his outfit is changed several times a year. he was wearing his winter outfit when we saw him.
yes, it was winter when it was over 100 degrees outside.



emerald buddha's guard.


outfits




we had a 45ish minute tour, but i think we could have stayed several hours and still had more to see.


















wat po
wat po is home to the lying down buddha, the second largest buddha in thailand.
he is gigantic.











the bottoms of his feet are covered in designs made out of mother of pearl.







after viewing the buddha, i paid 20 baht to make merit by putting half-baht pieces into many bowls.. we had heard the sound of the money falling in the bowls the whole time we were in the wat, but we didn't know what it was until we completely circled the buddha.