Thailand: The Wats (or Temples)

We visited a couple of Wats in Thailand, most notably Wat Pho, home to the famous reclining Buddha. I think I was expecting that visiting a temple would be like visiting an old church in England. The old part was right, but not much else was. The temples are an entire network of buildings set within a planned and extremely ornate garden with statues and fountains all throughout the grounds. You can wander in and around the buildings - nothing really seemed to be off-limits, except in the most traveled sites.

And it was quiet. It was a breath of fresh air to walk off the noisy, crowded street in Bangkok into the grounds of one of these temples. We could let the kids roam a bit, and this was a much needed break for all of us!

We also visited the Grand Palace, which had a temple on the grounds. And, this is very sad for me to admit, but I did not have my camera with me that afternoon. Inexplicable, but true. You'll just have to trust me when I tell you that we did, indeed, see the Emerald Buddha. Who's not actually Emerald, but Jade. But still very green.



The Reclining Buddha - this thing is massive - it's hard to understand the scale from these pictures, but it's reportedly 46 meters long and 15 meters high.












I love this one - it looks like she's terrified of the dragon


























See the little bells hanging from the eaves?


Dex heard their music and started dancing...