Wat Pho
” D’Chan you tee nee neung deon layo!”
That’s phonetic Thai for “I’ve been here one month already!”
Over the weekend my roommate and I trekked into the heart of Bangkok to visit Wat Pho. Wat Pho is a pretty standard tourist destination. It is home to the largest reclining Buddha statue and boasts the most Buddha images of any temple in Thailand. Wat Pho is Thailand’s oldest and largest temple. Clearly my stay in Bangkok would be incomplete without a visit.
The journey began at 10:30 when Lindsey and I shuffled past our apartment shrine and took to the street. By 10:30, even on the weekend, most of the street vendors have already been up for 4 hours preparing fruit and frying meats. We got in the back of a pick-up truck that took us out to Muang-Ake, the main road. From there we flagged down bus 29, to Victory monument and got on bus 28 to the river where we waited for a boat to take us down 8 more stops to Wat Pho. We hit the dock around 2:30. It shouldn’t take that long but traffic in Bangkok is hideous. The vendors and bus workers wear face masks to protect themselves from the pollution generated by traffic. I am curious to wear one for a day and inventory the damage, but I don’t think I will. I still run in the mornings and I don’t want to know how much gunk I’ve been inhaling while trying to do something healthy. The mental image of black particles caught in the white fibers would be enough to make me chuck my running shoes and become a hermit.
After 4 hours in public transportation I was ready for lunch. I am on a mission to find the best Pad Thai in Thailand. I heard a rumor that the little old lady in the big floppy hat near the dock behind the Grand Palace was worth investigating. It was definitely good, but the search will continue for a few more months before I declare a winner. The Pad Thai stand was tucked in between huge crates of massage oils, mixed herbs, dried fish and crustaceans. The smell was… interesting. There was little girl with thick glasses and hello kitty PJ’s bringing drinks to the tables. I got a bright purple dragon fruit smoothie. We sat under a canopy of dirty umbrellas and listened to German, Thai, Chinese, English, and French conversations drift by.
Inside Wat Pho I tried to feel like the temple walls could magically block out the energy of Bangkok and make me feel like I was somewhere spiritual. It didn’t work. If there is one piece of wisdom that I have found true in my stay here so far it is that Buddhism is not a philosophy to be taken too seriously. It’s better to laugh and go with the flow. There are no rules, no guilt, no idols, there is just one goal that anybody can achieve. The goal is to find the Divine within yourself and honor that place by practising compassion until you attain enough merit to escape the cycle of suffering and achieve enlightenment. So it is perfectly fitting that I was not able to feel any different when I walked into the temple. I’d been walking around with Divine light all morning, I wasn’t going to find it mingled in with all these other tourists—duh!
So I snapped a few photos of the giant reclining Buddha, dropped a few coins in the homage pots, and wandered around the temple grounds until I felt I had by 50 Bahts worth of sight seeing. The plan then was to cross the street and go to the Grand Palace. The Grand Palace is also an ancient landmark in Bangkok, it houses the Emerald Buddha and used to be where the King would stay. The current king of Bangkok does not live here, he has left the Palace open for the people, it’s this thoughtfulness that the Thai people adore him for. On this particular day the Grand Palace was closing early so I am still the only exchange student in all of Thailand that hasn’t seen it. Someday.
With plan A abandoned, Lindsey and I set out to wander the streets. I could try to romanticize the wanderings, make the street seem filled with exotic sights and aromas but I’ll be honest. It was hot. We were sick of people trying to interview or sell us stuff. But we weren’t ready to retreat yet. We rounded a corner and saw chalked sandwich board in front of a classy looking spa. The sign advertised 200 Baht Hour long Thai Massages. I did some quick math: $7–Yes please.
The masseuse brought out a warm bowl of fragrant water for me to soak my feet in. How cool is that? Back at home my dirty finger nails, well worn cloths, paint splatters, chalk marks, bike grease, etc. are tangible proof that I play hard and have a happy life. In Thailand it’s disgraceful to be dirty, and freakish to be proud of being dirty. So I was a little embarrassed when the women came to dry off my feet and they were covered with mosquito bites and calluses from my Chaco sandals.
Lindsey and I were on mats next to each other and our masseuses gossiped in Thai over us while they went about their work. A Thai massage is a mix of acupressure and inactive yoga. I was expecting to be jumped on and folded up into a pretzel. This one was pretty mellow. I enjoyed it and I really got a kick out of the hot pink fisher pants they had us change into. If you’re ever in Thailand, you should definitely get one!