Very last day wandering in Bangkok
My last day in Bangkok was mostly spent wandering around. So far I had been to specific places but I think you really get a feel for a place when you just wander and get a little lost. You never know what you might stumble across that you would have never seen otherwise. To illustrate this point perfectly I have added a couple of photos of a creature and its baby that I spotted simply wandering around by the side of the road! Not really what you would expect in the heart of a big city. Other people stopped to look and the general consensus was that this was some kind of Komodo dragon.
After that experience I wandered through China town which always catches ones attention whichever city in the world you are in with all the red signs and vibrant graphics. There seemed to be an awful lot of shark fin soup available.
Next I came to the Wat Traimit temple where the Golden Buddha lives. This temple is very prominent in the view from my hotel so I was glad to make time to pop in and see this buddha. He is made from 5.5 tons of solid gold. His design dates back to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries but it is not entirely known when he was made. It is thought that the statue would have been originally cast in parts in India. At some point he had been entirely encased in plaster with glass inlayed pieces pressed into the surface to disguise it and prevent it from being stollen. This plan worked so well that over the years the golden buddha inside was forgotten about and it wasn’t until 1954 when during an attempt to move the statue it fell badly and some of the plaster cracked off revealing the gold underneath. At this point a program of restoration was started to finally free the buddha. The statue is constructed of nine parts that seamlessly fit together and a key was found embedded in the plaster that enables the statue to be taken apart so it can be moved about more easily. In the temple you can see old photographs of the plaster and there are some original bits of the plaster on display to.
On my final evening in this interesting city I treated myself to a gin and tonic and sat on the roof terrace to watch the sun go down for one last time over the temple with the golden buddha and the sprawling metropolis that is Bangkok. While sitting there I drew the temple as a lasting memory of this trip and thumbed through my sketchbook remembering some of the amazing places I have been fortunate enough to visit.
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