Wat Pho

So, backing up to when I was in Bangkok.....a nice short walk from the Khao San Road district will get you to many beautiful and historic sites. I saw the City Pillar Shrine, it was closed but still an impressive sight from outside. All the buildings are so ornate, intricately carved and painted and tiled, it is an amazing view though I imagine the maintenance, cleaning and upkeep is an enormous challenge as well :P The best by far I have seen to date was The Temple of the Reclining Buddha; Wat Phra Chetuphon Vimolmangklaram, um, however its pronounced :P known to most as Wat Po. Wat meaning temple so all the Wat something or others that are everywhere on my maps are all temples. Haha, I haven’t yet mastered many words, just a few basics and I hate the way people look at you when you are butchering their language so I just write it down or say it in English....but it makes it easier to at least understand the language even if you can’t speak it!
Wat Po is actually older than the city of Bangkok itself making it the oldest temple in the city. And in 1832 was expanded as a learning center and so is also essentially Thailand’s first University and Traditional Thai massage as a medicinal art is still taught there. Guarding the gates are statues of Marco Polo….go figure? So many Buddhas, I totally lost count but I know there were hundreds These are called Chedi for they are decorated with ceramic tiles and three dimensional ceramic pieces which form intricate floral patterns .Reclining Buddha is forty-six meters long and fifteen meters high, decorated with gold plating on his body and mother of pearl on his eyes and the soles of his feet. The latter display 108 auspicious signs which distinguish a true Bhudda…It was an amazing and beautiful place, so much effort, time, art and money put into the building of worship spaces and idols…..