Driving Scooter around Bangkok [1]: Emerald Temple and Wat Pho

This time my boyfriend arrived on Saturday 25th of July and was gonna stay for 2 weeks. I took 3rd-5th off plus the weekend so we had 5 days to spend together. We went to Pattaya but I will write about it later in another entry. We didnt take a trip to a far place like we did and decided to take a tour in Bangkok.

My boyfriend bought a scooter on the thirs day he was here so we had a good vehicle to explore Bangkok. Well actually driving scooter in Bangkok is quite dangerous, from crazy traffic, and you can easily do something against the traffic law.

My boyfriend got stopped by the police twice and was fined, I was with him once, for driving in a wrong lane. I can tell you that its hard to know where you can or cannot drive. No sigh at all. I told him that I believed he would have to pay more before he knew the scooter driving system in Bangkok.

The first place we went to is a temple that belongs to the palace, Emerald Temple or Wat Phra Kaew. If you want to go there, there are some rule that you should know:

For men:

• always in polite pants, no shorts allowed
• no sandals allowed

For women:

• always in pants or skirt, no shorts or short skirt allowed
• no sandals allowed
• do not wear shirt that exposes your shoulder

We got there almost at noon so we stopped for lunch by the river and then we walked to the temple. Thai people were hardly seen there, but so many foreingers. The fee is 350 baht but for foreigners only. My boyfriend had to wait in the line to by the ticket whlie I was ready to get in with no ticket!

On the wall of the temple you will see pictures which are from an old story 'Ramayana', a story of a fight between giants and human. Well that is what I remember from school class which is long time ago. I mightbe wrong about the story. :p

The name of the temple in thai is 'Wat Phra Kaew' and you can call it 'Emerald Temple' in english. The temple belongs to the palace which is always used when there is a very important ceremony of the king and his family. Taking photos is are not allowed in some area.

We took like an hour or so there at Wat Phra Kaew and after that we drove the scooter to Wat Pho which is across the road. Wat Pho is one among old temples, it was believed that it was built in Ayutthaya era, (Wat Phra Kaew was built in B.E. 2325 or A.D. 1782). There is a hugelaying buddha there. I have no idea how big is that. I asked my boyfriend if he knew how big it is and he said "its huge!".

After we left Wat Pho we went to a place near China Town called "Pirom Plaza". It is a place with lots of toys for sale. Man I really love that place! I got a bb gun glock 19 from there which I will write about later.

At night we rode the scooter to Kaosarn Road for dinner. Sorry that I didnt take any photos there. I was curious how Kaosarn Road would be at night. I went to Pattaya and spent Saturday night there at a hotel near the "crazy road". It was so crazy at night with lots of people and girls dancing in the pole. It was tolly different at Kaosarn Road. It was like a food area. Plenty of food. We sat at a food stand and had thai spicy food.

That was all for us for that day. The nex day we went to the Golden Mountain, the only mountain in Bangkok!

related stories:

• Driving Scooter around Bangkok [2]: Golden Mountain, China Town and Sampheng
• Driving Scooter around Bangkok [3]: Sapan Lek Square