Thai Temples and Ladyboys of Bangkok
Trip Start
Jan 19, 2012
1
18
21
Trip End
Feb 12, 2012
Bangkok, Thailand
Friday, February 3, 2012
- Temple of Golden Buddha – 40 THB/PP + Chinese Town Heritage Tour – 100 THB/PP
- Royal Temple and Emerald Buddha – 400 THB/pp
- Reclining Buddha – 100 THB/pp
- Temple of the Dawn - 50 THB/pp
- Marble Temple – 20 THB/pp
The second temple was a combination of the Royal Temple of The Emerald Buddha and the Grand Palace which was built back in 1782. We could only go inside where the King's coronation occurred some 46 years ago in the palace area but took plenty of photos of the grounds. Part of this compound also houses the Temple of the Emerald Buddha where pictures are not allowed but we snuck one from the entry way as shown below. This statue was carved out of a block of green jade and was discovered up in Chiang Rai in 1434 and was again hidden in plaster to hide it from invaders from taking it from the land. It was housed in Laos for 226 yrs and the Thai army recovered it and brought it back to Thailand where of course it still remains. Bet you didn't know that based on the seasons (3 overall) they actually change the dress around the statue of the Buddha.
Just before lunch we went to the Reclining Buddha (Wat Pho) for a quick tour. This is really an unbelievable statue inside of this temple in the shear size of the gigantic gold plated Reclining Buddha is some 46 meters long and 15 meters high with inlaid mother of pearl soles. Really hard to try and put it all in a single photo but I tried. In need of some relief from the suffocating heat we took shelter in an air conditioned small restaurant overlooking the river and a nice view of Wat Arun, called The Deck locate at the end of Maharart Rd. It’s a little more of an uptick in pricing from Thai noodles on their menu but they take credit cards and have some western dishes. We had a light lunch of ham & cheese lunch with fries for the day at around $15 USD. You will find if you have a picky pallet for food or are near the tourist traps that Thailand is not that inexpensive. If your tongue can adapt to the native foods then you can run your meal on the cheap when over here.
Picking up on the temple tour again after lunch was Wat Arun or the Temple of the Dawn for our fourth of the day. This temple sits on the riverbank of the Chao Phraya river and is best known for a porcelain encrusted 79 meter central pagoda (phra prang) which sparkles in the sun. Hope you don't have a case of the verticals because it is a hell of a steep climb to the top for a great view. High recommend as other TA reviewers suggested is walking backwards down like a ladder to help make it easy of a descent for you.
We finished out the touring with The Marble Temple (Wat Benchanabopitr) which is a very beautiful temple with ornate style of high gables, stepped-out roofs and elaborate finials. This temple also houses the King's personal collection of 53 different Buddha's statues.
It was so hot and sticky we were both tired of the weather and our guide, we decided to pull the pin on touring for the day early (around 3pm) and headed back to the hotel for a bit of a rest this afternoon, a nice nap in AC before another evening show. This time we went to take in the 815pm famous Ladyboy show of Calyapso’s, which was just a quick 5 min walk and another 10 min ride on the sky train from our hotel. It’s really pretty easy to use the machines to get tickets and there are helpers on the platform for us rookies. This was our first time seeing female impersonators perform even though they have something similar at the Gay 90’s in Minneapolis.
Tonight’s show was an experience believe me but overall a well done show of about 90 min with a lot of acts, some comedy. Their lip-syncing could use some work as well as the sound system but the 350 seat theater was jammed backed at the 815pm show. If you don’t know it, Thailand has a ton of these type of people performing on stage and some in seedy by the hour rooms for tourist that might want to take these types of folks home for some fun if that’s your thing. We have seen some Ladyboys on the street up north that need some work to pass off and others that went all in with breast surgery so your not really sure at face valley who is swinging a trunk or not. Me and Heather both agree that there were about 6 that you would consider pretty hot and not sure what you were taking home with you because they were very well put together.
It’s worth doing when in town and the 2 tickets were $80 USD but you can get it down to $60 if you pre-order online at least 3 days in advance of the show. The Asia Hotel that hosts the show even has a Thai Elvis impersonator in the lounge to see if you get their early, not good by Vegas standards but slightly entertaining.
Show was done around 9:45 pm and we took the Skytrain back to the station near our hotel and had another walk through Patong market and they wouldn’t let me take pictures of the menu they referenced so I memorized as much as I could and will have an "adult only" entry if you want to learn a little more about the Red Light district later and some of the limited things I saw. Now to post this blog about the day and catch some zzzzzz’s. No plans for Saturday but to get some more massages and wonder the city on our own. Perhaps a stop again in Chinatown tomorrow evening for dinner might be in store. Braz Out …..
