Not sure what it is about bangkok that takes so much energy outta me. It feels like every foray takes alot. I geared up yesterday with a chocolate coffee banana shake but within an hour I had the worst stomach ache. By this time I was already in chinatown and was determined to stick it out long enough to get a few pictures but then I got lost! I still can’t figure out what the deal was with my map (I’m not above blaming the map, it’s true). While I was, in fact, in chinatown, I was in this weird place where all the shops specialized in a single functional industrial item: springs, cleats, and bearings ranging from minute to dinner plate sized. Every street I turned on was the same thing! I back-tracked to where I started and then ended up visiting Wat Trimitur’s Golden Buddha cause it was there despite the fact that I was aiming for chinese lanterns and firecrackers. While the Buddha is impressive (at 5 tons of pure gold, it’s purported to be the largest golden buddha in the world) it’s hard to get a good pic so instead I’ve included a snap of the vegas-slot-like-buddhist-horoscope-machines. I have no idea how these things are supposed to work but there is a slot for alms, spinning lites, and a different statue of buddha incarnate in each, the one shown here containing the Buddha protected by a Naga (a 7-headed serpent).

I feel like I’ve hardly seen any of Bangkok’s “hidden treasures” but they seem to require much with very little payback. I’m debating heading up to Chiang Mai where it’s easier to cross the street or biting the bullet and going to Nepal. I wish I’d consulted the “risk merit making” machine at Wat Trimitur. In the meantime, I will head back to Chinatown in the next day or two, maybe even on the new year this sunday.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 26th, 2006 at 8:18 pm and is filed under travelog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.