Day Six: Wat Arun and the Hangover 2

Before I delve into today's business, Laurel recently uploaded this photo taken at the Seafood Market (First day).

Photo Credit: Laurel Gillespie

We had class at eight this morning.  We talked about the shopping malls for a bit and Bill told us that MBK is owned by a Chinese family.  They make the mall Thai friendly to attract Thai customers.  The Chinese population here also patronizes the mall.  Bill then gave us our assignment for tomorrow.  We will each have two shifts of about an hour and half during which we will observe people in Santiphap (Peace) Park just down the street.  This way there will be someone in the park at all times and we will know what is happening in the park throughout the day.  To see where the park is, see my first assignment, the map I made of our street (click on the image to enlarge it).  I used AutoCAD to draw it.

We then discussed Thaksin Shinawatra, a former, exiled prime minister of Thailand who is trying to regain power by having his sister run for prime minister.  Elections are the first week in July and stories about it are all over the newspapers.  Our assignment for today was to go to a temple.  There were five temples we could choose from, and Judy and I both chose Wat Arun, a temple on the other side of the Chao Phraya River.  During our class, Bill suggested that we get very small notebooks in which to take field notes.  This is so we do not draw attention to ourselves and risk people looking at us instead of doing whatever activity we are trying to observe.  I picked up a small notebook on the way to get lunch.  We found a place on a main road that was open to the street (as most restaurant are).  There are 12 items on the menu and they are all available with chicken, pork, shrimp, or crab.  Each dish costs 40 baht ($1.33 US).  To get a drink, you walk over to a cooler and grab a bottle.  When you are done eating, the waitress, who is also one of the cooks, tells you how much you owe and you hand her your money and leave.  I got chicken fried rice.

We took a taxi to the river.  From across the river, Wat Arun rises majestically above the city. We took this small ferry across the river for 3 baht (9 cents).

This planter was in park next to the ferry dock.

Outside the tower, there is an area of buildings including two temples and the residences of the monks.  We walked around this area for a while.  Some formations of rock have pieces of pottery set in mortar on them.

These trees were all over the temple area.  Here, landscapers trim them into perfect hemispheres.

In the area outside the temples, beautifully carved sculptures are everywhere.  Their detail is intricate and stunning.  Every part of each building is adorned with some kind of decoration.

Judy and I went into both of the temples.  In one of them there was a monk sitting on the side who sprinkled some (holy?) water on a pair of Thai women with a broom-like object.  Judy was raised Buddhist and knew how to approach and kneel before the golden Buddha statue reverently inside.  I tried to follow her lead.  The inside was as beautifully adorned as the outside.  Because there were Thais praying in both temples, I opted not to photograph them.


Wat Arun was constructed in the early 19th century and stands 76.2m (250 ft) tall (Source: http://www.watarun.org/index_en.html).  It has very steep steps that visitors can climb that go about 2/3 of the way to the top.  From the top you can see the whole temple complex and a great view of the city.

At the top their was a young monk-in-training and a large tarp with many prayers written on it.

This the license of the cab driver who took us back to VP Tower.

That's all I have to say about that.  I went for a swim when I got home, and then we ate at Madam Ong's, the restaurant on the bottom floor of VP Tower.  I ordered vegetable rolls with pork sausage and shrimp and a tasty sauce.

We then went to see the Hangover 2.  The seats in the Theater are assigned.  It was in English with Thai subtitles.  After a while you do not even notice them.  There were more trailers than there are in America, over 30 minutes worth.  Some of them were all in Thai and looked very confusing.  Right before the movie began, everyone in the theater stood up while a song the king wrote played along with a slideshow of pictures of the king.  I liked the movie, but thought it was too much like the first one.  The Thais, as expected, were dead silent throughout the movie except for normal laughter.  I think that the band that played at the end was a famous Thai band because the girls giggled when they came on.