This is the breakfast area of our hotel. There are rooms lining the corridor for 3 floors. The rooms are all bright and clean and the corridor is massive but there is no elevator. Breakfast this morning was not gourmet but it was certainly adequate. This isn't bad for $45 per night including breakfast, particularly since the location is so good.
This is the Thaphae Gate to the old city, right across the street from our hotel. Actually, most of the old city wall is gone but the moat is mostly there, except where it's filled in in front of the gate. There's not much difference in the architecture on either side of the wall. Mostly it's modern low rise buildings that are not exceptional in any way. There are a lot of wats (temples) in the old city, though.
This is the first one we visited this morning, Wat Phra Singh. These are all working temple complexes, unlike the tourist temples at the Royal Palace in Bangkok.
These monks were meditating in the temple. You'd swear they were statues. We were in there for at least 15 minutes and we never saw any of them blink, breathe or betray any sign of life. They just stared straight ahead and didn't move, in a meditative trance. We've seen lots of Buddha images and lots of monks but not monks trying to achieve enlightenment like Buddha through meditation. Powerful stuff.
Our next stop was Wat Phan Tao, a smaller wat made of teak.
Then we walked next door to Wat Chedi Luang, a temple complex with an old ruined chedi (shrine, I think) in the back yard. This is where we had some really interesting experiences.
The main temple is very impressive.
As we walked around admiring it inside, a young Thai man, neatly dressed, asked us if we would test him and his friends in English. He didn't seem to be selling us anything so we said okay. We ended up sitting on the floor of the temple with a group of students and a young monk, having a conversation so they could practice their English. They asked us questions about Canada, what we liked about Thailand and so on. We asked them questions about their lives too. It was all fairly basic but we had lots of fun with them and hope we helped them with their English studies. We probably spent 45 minutes talking with them. We tried to explain ice hockey, maple syrup and a Canadian hero, Terry Fox. One of them used a video camera to record it for later study. These are the rewarding things that happen from time to time when you're traveling. A small part of our day but I think we'll always remember it.
Then things got a little strange. We walked around the old chedi and into a small temple at the back. There was a meditating monk who'd died, been preserved and was kept in a glass case. In other temples we'd visited this morning there were statues of other meditating monks who had passed away but here we had the whole man, preserved and on display. There's no doubt that this monk was a holy man, revered by his followers. We were just feeling that a picture or statue to remember him by might have been sufficient. Maybe it's cultural. He must have been a very special person that they wanted to keep him in their lives and have the chance to meditate before him forever. It's just very strange to us.
We went to another little temple next door and there was another preserved monk in a glass case. We don't understand it but perhaps that's not important.
The old ruined chedi is quite a structure as well. The elephants are stone, not stuffed.
By the time we'd done this touring, we were so hot we went back to the hotel for a shower. Then it was off to Taste from Heaven, the vegetarian restaurant down the street, for a small lunch. We're not sure yet where we'll go for dinner but it's mid-afternoon and time to stay cool for a while.
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