What is Thainess?

July 13, 2019

by Rachel

Taylor decided to make sure the entire house was awake today by 6:30, so we started the day out early. This ended up to be a good thing because we got to the Pho Wat, a Buddhist temple, before most of the tourists did. Wandering around the temple grounds in the quieter atmosphere made the experience much more enjoyable than the Grand Palace yesterday, since the Grand Palace was really crowded. While there weren't very many tourists, the temple was filled with cats. There were food bowls set out for the cats, so it was clear that the cats were welcomed at the temple. They wandered around lazily sleeping next to statues with three heads and besides trees. The cats were friendly and seemed uninterested in the tourists and much more interested in finding a nice shady place to sleep.

inside the Wat Pho temple grounds

One of many cats taking nap inside Wat Pho

At the temple, we saw the reclining Buddha, which is supposed to represent Buddha once he reaches nirvana. Nirvana is the final state of Buddhism where there isn't suffering or desire. As a bit of background about Thailand, it is 95% Buddhist and it has a specific branch of Buddhism called Theravada. There are hundreds of Buddhist temples in Bangkok alone and thousands in Thailand. When we go in the temples as tourists, we follow a dress code to be respectful. The dress standards slightly by temple, but most require shoulders to be covered and shorts or skirts to be at least to a person's knees. Some temples require ankle length pants. In the temples there are normally lots of images of the Buddha. Some of them are outdoors and others are in certain rooms. You have to take your shoes off to go in. Once in it is considered very disrespectful to point your feet toward the Buddha, so if you sit down on the carpet, it is best to kneel because if your legs are out in front of you it can be rude.

The Reclining Buddha inside Wat Pho

While wondering through Pho Wat we ended up in a room with a bunch of people and monks. There was a monk standing up in ropes that were more elaborate than the simple orange robes the other monks wear. People were in line to take pictures with him. We are not sure who exactly the monk was.

After the temple we headed to the Museum of Siam. This museum was interesting as it centered around the idea "What it Thainess?" The museum took you through exhibitions where it talked about Thainess throughout history. It was an interesting concept to think about. As our world becomes more globalized aspects of lots of cultures are lost. However not all change is always bad. Equality and freedom is something valuable that can come from it, but people can also lose parts of their culture. One interesting symbol at the museum was the Ronald McDonald statue doing the wai, which is a traditional Thai greeting.

Next we ate lunch and headed home where we were picked up for a canal tour. We started the tour by going through the flower market. When I heard flower market, I had assumed one or maybe two streets with flowers on them. However, the flower market was a huge complex of vendors selling flowers. Lots of them were offerings to the gods, so people would buy them and hang them up at temples. The flowers were beautiful and colorful and smelled really good. After the flower market, we got on a boat which took us down a canal. Either side of the canal were lined with people's houses and clothes hanging out to dry. At one point we stopped to buy fish food and fed the fish. It was hilarious to watch the fish fighting each other for the bread.

On a long-tailed boat, about to head through some of the canals of Bangkok

Houses lined both sides of the canals

After the canals, we went to see Wat Arun, the Temple of the Dawn. In front of a lot of temples and just hanging around the city are giant pictures of the king. Temple of the Dawn was built by the royal family a couple hundred years ago. At the temple, there was a monk giving blessings. Sarah Ann and I got one. They tied a piece of yarn around our wrist and our tour guide explained to us that we have to leave it on for seven days and then we will have good luck.

At Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn)

Getting a blessing from a Buddhist monk inside Wat Arun

At night we went to Khao San Road, which is the most famous road in Thailand. It was packed with tourists and vendors. There were lots of food options. We tried a banana pancake, which was delicious and I also had some "coconut juice". I bought a new purse to replace the one that was stolen in Vancouver.You could bargain the price down for a lot of the items. When I went to buy my purse I had chosen one out and I went to ask my parents for cash (since I didn't have a purse yet to carry cash myself). The lady thought I was walking out and not going to buy the purse so she cut 50 baht (a little under $2) off the price of the purse. I am sure if I was actually good at bargaining I would have gotten the price a little lower, but honestly I was willing to pay more than they had charged me so I wasn't motivated to bargain down the price.

Drinking coconut milk on Khao San Road, the most famous road in Thailand

It was a very fun, but also very long day. By the end of the night we were all exhausted and we all fell asleep very quicly after being home. A long day in the hot sun sure can make you tired!