Pictures! Round Deux

Hello! Back again and this time with more pictures! Tomorrow I'm going to the islands to scuba with whale sharks, so these will have to hold you over for a few days. Hope you like them!

After I spent all afternoon shooting the lights out, the park decided it would be better just to shut them all down. I'd done enough damage for one day.

This is Tiers and Beers Human Rights Watch party. 

This is Wat Phra Kaew from inside the Grand Palace compound.

Another photo of the same thing. This one shows off the big open park area more. Get ready to be inundated with Wat photos.

Entrance way to the Wat. Left line if for Thais, right is four tourists. Tourists paid triple. Wat a crock of poo.

First photo through the door. I should have gotten a better picture of that Buddha. He was neither Jimmy's Buddha nor Fat Buddha.

Just thought this was a cool angle.

Every entrance and exit into a Wat is guarded by the demon gargoyle things. They're called yakshas. THey ward off evil spirits. If magic is real and those things come to life one day, Bangkok is effed.

Genuinely have no idea what this building actually is other than massive and gold.

Gold all in my chain. Gold all in my rang. Gold all in my Wat. Don't believe me just watch.

By the end of this I swear you'll be able to draw a map of the place. I took pictures from everywhere.

Don't know what this was. Just had some cool black elephants. Not having Jimmy here with me really hurt.

Trying to give you some concept for the texturing of the walls of these places. Very ornate. Also, Buddha's everywhere. Christians are all about some crosses, but they've got nothing on the Buddhists.

Another texture shot. Think about the time and detail of this work. Perhaps if they didn't spend all their time and money here they might have a functional government by now.

The roofs of these places are all tiles. So much work went into this place. 

A good view of the actual Temple of the Emerald Buddha. Pretty big building for a Buddha that is the size of my head. (Which is small if you were unaware.)

I had a reason for this one but it escapes me.

Not to toot my own horn but DAMN. That is a great picture. Lot of win going on right here.

This is an aponsi. They're half angel-half lion beings who guard the temple and live in the space between heaven and Earth. So they're sort of like the gryffins of purgatory? I don't know. All I do know is that they were the best part of the Wat. And there were dozens of them.

Yakshas are all around the base of the spires and stuff too.

Aponsi. All of them were in different poses too. The builders of this place sure didn't make it easy on themselves.

That's the exit. It had tall stuff so I photographed it. That's my rule of thumb. Is it tall? Guess I'll take a picture.

Thank you sir may I have another?

Side temple. Ornate like whoa.

Red yaksha was by far the most intimidating one. I totally believe that dude was scaring the evil spirits away. If I was a non-corporeal entity with malicious intentions towards a 12 inch tall inanimate object, I would definitely back the eff up when confronted by a 14 foot tall demon protector statute. I'm a spirit not an idiot after all.

That's a good picture too. If all the people weren't in it. National Geographic photographers get it so good.

Inside the temples and walkways, the walls are covered in these paintings of the history of the temple and legends and stuff. There is also a team of artists constantly working on them to make sure the murals don't deteriorate from all the pictures being taken. 

Once I saw the touch up artists, that was pretty much open season on pictures. 

I notice the Buddha seems to be a big proponent of laying around. Never see Buddha tilling the fields. He and I could be friends.

The rarely seen and incredibly difficult to execute corner mural shot.

Okay I had to take a picture of this guy because look how boss that thing is! No clue what this story is about but the pamphlet they handed me as I walked in had this photo inside of it (I found that out after I left the Wat and was chilling on a curb.)

The entrance to the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. There are 3 doors but really the left is the entrance and the right is the exit. The middle door is for the King and Queen only. No one else may use it. I really need to look into this King business. Sounds like a pretty crackerjack kind of job.

I could spend the next 30 years of my life learning to sculpt and I wouldn't come up with one of those much less 3. And by 3 I mean 3,000 because the Buddhists don't ever have 1 statue of something. They have as many as they can possibly accommodate.

So the Wat gets 14 foot tall demon warrior protectors at the door but the actual temple gets some bootleg Cerberus guard dog? That looks like a happy puppy. No evil spirit is stopping in its ethereal tracks because of that smiling doofus.

Got nothing.

The back of the Temple. Exactly the same as the front only without 200 people at it. Gives a better accounting of the Temple.

This cracked me up for several reasons. First, this was clearly marketed towards foreigners not Thais, so the message seems off anyway. Tourists go ride elephants and stuff knowing full well they are being abused just to do it. You really think your half-ass denouncement of decorative Buddha is stopping a stupid American from buying a Buddha? 2) He definitely is decoration. You decorate your Wat's with him. He is literally all over the place. Actual wall to wall in many spots. and 3) Every Thai person I've met has decorative Buddha's all over the place and every Thai hawker tries to sell you one. Hell, at the Temple of the Golden Mount, in their gift shop at the top they had a whole host of Buddha options to buy. So all in all, couldn't be more wrong Wat Phra Kaew. 

I was really close to throwing caution to the wind and jumping around this fence and off into this restricted area. But again, I'm not trying to go to jail in America. I'm damn sure not trying to get locked up in BKK.

HAH! Those clown statues couldn't scare an maladjusted cough drop much less an evil spirit.

In the back of the compound there are a bunch of smaller temples where monks train and pray and monk out or whatever it is they do.

Yeah. I took a photography class in middle school. No big deal.

This was like a poor man's aponsi outside of a lesser temple. Though, to be fair, iron dragon creature with sword is legitimately more intimidating than golden fairy cat holding flowers and stuff.

In case you forgot how much gold was about this place.

This is a scaled model of Angkor Wat that was in the compound. Not sure why. But it is awesome. I'll be seeing you in a few weeks Cambodia.

Better picture of it.

This is what every Wat ever looks like apparently.

THis was a set-up shot for the next picture.....

..which is a demon snake-headed foot? I don't know man but it was cool. And probably very expensive. Homeless epidemic in the country but damn if they can't gild some stuff.

Yeah......starting to really think the Iron Dragon creature would absolutely pistol-whip the Aponsi in a fight.

Did I panorama city the mural on one of the hallways? You bet your ass I did!

I'm a fan of this one. Notice the depth of the image, foregrounding, and varying heights. Really making the most out of the shot.

I'm running out of ways to describe tall stuff.

I liked this picture....

...but I think this one turned out better. Notice the flower in the shot. Lot of action going on here.

Said flower.

The exit.

Picture from the exit.

Ze Temple. I'm starting to think I might not be a bad photo-grapher.

Nope. Nevermind. I suck. Should've taken 10 steps to my left and this picture would've been great with the Golden Bell thingy in it.

I made a friend who lives and works in Osaka (funnily enough where I'll be going in 2 weeks) but comes here once a month. I then convinced him to take a picture of me. Whenever I ask randos to take my picture I never check their work because I feel like I've already been an imposition and, let's be honest, its not that hard to take a serviceable photo of a tourist. I know wish I had as this photo is hot garbage. But still. Proof I've been there.

Walking out.

People were selfie-ing with this guy hard core and he hated every minute of it.

That just looks fun.

This is the old Palace where Rama Ix use to throw down. Now i's a museum or something.

Neato

Mosquito

The King has some great yards.

This guy was equally as grumpy.

Something else tall. Rules are rules.

Saw this walking out. Some American casually dominating the Thai fashion game. I need a pair stat. 

Sidebar: I bet those are the best PJs in the world.

I think this is the last one of the tall things.

Ministry of Defense still rocking the cannons. Love it. If computer's take over the world Terminator style, Bangkok will be the heart of the resistance.

The Giant Swing. Landmark right next to a wat most known for being a big ass swing. You may notice the conspicuous absence of a swing seat. Apparently in 2006 some people died in a swing related accident.. Like a lot of them. Since then they shut it down. Not sure what happened but the only thing I can figure is someone tried to swing over the top. Everyone whose ever been on a playground before knows you can't do that. That's like Newton's 5th law or something. And now no one can have fun because some asshat had to fly too close to the Sun and ruined it for everyone. Way to go guy.

Swing and Wat. It's like a combo.

Look how friggin dirty this place is.

Punch buggy. 

Sidebar: Travel is odd. Last summer in Germany/Austria punch buggy was almost too easy. This summer, one sighting and you win the game. Just proving once again that America does it better. Not too hot, not too cold, just right.

Hmmmm. Ominous clouds a-forming on the horizon.

Those look a ways off. I bet I can out walk them.....

Nope. Nope I can't. Also, notice the fashion statement that is Sambas with white khakis. Boy's got style.

535 Baht is $17 American. 595 is $18 American. You're looking at $35 worth of produce that would equal about 3 bites. Imagine how expensive Thanksgiving would be here.

This was random and cool thing I saw in a cab one night.

Selfie? Wat selfie?

Thanks for reading folks. You keep reading. I'll keep posting.

Jed