Temples in Bangkok and Thonburi

Temples are not typically the first thing which come to mind when talking about a trip to Bangkok. There is foremost thoughts of shopping and of course the entertainment areas with the sleazy bars and establishments. Within this huge city there are over 430 temples though, which are very worthwhile to be visited. Wat Phra Kaeo, the Royal Temple within the Palace, is the most important and most impressive one. It is also the one with the most tourists and, at least outside the temple, also the one with the most dubious characters who want to sell you things and who want to drive you onto a never-return shopping trip. Wat Pho is a huge temple right next to the Royal Palace. Also lots of tourists, but this is a temple which is very much in use and if you come early enough you can sit inside the chapel and take part in the prayers by the many monks living there. For all the other temples you have to walk some way, or take taxis to get to them. Wat Trimit with it's massive golden Buddha image is in the middle of China town and visited by many tourists. Wat Benchamabopit can be a zoo but at times you might be the only tourist around. Again, come early and enjoy - before the tour busses arrive. If you come very early, bring some food for the monks who will be on alms round. I typically spend a few days in Bangkok during every trip to Thailand, just to visit my friends in the temples and to pay respect to some important Buddha statues. And every time I try to visit a new temple. Inside the temple walls, the compound provides a quite and tranquil atmosphere in an otherwise chaotic city.

In November 2008 we got stuck in Bangkok due to the political protests and the closure of the airport, which we took as a chance to visit several important temples of the city, starting with Wat Amarintharam. We also went back to Wat Paknam and went for the morning prayer with the monks of Wat Pathumwanaram. It helped us turning all the negative influences into something very positiv! (to put this into perspective: with negative, we mean being stuck in the middle, not knowing what is going on or when to be able to leave the country and being stuck in a country without a hotel, money and information. Sitting outside the airlines office at 4am or calling the airline for 3 days without getting through - that is negative energy).

During our 4 trips to Thailand in 2009 we have always had a few days in Bangkok visiting temples. In September we actually spent three weeks in the city, enjoying the new skytrain ride over to the western parts of Bangkok across the Chao Praya river. We took this new opportunity to visit many of the exciting temples on both sides of the river. Marking our tenth year of traveling to the Kingdom of Thailand and getting to our 1000th temple to cover on these pages, we actually chose three important temples for our final count down: Wat Makut Kasattriyaram, Wat Thewaraj Kunchorn and Wat Rajathiwas Rajaworavihara.

In March 2010 we focused on temples in Bangkok. It was merely a lack of confidence in the political situation, which made us stay in the capital and we made a conscious decision to leave the city before the latest wave of protest kicked off - this time by the red-shirts. We visited several new temples and were happy to visit the new viharn of Wat Traimitr, Chinatowns latest tourist attraction and home of the Golden Buddha. Looking at the beautiful Buddha image, Phra Buddha Mahasuwan Patimakorn, it becomes obvious that nothing is permanent, no matter what colour shirt you wear. Only the Buddha's teachings matter! We were also happy to note that Wat Phatumwanaram was just about to be finished with it's renovation work. However, this was the unfortunate temple which lay right in the middle of the protest area in May 2010 and functioned as a refuge for the protesters, so the renovation work was put on halt and was still going on in September 2010.

Due to the protests we did cancel our planned visit during May 2010, which was a wise decision as we all know what happened. First time we went back after the protests, was in September and October 2010 to follow a special invitation of one of our friends who is a monk in one of the temples.

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� by Udo Radlhammer

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