SEA Trip Day 6: Touring in Bangkok

Thursday, January 19: Temples, Foot Massage #1, Afternoon Tea #1, Enjoying the Lounge

Mr. E and I had booked the Three Temples City Tour through Trip Advisor for our morning activity. After a workout in the room for me and breakfast for both of us in the lounge, we met up with our English-speaking guide, Sunny, in the hotel lobby. I hadn't realized this would truly be a private tour for just the two of us! 

We started off at Wat Traimit, the Temple of the Golden Buddha. Sunny provided a history of the temple and the multiple spots where the Buddha had been sited over the years. We were greeted by a street cat as we began our tour of the grounds and then climbed the stairs to enter the temple and marvel at the Buddha as Sunny waited outside and made sure our shoes didn't go missing.

Sunny explained to us that marigolds are frequently used in abundance to honor the Buddha, and we certainly saw this in multiple places that we visited. Another smaller temple is part of this site as well, so we made a quick stop for another viewing, which included seeing several people praying and requesting blessings from a monk.

The parking lot was quite full, and Sunny and our driver helped to navigate some other vehicles so that we could depart!

The next stop was Wat Arun, Temple of the Dawn. This site wasn't quite as crowded, so it was a bit easier to tour around the main tower and also see some of the surrounding structures. The tower is covered in multi-colored porcelain tiles and offers a striking contrast to the visual style of the other temples.

Our final stop was at Wat Pho, home of the enormous reclining Buddha. This temple offers an entire complex of grounds, scattered with many sculptures including a whole set showing a series of yoga postures, and other buildings that feature a vast collection of Buddhas. And another cat!

We were finished with the tour and back to our hotel around 12:30pm. Our plans for the rest of the day included an evening food tour. However, after seeing the traffic circulation and poor air, I realized that a 4-hour tour in an open-air tuk-tuk probably wouldn't be very enjoyable. 

Mr E didn't have any hesitation in agreeing when I suggested that we forgo the experience and just take the rest of the day to relax at the hotel instead. We started with afternoon tea and a shared salad bowl at the Lobby Lounge. The tea set was presented in a special box and included a nice variety of sweet and savory items for us to share.

Then we decided to check out the spa offerings and were able to get an on-the-spot 30-minute foot massage in the mid-afternoon, which was followed by lemongrass tea and a snack of fresh yogurt with fruit and granola out on the pool deck. We finished up the day with drinks and food at the lounge, and Mr. E also returned to the rooftop bar for a cocktail after I went to the room to read before bed.