What Are the Odds?

What Pho Reclining Buddha

January 21, sent from Taipei airport

ferry to Wat Arun

In a city of fifteen million, what are the odds that this morning, sitting on a pier to watch the sun rise on Wat Arun, Temple of Dawn, before catching the ferry across (which hadn't been a place I was even going to go, until my chance meeting with the Korean lady on yesterday's boat ride)—and a twenty minute walk the other direction from my hotel than the first evening—I should again meet the young civil servant of the Department of the Interior who had guided me to the pad thai restaurant the evening of my arrival (and he, not coming to work his usual route from his house near the restaurant that morning but from the opposite direction by river from his wife's place downtown)?

my guide to the pad thai restaurant

I'm sitting there when someone asks me about if I like pad thai and at first take I think it's someone trying to steer me toward an eatery and then I recognize it's him, asking me if I liked the pad thai at the restaurant he'd recommended.  I was so happy, because I had been wanting to have been able to tell him that I did wait in the long line for the pad thai, and that it had been very good!  Now I was able to.

Wat Arun steps

It's so amazing.  Had I tarried a couple minutes longer getting my chicken satay with peanut sauce in the outside market this morning, or sat longer on the esplanade to watch the egrets from there, it would not have happened.  Even that first encounter—had I been thirty seconds shorter time or thirty seconds longer in Wat Suthap that first evening, or not taken the exact amount of time I did to borrow the third baht coin for the toilet within the courtyard—I would not have met him the first night. Mathematicians among you, what ARE the odds?

After our greetings and a short conversation, I did cross over to Wat Arun, and climb the steepest tallest steps I've ever climbed (even holding to railings both sides, I nearly stopped half way it was so scary steep) up the temple tower.  

 


 

Then, crossing back, I went to Wat Pho, with its the large reclining Buddha statue, and many other
shrine rooms with other Buddha statues, and the main lovely hall with a large golden Buddha where the monks were praying in their melodious chants.  


 The wooden window shutters of one of shrine rooms, the one with the Buddha with the overarching serpent heads, were painted with two Europeans in their shirttails and breeches.

  In the encircling cloistered walk, rows of chairs and desks were set up for the Pali examinations for the monks, which posters on the entrance announced. 

monks looking at exam schedule

 

 

desks set up for monks' Pali examinations

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elsewhere there were walls covered with inscriptions and engravings, a vast library of knowledge and wisdom. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was also an area with stone figures of monk yogis with marvelous expressions, one in pain with one hand on his head and the other holding his lower tooth, another with a very dejected expression, hands cupping his chin.

Spent quite a bit of time there exploring; then, buying a couple unexpected items, I located a place to change the few dollars on me to buy the Grand Palace ticket. Looking for something to eat in the market, a man told me that the Grand Palace was closed until 1 pm because of a religious holiday, and I was dismayed as I had to be heading back to my hotel for my flight by 1pm.  I went on anyway, expecting to be turned back, but it turned out to be quite open.  [I later read that this was a common scam: they tell people it's closed for a religious holiday and offer to bring you somewhere else, where they get a commission for having brought you.]

Wasn't so fresh by the time I arrived at the Grand Palace, and it was very, very crowded with tourists;

had meant to arrive earlier.  The—there's a great word here that I just found out the meaning of this year, that means from which something takes its name, and if I could remember it, I could use it here! but I don't remember the word….  The Buddha of the Temple of the Emerald Buddha was actually not emerald at all, and quite small.  I couldn't find the chapel with the Crystal Buddha that the guide brochure mentioned, and none of the tour guides I asked knew either, though did pick up some interesting tidbits of history from some of the tour guides talking to their respective groups as I wandered around. The murals adorning the covered wall walkways were magnificent, though, and the throne room with its golden throne, a golden boat behind, was quite magnificent, as was the coronation hall, and all the temple and palace exteriors were quite impressive too. Just before leaving, looked through the Emerald Buddha Museum and there were some lovely pieces there, too.

Came back to the hotel a few minutes early to find another bank to change a few more dollars from my luggage for my fare to the airport—I think I'd have just made it without doing so, but they told me a larger amount for the sky train that it actually was, so I thought I would end up being about 20-40 baht short (about a dollar; frustrating in that I could have easily spent that much less in the last day or so.)  So raced to the bank and back to get a taxi to the sky train station.

"Police Rescue Box" at Wat Arun