Believe it or not, that whole long thing is the actual, official name of the city that we all know as Bangkok. It’s the longest city name in the entire world. There are different stories as to where the name ‘Bangkok’ (Village of the Wild Plum) came from, but no one is really sure. The locals refer to their city as just ‘Krung Thep’. Here’s a pic of the city’s official name on a monument outside of the city hall.

So, what does “Krung Thep Maha Nakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthrayuthaya Maha Dilokphop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udom Ratchaniwet Maha Sathan Amon Phiman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit” mean? Good question! The translation is, “The city that is very large like the city of angels, houses the sacred Emerald Buddha, has prosperity and stable beauty, is abundant with the pleasant nine gems, has numerous royal grand palaces, and is a fairy abode created on the earth by Thao Sakka Thewarat Witsanukam for the incarnated divinities.” Thao Sakka Thewarat Witsanukam is a reference the gods Indra and Vishnukarma, as in the city was gifted by Indra and built by Vishnukarma. However, for our purposes here, let’s just stick with Bangkok.

Speaking of the Emerald Buddha, my first stop in Bangkok was to the most important place in all of Thailand, Wat Phra Kaew, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. You may remember I visited the temple where the Emerald Buddha was found in Chiang Rai, way back towards the beginning of this trip, and saw a replica of it there. Now I get to see the real thing.

The Emerald Buddha is by far Thailand’s holiest object and most prized artifact. Consequently, Wat Phra Kaew, is not only opulent, but built on the grounds of the Royal Palace and also the biggest tourist destination in the country. Not only for tourists like me, but it’s a major pilgrimage site for all Thais. The place was an absolute zoo. So many people! That’s kind of why I decided to do it first. Anyway, here’s the real Emerald Buddha.

The Emerald Buddha was found hidden inside a monument in Chiang Rai in the 15th century, but it’s believed to have been created in the 13th or 14th century, though they’re not sure. It even has its own monastic robes, three of them, which are ceremoniously changed by the King at the change of Thailands three seasons, hot, rainy, and cool.

When you’re through admiring the Emerald Buddha, you’re herded out into a giant courtyard and past the Royal Palace. The main building was completed in 1882 and used to be where the royal family lived. Today it’s only used for ceremonial purposes. They don’t let anyone inside. You just get to look at it as you walk by on your way to the exit.

Just a short distance down the street is the Bangkok National Museum. For some reason I thought it would be bigger, but it was still a great museum.

On most of my trips I start with the capitol city and venture out from there. This time I did the opposite. It turned out to be an interesting way to do it, walking around the museum looking at artifacts from all the archeological sites that I’ve already visited. A lot of these artifacts I could remember reading about at their original homes and I spent my time in here repeatedly saying, “Hey, I’ve been there.”

Wat Phra Chetuphon, also known as Wat Pho, is probably the second most important temple in Bangkok. It’s right next to the Royal Palace complex and is the center for the teaching and preservation of traditional Thai medicine.

Wat Pho is also home to Bangkok’s largest reclining Buddha. He has very long toes. Ha! I don’t know why they always build these shelters just big enough to barely contain these monuments, but here he is.

One night walking around the riverside area on my way back to the hotel after dinner, I was surprised by this amazing view of Wat Arun on the other side of the river. I’ll be visiting Wat Arun tomorrow, but this is a hell of a preview.

Bangkok is a huge city, but it’s not hard to get around. They have a metro system, an elevated train system, a monorail, and ferries snaking up and down the Chao Phraya River all day. Between the four systems you can get pretty much anywhere you want in this city. They’re not at all associated with each other, so you need separate tickets for each, but at less than a dollar for each ride it’s not a problem. I’ve been hopping on and off all four every day. To visit Wat Arun I took the metro to one of the piers and then hopped on a boat which dropped me off right in front.

After the fall of the Ayutthaya kingdom, King Taksin established Bangkok as the new capitol on this site on the east side of the Chao Phraya River. He named it Arun, after the god of the dawn. The Royal Palace was eventually moved to the west side of the river to help defend the kingdom from the Burmese, who sacked Ayutthaya, but this is where it all started. The tower was constructed a little later in the beginning of the 19th century.

You’ll notice how colorful all of these monuments are. Back when this was just an obscure trading outpost, Chinese ships would dump tons of excess porcelain into the river. That was nice of them. Anyway, the Thais used all that porcelain to beautify their temples. Most of the temples in the city are decorated with old Chinese porcelain.

As cool as seeing Wat Arun at night from across the river was, I had no idea it was this beautiful. Even during the day from across the river I couldn’t tell how bright and colorful it is. I wasn’t expecting any of the temples to be this colorful. I like being surprised like that.

King Taksin was eventually executed in a coup and the Chakri dynasty took over. All the subsequent kings assumed the royal name of Rama, the current king of Thailand is Rama X. Anyway, the construction of the main tower at Wat Arun was started by Rama II. The main Buddha statue in the temple is said to have been designed by him personally and his ashes are interred at the base of the statue (below left).

The Siam Museum has some interesting insights into Thai culture and history, like the kuman thong doll below. Even though most Thais are Buddhists, they held onto some of their ancient animist beliefs too. kuman thong dolls are believed to contain spirits that when well cared for, bring their owners good luck. Luckily, the dolls nowadays are made from plastic, but in the past they were made from dry roasted fetuses, like the one below. Yes, really.

Here’s a not funny story. In Saranrom Park there is a monument to Queen Sunanda, the wife of Rama V. One day the pregnant queen and her daughter were in a boat on the lake here when it suddenly capsized. It was illegal for anyone other than the king to touch a queen, an offense punishable by death. So instead of saving her, the many people that were there had to just watch her drown. Proof that idiotic laws that make no sense and with no exception clauses transcend time period, culture, and ethnicity. The King had 92 wives though so he was probably fine.

The park also has some really huge resident monitor lizards.

The Chinese influence in Bangkok is undeniable. I’ll get to Chinatown later, but there are some other Chinese temples in other parts of the city too. The San Chao Pho Suea shrine is dedicated to the tiger god, Xuanwu. Apparently, the tiger god is partial to bacon and eggs because that’s what devotees leave for offerings every morning. Every deity has their own preferred form of offering.

If you don’t believe that Buddhism is really important here, all you need to do to convince yourself is to visit the Buddha market. Need a gift for that special Buddhist in your life? Building a temple and don’t have any ancient artifacts to fill it? No problem, just visit the Buddha market. This neighborhood has been producing Buddha statues since at least the mid 19th century. There are several streets of nothing but shops selling all sorts of Buddhist statuary spilling out onto the sidewalk. I’m told some of the biggest pieces can take up to four months to make and can cost upwards of $20,000.

One of the most impressive temples I saw in Bangkok was Wat Suthat. The place is huge!

Wat Suthat has a monument to Rama VIII and his ashes are interred in the Buddha statue inside. Rama VIII became king at a very young age. Regents were appointed while he was studying abroad, but when he came back to Thailand at the age of twenty to assume the throne, he was murdered. His brother, Rama IX, the last king took his place.

Once again, the Chinese influence is undeniable.

The Buddha containing Rama VIII’s ashes was made in the 14th century in Sukhothai.

Wat Suthat also boasts the longest ordination hall in Thailand. The only way to get pics of the whole thing was to take them from the main temple and then I could only get the roof.

Nearby are the Devasthan Brahmin Shrines. Over a thousand years ago, Brahmin priests were invited here from India by the ancient kings in hopes that it would elevate their status. Today, the descendants of those priests still live here and perform religious ceremonies for the Thai royalty. The three shrines dedicated to Shiva, Ganesha, and Vishnu are pretty simple actually. The 5th century Ganesha statue here is the oldest in Thailand. I assume it’s the one in the middle.

Between Wat Suthat and the Devasthan shrines is the giant swing. I’m a little unclear on all of the details, but it was used in a swing ceremony where Brahmins would reenact the god Shiva solidifying the earth by swinging while trying to grab bags of coins attached to the pillars (?). It was discontinued officially in 1935 due to too many fatalities. It’s still a famous Bangkok landmark though.

The road from the giant swing leads to a canal where one of the original city gates was, the ghost gate. Spooky! It was the only city gate that was not protected by blessings so as to give the ghosts of the dead a way to leave. They couldn’t pass through the other gates that were blessed to keep evil spirits out. Why didn’t the evil spirits just come in through the ghost gate then? I digress. The people of Bangkok still believe this location is haunted and that belief is reinforced by looking back towards the giant swing, which from this angle closely resembles a stereotypical Thai representation of a ghost.

Everything is connected here, and a little morbid. During the cholera epidemic of the early 19th century, the bodies of the dead were removed through the ghost gate, the only option for the ghosts. The nearest temple was Wat Saket, the Golden Mount, so it became the default place to store the bodies before cremation.

The Golden Mount was first an attempt to build a large stupa by Rama III. The soft ground wouldn’t support the weight of the stupa though and it collapsed into a small mountain of bricks and mud. Rama IV put a small monument on top and over many years it evolved into what you see today, the Golden Mount. I walked the spiral stairs to the top for some pretty decent views of the surrounding area.

Not forgetting that pesky cholera epidemic, the bodies were coming in fast and the Golden Mount couldn’t cremate the dead fast enough. Consequently, the bodies began to pile up which attracted lots of vultures. It also attracted a lot of monks who came here to meditate on the impermanence of things, surrounded by all those bodies. Well, the monks of course started to revere the vultures and now the Golden Mount has a big monument to the vultures.

Also within the Golden Mount is the Bamiyan Museum. Inside they have some insignificant looking fragments of palm leaf paper, but these fragments contain pieces of the Bodhisattvapitaka Sutra and date to around the 5th century, making them some of the oldest Buddhist scriptures in the world. There’s also a replica of a 1500 year old Buddha carved into a cliff in the Bamiyan Valley in Afghanistan. There were actually two Buddhas carved into those cliffs in Afghanistan until the Taliban dynamited them into oblivion in 2001. I guess this replica will have to do now.

Right across the canal from the Golden Mount is Wat Thep Thidaram, built by Rama III for his daughter. It looked like it was being renovated and I couldn’t see a lot of it though.

Right next door to that was Wat Ratchanatdaram, also built by Rama III in the style of 2000 year old Indian temples. It looks more like a castle.

The best part of Wat Ratchanatdaram was climbing to the tip top for some pretty good views of Bangkok in all directions. There were some amazing views of the prayer hall on the way up too.

Walking down through the Banglamphu area, I passed by the Democracy Monument.

And just down the street from the Democracy Monument is this small section of the original city wall. I was mostly walking to Banglamphu because that’s where all the good street food is. I was getting hungry. There are actually several good street markets in Bangkok, including one about a half a mile from my hotel. Yummm!

Ok, I get that King Taksin is the founder of the city and that’s why there are monuments and shrines to him in several locations, but I can’t figure out why they build shrines to someone they essentially overthrew and executed.

These two dilapidated sections of brick wall, right around the corner from all the food, are all that remains of the palace of one of Rama I’s sons. Thais believe that places have their own spirits too and before any new structure can be built, the resident spirit should have its own abode and be well looked after so they don’t become vengeful and take it out on the new residents. Below is the house of the former palace spirit.

There are lots of forts around Bangkok from its history, I think there were originally fourteen, but I believe these are the two oldest and the only original ones left. Both just happen to be in the Banglamphu area too.

Holy crap, this post is getting super long. I think I’ll end with this next couple of really cool stops and make Bangkok a two part post. Just a really short distance from my hotel is the King Power Mahanakhon building and way up on the 78th floor is the Skywalk. In the pic on the left you can see that little piece sticking out at the top, that’s the glass tray. I didn’t walk out on the glass tray, even I have my limits, but the views of Bangkok from way up there are amazing!

Here’s a super zoom of Wat Phra Kaew, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha (left), and the Royal Palace (right). The King Power Mahanakhon building was the tallest building in Thailand for a while, but since 2018 it’s been the second tallest building.

After skywalking at King Power Mahanakhon, it was time to go visit the oldest snake farm in Asia. They mainly harvest venom and develope antivenom, but it’s also an opportunity to see some of the world’s most dangerous snakes up close and personal. Every afternoon they have a snake show and tell. They started with this almost ten foot long king cobra. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a king cobra this close before.

The slightly smaller monocellate cobras were equally impressive. Even more impressive was that these two were both managed by one handler. Trained or not, that guy must be fearless.

I couldn’t quite hear the name of this guy below, but I think I heard he’s some kind of copperhead. He’s not venomous, but boy was he angry!

Then they brought this big eyed pit viper out. He’s so dangerous they don’t even handle him, they march him out at the end of a long branch like a scepter.

After the show we were free to look at all the snakes in their habitats. I took so many pics of so many different types of snakes it’s ridiculous. These are just the highlights. The cobras were definitely my favorites though.

You may remember that I saw a snake a few weeks ago in Cha Am that I couldn’t identify. I saw another one here at the snake farm and luckily, he had ID on him. It’s a whip snake. He’s non venomous. Mystery solved!

There were several different types of pit vipers here too and a bunch of different pythons as well. There were way too many to include them all here, but I really enjoyed this place. I got here at the right time too because all of the snakes get more active in the late afternoon. They were almost all out and about.

On the way back to the hotel I took a walk through one of Bangkoks biggest parks, Lumphini Park, to find another type of reptile. Lumphini park has a bunch of big monitor lizards, some up to nine feet long. I only saw four of them. I was expecting jurassic park but it’s possible I set my expectations a bit too high.

Alright, I’m gonna give you all a break and take one myself. I’ve been so busy running around this city like a crazy person and enjoying every minute of it, but I’m looking forward to slowing down a bit. Most of the sites I have left to visit are further out from the center, which means more time on the metro and the train, which means I can take a breath. Ha! Bangkok is such an amazing city and I’m loving it! Stay tuned for more of Thailand’s capitol in a few days…