A little of this, a little of that

After the relative laziness of yesterday, I knew I needed to do a bit more today. I headed to Wat Po, another major temple in Bangkok. I actually liked Wat Po better that Wat Phra Kaew because it's less crowded and it has some pretty cool things: the largest collection of Buddha images in Thailand and the largest reclining Buddha. Plus it's also where massage, acupuncture, and acupressure were first taught in the country.

The reclining Buddha is seriously crazy big. He is 46m long and 15m high. Here's a shot of his head:

And here's a shot of his feet:

There's a whole lot more pics, so be sure to check them out.

After that I went to the Wat Po Thai Traditional Medical and Massage School. Massages are available at the temple grounds, but I'd heard that going to the school itself was better. I'd never had a Thai massage before and it's quite an experience. It's more about pressure points than the rolling/kneading kind of movement that I'm used to. And the masseuse manipulates your body, too, so that she's actually on the table with you and using all of her body - feet, hands, legs, elbows, arms - during the massage, so that's different. It was quite a nice massage and for $11/hour, it can't be beat!

Next I headed to Jim Thompson's House. Who's he, you ask? Well, I hadn't heard of him either, but he was an American entrepreneur and art collector who came to Thailand after World War II and he fell in love with it. His house was pretty amazing, but it's hard to show what it looked like since it encompassed a few buildings and a garden. So instead, here's a shot of the Spirit House. According to Thai folklore, the spirit house guards against evil spirits and it should go in the northeast corner of a property so that the shadow of the house never falls on it.

Finally, I wrapped up my day with a bit of window shopping. Sam had told me that the second most upper floor of the MBK Center was filled with Thai handicrafts and I wanted to check them out. He certainly wasn't kidding! The MBK Center has seven stories and the one level that I walked took more than an hour to see; the place is huge! I didn't buy anything except coffee and a piece of cake, but it was fun seeing everything that was for sale.