We start our tour this morning, meeting the rest of the group in the lobby of our hotel. There are 30 of us on the tour. All Americans, although there are 3 couples who have Russian/Ukrainian-type accents – very heavy – who are from Chicago and Philadelphia. Otherwise, all of us Americans and different types of people, mostly youngish. We meet our tour guide, Udom, who is 73 years old and went to law school, but eventually found his calling as a tour guide. He’s absolutely lovely and knowledgeable and and knows how to wrangle his different tour participants onto the bus and around different areas to stay on schedule. What more can you ask for? Oh a sense of humor, which Udom definitely has!

We start off the day with a quick drive around parts of Bangkok, and a stop at the oldest market in Bangkok, Pak Khlong Talat, the local flower market. Udom explains this is the locals market, not many tourists come here and he wanted to show us an important part of Thai lifestyle, the flowers for offerings at Wats, for celebrations, for personal home temples. The place is huge and we get some time to just wander around – which is amazing. We can’t get over the sheer volume of flowers and different arrangements being made here.

After a quick stop at the restrooms which we manage to find through pantomiming with some vendors who do not speak English, we meet back up with the rest of the tour and head off to Wat Pho.

Wat Pho is the temple of the Reclining Buddha and is one of the six highest grade of first class royal temples in Thailand. One of the largest temples, the Reclining Buddha is one of the largest single Buddha images at over 150 feet long. Also one of the oldest temples, Wat Pho existed before Bangkok even existed. Today it is a massive complex of pagodas and buildings with the centerpiece being the giant golden Reclining Buddha.

Udom takes us around the exterior courtyard, explaining the different warrior statues and meanings of the flowers and different offerings. We finally now understand the incense that worshippers use at temples: 3 different incense sticks; one for what you want to do in life, the second for you to actually do that in life and the third for you to continue to do it. Aha!

Next is the main event: The Reclining Buddha. We’ve been here before, albeit years ago, but it is still such an incredible sight. This massive Buddha icon, laying inside the ornate temple. Before we go in Udom explains that the Buddha image was created from bricks and stucco, then 7 layers of lacquer were applied before the final application of gold leaf.

We also learn that the circles carved in mother of pearl on the Buddha’s feet represent the 108 stages of good life. The circles are divided into 2 stages – heaven and earth. Gorgeous and very spiritual – well if it weren’t for the press of rude picture hogging tourists that is. We manage to snap what we want before absconding to the less crowded garden exterior!

Once the group reconvenes – and we all get our free water that comes with our ticket to the Wat – we walk around the complex with Udom who explains the different symbolisms, the different Buddha poses and other statue poses (like the one for fertility) and all about the Stupas. We just sort of mill about, snapping photos. For most of the group, this is their first time to Thailand so the introduction is great for them. It is good for us too, we glean lots of interesting new little factoids as well as reminding us of lots we’ve forgotten or shoved to the back of our minds.

For the last part of our tour we walk through a portico in the cloister with lots of Buddha images, where Odum acts as photographer for us all, then into Ubosot where we can view the gold and crystal 3 tiered pedestal holding the Buddha and the 9 tiered umbrella which represents the “authority” of Thailand. After exiting, as we are putting on our shoes, a group of young monks comes in – obviously on a tour from somewhere, all looking almost star struck to be here. Sweet.

Morning tour over, we all make our way to the bus (shockingly every one is here on time!) and head back to the hotel with a quick little diversion through the neighborhood so that Udom can show us all where we are, and what is around us. He even points out a couple of restaurants to try for “local noodles” as he calls them (always make sure they are boiling – if not boiling – don’t eat them!) and another restaurant for good seafood.

At the hotel, we dump our bags, get freshened up, then head out to a Vietnamese restaurant we had scoped out earlier. We are the only ones there – even though it is almost 1pm – and we have to ask if they are open, which they are. Excellent! Ed has been looking forward to Pho forever and now is his chance to have some! I on the other hand am very happy with fresh summer rolls – can you see the gigantic shrimp inside them? – and we tuck into an excellent late lunch meal (something we’ve come to expect on Gate 1 tours!).

After lunch we head for a stroll through Santiphap park, enjoying the relative quiet and coolness of the green spaces, the beautiful orchids and laughing at the signage placed around the park. Oh, and don’t forget the weirdly depicted – almost scary – Santas still on display!

Later in the evening, we meet our group again for drinks in the bar for our orientation talk. Odum reviews our trip, giving us ideas and hints and tips, introducing us all to each other and confirming optional tours, etc. Then it is off to dinner at the restaurant, which turns out to be an excellent buffet. The weird thing though was that we had an area specifically for our group, all 4 top tables, and everyone sat alone! It was priceless. Worked quite well for us, of course, but we thought it very interesting!

Afterward, we ended up in the bar with one of the other tour group couples who are from Boston. It was an enjoyable evening on top of a very nice day tomorrow, while everyone except us and 2 others are on the optional city/wat tour, we will be doing our own thing – surprised? Yeah, thought not!