Wat Pho, October 27th, 2007

[Now that I've finished the trip, I might as well go back to the beginning and visit the places I skipped. My intention was to just go through my India trip, which stated with a week in Thailand, so here it is...]



After getting settled the first day back in Bangkok, the first place I headed this morning was to Wat Pho, famous for it's Parinirvanna Buddha, the "Sleeping" or "Reclining" Buddha. The word reclining doesn't quite say enough, and, personally, I find Sleeping Buddha to be an oxymoron, but Parinirvanna means the final nirvana, which occurred upon the physical  death of the Buddha as he attained complete awakening.

Having already visited the temple a few other times, in previous trips, it was nice to explore the grounds more thoroughly. Just beside the hall built around the Buddha (literally) I found a beautiful Bodhi tree to sit beneath, after I had enough of watch a Siamese cat stalking the red and gold carp in the pond.

I thought this would be a nice, auspicious place to begin a journey.