Anyhow, we've been making a concerted effort to correct that, and one way is with fruit smoothies. They're not necessarily cheap, but we had a mango and banana one the other night that was delicious.
We had walked by a really busy restaurant the other day that advertised smoothies, so we stopped in to get a couple on our way to the ruins site. We sat down and placed our order. And we waited. They brought our computerized bill, which said we had placed our order at 11:03am. At 11:33 am, Ruth had enough, and flagged down a waiter and asked where our order was. Two minutes later they showed up. A half an hour for two smoothies? Terrible service.
Our "fruit" smoothies finally showed up.
There was a couple of real pieces of fruit at the top, however the rest of it wasn't a smoothie... it was just an overpriced slushie!
I had been looking forward to a repeat of the one the night before, so I was really disappointed because I'm not a fan of slushies to begin with. Brain freeze, anyone?
But fortunately, the day got better from that point on!
We carried on to the ruins site. This time, we paid the 50 baht ($1.40 USD, $1.90 CAD) each to enter the paid area of the site.
These brick temples would have been covered with come kind of concrete plaster, which has peeled off many years ago.
This is a very cool attraction!
The head was once part of a sandstone Buddha statue which fell off the main body onto the ground. It was gradually trapped in the roots of a constantly growing Bodhi tree. The stone head has rather flat and wide facial features, reflecting the art of the mid 1600's.
Wow. How neat is that?!
And because it is not culturally appropriate to be above a Buddha image, they make you sit down if you want your photo taken with this image. Of course even sitting, you are not above the image. But at least you are trying!
Most statues are missing their heads!
Some of the temples had a little of the intricate concrete plaster remaining.
I can imagine how much more fantastic it would have looked originally.
Ruth, peeking in this small temple.
And what did she see?
Bats!
It was really funny because we were walking by the same little temple later on, and a young local woman came running out screaming. I guess she went inside to see what there was, and eventually spotted the bats! She also thought it was funny!
We walked outside of that area, and found another temple area that was totally different. Not many people around this one, and there was no charge to get in. Kind of hidden away, so I guess many people miss it. It's called Wat Thammikarat.
Me, with some of the statues.
This place is all about the lions.
Or so we thought. Then we saw the chickens!
People buy these chicken statues that are for sale in all sizes... then place them on the old temple.
There is also a large gold reclining Buddha.
As well as the requisite donation boxes promising good luck if you donate!
More Buddha statues.
From there, we wandered up to the Grand Palace ruins and paid the 50 baht each fee there. The three largest temples there are impressive, and have been restored at some point in the last hundred years with the plaster, although I think originally it would have been decorative plaster and now it's not. However as I said, still impressive!
One of the restored temples at the ruins of the Grand Palace.
Ussie with the three temples of the Grand Palace.
Quite a few are leaning.
Stray dogs. There aren't really that many of them, and they don't do very much.
Probably because it's so hot! They dig themselves a hole in a shaded spot and snooze the day away.
Back to the guest house where we cooled off in our air conditioned room for a couple of hours. Then we went out for dinner to the same place across the road where Ruth had a curry dish, and I had the vegetable shrimp stir fry. This time we passed on the fancy drinks. Even though they are non alcoholic, they add a fair bit to the bill.
Then we went out again later in the evening. We walked back to that really good night market area, and just wandered around.
Such a busy spot!
The locals like dressing up in historical costumes.
Today, we are taking the train only one stop, down to the Bang Pa-In Royal Palace.
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Record low price drop on the popular and highly rated Shark Vertex Ultra Lightweight Stick Vac.
And in Canada...
Wow, surprised at the lack of veggies; at least in the US, "Thai" food always seems to have a lot of vegetables. I doubt the green veggie in the stir fries is kale, as that's more of a cool-weather crop. Maybe some native plant there that can handle the heat? In Belize, for instance, the usual spinach-like green was chaya. Those smoothies were such a rip-off; how disappointing, especially after waiting so long. Ridiculous! The old temples are cool, though.
ReplyDeleteWe have learned that Thai food back home in Canada or the US is westernized just like Chinese food is. So what we have a home is quite different than what it is here in Thailand itself. The green stuff is mostly a type of spinach and or basil,. They use basil a lot as a green veggie.
DeleteYeah, it's unfortunate that these smoothies weren't true 'fruit" smoothies. We are going to have to watch for that the next time we order a fruit smoothie. I think that one that we got at the night market spoiled us.
The temples were pretty interesting to see. We didn't go into all the different sites because they mostly look the same so we just picked two paid ones and enjoyed them both.