July 20

Well, I awoke at 0600, but went back to sleep until 0730. Jeff had been awake since sometime around 0530. So we decided to get out for breakfast, having our coffee and hot chocolate before we left. We were waiting at the bus stop, which was late – no surprise there. But when the bus came… it kept going!! We flagged and the driver saw us… Humph! So we went up to the Skytrain and took it some of the way. The Skytrain is faster, but does cost more, and does not get us to our destination. We were in the vicinity and now had to catch a bus. It came and this one stopped as it is supposed to. We arrived after a little walk, to Wat Sa Ket Ratchaworamahawihan – The Golden Mount! That's a mouthful!

It is a Buddhist temple complex. It was busy! We remembered on the bus that today is Saturday. So that explains a bunch of the crowds. Many  of whom seem to be Chinese(?) – at least other Asian descent – than Thai. We actually came here for a recommended restaurant, but we discovered it was closed. So we paid 100 Baht ($2.75) foreigner fee and climbed up, passing through a few rooms housing many golden Buddha statues. The steps outside are very shallow, but we followed the stream of people all the way up. The Golden Mount stupa, or “chedi,” up here is scaffolded as it is under renovation. This temple is not the tallest building, but the views out over Bangkok are something from up here. This temple is just said to date from Ayutthaya era (no year is given), with many renovations. It is believed some of Buddha's relics from India are enshrined here. We head back down and pass a sculpture – The Vultures of Sraket Temple. This temple used to be on the outskirts of Bangkok. Because of this the temple received dead bodies for burial. When Cholera broke out here, the temple could not keep up with the burials and bodies were scavenged by vultures. It is different that this story is kept alive through this sculpture. Anyway, that temple is very beautiful with its pointed roofline, reminiscent of Chinese architecture. 

We left The Golden Mount area, because we are pretty hungry now. We were close by Lakkhana Grilled, that we ate at three days ago, so we detoured happily there. When we arrived we were recognized. We sat and waited for the lady to finish serving another table. We saw the man, but he was out on the street doing other stuff. She came to us and pointed at the chicken, “No, chicken,” she said. Then pointed to the pork picture, “Pork okay.” So we ordered two grilled orders of pork, two sticky rice and one Som Tum – 'little spicy' reply when she asked, “Spicy?”. She was busy making our order, and set their young son to work. He is maybe ten, and brought us our rice. She made up the Som Tum and dished up the grilled pork. Then the man came in their stall area and greeted us. He set about seeming to take inventory. Anyway, we had our food and enjoyed it as well as we had previously! Yummm…

Finished we head back to the closest bus stop to get us back to our place. It was a super cool AC bus but we had worked up a sweat form the walking, climbing, and ingesting spicy food – so it felt good. The bus fare is 20 Baht each (that is only, 55 cents). We were on the bus, probably another hour for a 17km (10.5 miles) commute. This is Bangkok traffic on a Saturday! We finally arrived and stopped by a bakery and a 7-eleven for supper stuff. Our food guy was not on the sidewalk. We chalked this up to being Saturday. Also the 7-eleven had covered their liquor frigs, meaning you can't buy. This seemed odd. When we arrived back at our place we researched and discovered it is a Thailand holyday. Now all the closures we had seen today made more sense.

Anyway, we cooled off, taking a siesta. We ate a snack bag of Cheetos, I found in the 7-eleven. They were not the same at all! I can't even say same, same, but different, which is a Thai saying. Anyway, we watched some You tube, did some laundry, and then I started this writing as Jeff read. Plan on a salad and some bread/meat type pastries for supper.