Wat Pho

Today we actually made it out of the hotel!!
We stayed by the pool until 3pm and then jumped on the hotel's shuttle boat that takes us over the river to where we can catch the public river boats.
We got the river boat up to Wat Pho which was just as exciting as I remember it - the boat screams to a halt at the pier, everyone has to jump on and off while the man blows his whistle madly and then the boat roars off again. Not for the faint-hearted. Bloody brilliant!
Wat Pho is my favourite temple in Bangkok. There's an enormous reclining Buddha which is the big attraction but I just love the whole place! Mind boggling amounts of decoration and detail at every turn, Buddhas everywhere, intricately decorated stupas, beautifully shaped trees, gold, ribbons tied round banyan trees, stray cats and dogs, ponds, lotus flowers, incense, mosaic tiles, monks in their orange robes, carvings of every animal and fantastic creature possible..... I could have chosen fifty shots for this Blip!!
Then it was back on the river boat for a proper trip down memory lane.
The oh so familiar Pra Athit pier and stepping back in time seventeen years as we headed to the Khao San Road.
When I was twenty three I flew off to Bangkok by myself. With my trusty blue backpack and a Rough Guide to Thailand. I had nowhere to stay, just a scrap of paper with Merry V hostel written on it. A recommendation from my then boyfriend. .
Somehow I got to the Merry V - a lovely hostel on a little lane connected to the Khao San Road through a beautiful temple and spent the next few days acquainting myself with the Khao San Road and the world of backpacking that I seemed to have stumbled into.
After three days I decided to go to Kanchanaburi which is where the bridge over the River Kwai is. And, as I've said before, the girl next to me on the bus was annoying me with her coughing so I offered her a cough sweet and we got chatting.
Tonight that very same girl and I went back to the Merry V and the lanes surrounding it and the Khao San Road.
To say it made me nostalgic would be a monumental understatement! But it was so lovely. The area has changed quite a lot but the feel of it was the same. The back lanes with so many stalls and hawkers and cafes. The bustle and chaos of the actual Khao San Road. The tuk tuks, the tat being sold, the plants and flowers everywhere, the music, the smells. I could never describe it - or the effect it had on me - in a million years!
Chicken and rice and a coconut shake and all was well with the world!
And it was capped off with a fabulous night time boat ride back down the river at top speed to the central pier, getting there with five minutes to spare before the hotel boat came to get us. Perfect!!