Bangkok update

We're at the end of our third day in Bangkok and still having fun. Yesterday we spent several hours at the big weekend market. It covers several acres and you can get almost anything you want there--ranging from cheap souvenirs, knockoff brand clothes, bags, etc., a huge pet area (4-foot iguana anyone?), furniture, and great garden decor. Len saw any number of fountains, gates and statues he would have liked for his Japanese garden. In the clothing area we spotted one tourist stripped down to his BVD's to try on a pair of pants. Wouldn't you know it, he was Dutch--what are our people coming to?

Today we started off at church--the Evangelical Church of Bangkok. From there to the Buddhist Temple. We took the river taxi to Wat Po--it's a great complex, fabulously full of temples, stupas, statues of Chinese warriors, probably hundreds of Buddha statues, and a huge reclining Buddha, about 150 feet long. While we were walking around, we saw several monks, one in a white robe, heading up a parade of people, who were laughing and shouting and carrying gifts. They all went into one of the temples, and we watched a ceremony with the monk in white apparently graduating into full monkhood. An older couple--maybe his parents?-- presented him with a saffron robe. Then he sat surrounded by about a dozen other monks talking with the oldest monk and finally went off and changed from his white robes to the saffron. We also saw what looked like Buddhist Sunday School--50 to 60 young kids being lectured by a monk. Another monk was walking around with a stick to poke the kids who weren't paying attention.

Off to dinner now--we're thinking of Asian food tonight :)