Last Saturday Halie and I decided meet up with some friends and spend the day in Bangkok’s Chinatown. Starting at the beginning of Chinatown at Wat Traimit, we walked the 3km to Wat Suthat outside of the neighborhood, winding our way through the market alleyways between Yaowarat and Charoen Krung Roads.

As I said, we began our adventure at Wat Traimit, the home of the largest gold Buddha statue in the world. Not only is it the largest, it might also have the coolest story. At some point this statue was covered by plaster to hide the true value from attacking Burmese armies. This was either done leading up to the fall of Ayutthaya in 1767 or possibly in an earlier war. Well, over time, it was forgotten that there was gold under the plaster. It wasn’t until 1955 (!!) that the statue fell during transportation, knocking off some plaster and revealing a bit of gold. After removing all of the plaster, they discovered that the statue was the largest gold Buddha and one of the most valuable statues in the world.

Next we began our trek into Chinatown proper. Walking along Yaowarat, we stopped for a quick, tasty lunch at the Canton House. After a few blocks we finally decide to turn into one of the side streets and begin attempting to navigate the open markets of Chinatown. These small streets, like most of Bangkok’s sois, are an assault to all of your senses simultaneously. It’s an invigorating and slightly frightening experience to be inundated by the smells of food vendors selling all meats and vegetables (raw and cooked), by the sounds of motorbikes honking at you to get out of the way and shopkeepers announcing their wares. To taste the sweat on your lips intermingled with the exhaust from vehicles of every size and shape and to bump into every person and every thing as you struggle through the orderly chaos with your eyes open wide the whole time to behold it all. I love every bit of it.

Blurry Snapchat video of a reprieve I had in a less dense intersection.

After surviving the markets along the sois, we began the last stretch of walking towards Wat Suthat. The main temple was covered with scaffolding for repairs so I was unable to get a good picture of the facade. Really, I didn’t take many pictures walking around the grounds because it was such a beautiful, peaceful area that I just wanted to experience the calm. Dusk was upon us, the people were praying. A few pictures cannot encompass the serenity of the grounds surrounding a major Buddhist temple.

After leaving the temple, we grabbed a taxi to bring us the a BTS station and then took the train to meet some friends for dinner. Got to the restaurant just as the rain began to fall. With dinner complete, we spent some time walking around the Patpong Night Market. We haggled over a few purchases then headed home. I’d say it was a successful Saturday.