Bangkok, Thailand: Fish Spa and Reclining Buddha

On July 21st we flew from Koh Samui to Bangkok. We hadn’t booked any accommodation, but since we had both already been to Bangkok we weren’t too worried about finding a place. The first guesthouse we walked into had rooms available for $12 (CAN) per person with a king sized bed and private bathroom right next to Khao San Road (the backpacker area of the city with lots of shops and restaurants). We booked the room immediately!

We then decided to check out a Fish Spa. The Fish Spa is a spa where you put your feet into a fish tank full of garra rufa and cyprinion macrostomus fish - otherwise known as Doctor Fish. These fish feed on dead skin, and they will nibble away at all the dead skin on your feet leaving the healthy skin to grow. I had seen these spas when I was in Bangkok 8 weeks ago, but I had a bad cut on my feet at the time, so I couldn’t try it. Now that my feet were healthy I was ready to try this unique spa experience! (They are banned in most areas of Canada and the United States).

It was a very interesting experience! When we put out feet into the water all the fish swarmed us and started nibbling! We screamed in shock and kicked our feet out of the water! We eventually got used to the sensation and we allowed them to eat away our dead skin as we tried to hold back giggles (we are both ticklish).

After the treatment our feet felt amazing! They were so soft! I guess these Doctor Fish worked pretty well!

The following day (July 22nd) we decided we would spend the day seeing a few temples. We thought we would walk from temple to temple, but quickly got disoriented on the confusing Bangkok streets. A Thai man stopped to help us out with directions and recommended a few temples for us to visit. He then arranged for a tuk tuk to drive us around to each temple, wait for us to visit them, and then bring us to the next spot, all for only $1 (CAN). We thought it sounded like an amazing deal! Anytime we’ve tried to get a tuk tuk to bring us anywhere we had been paying at least $3 just for one way. We didn’t think much of it, and started on our journey to see the temples.

Our first stop was the Wat Inthara Wihan: the home of the 32 meter high, 10 meter wide standing Buddha called Luang Pho To or Phrasiariyametri. The Buddha was enormous, very impressive and beautiful as it is decorated in glass mosaics and gold. It took over 60 years to complete. The complex consisted of the Buddha, a temple and a courtyard. Since there was a festival going on, the temple courtyard was decorated with lanterns. The festival was to celebrate the changing of the dress on the Buddha for rainy season.

Our next stop was the Wat Thewarat Kunchon. This was a small but pretty temple and our Thai friend told us it was one of the oldest temples in Bangkok.

After that temple things got a bit strange with our tuk tuk driver. He took us to a tailor shop so we could have custom clothing made. We both weren’t interested as we had already made clothing in Vietnam. We were then dropped off at a tourist office and he told us to go inside and look around while he filled up his gas tank. We obliged but we really just wanted him to take us to our next stop!

We decided we didn’t want his services anymore and asked if he could drop us off right along the river, close to the Grand Palace, so we could walk along the river and find somewhere to eat. He brought us down to the river, and pointed over to the water and said that this is where we asked for. We assumed he was right, so we paid him and hopped out. He quickly took off before we realized that we were actually in the middle of Bangkok, miles from anything touristy, but still along the river.

We were surrounded by locals, none of whom spoke English. We asked them to point to where we were on our map so we could figure out how to get back. It turned out we were very very far from where we wanted to be. I guess a $1 tuk tuk chauffeur was too good to be true! After waking aimlessly for about 10 minutes we finally found a taxi (a real taxi, with real doors and a meter) to take us to where we actually wanted to go. We paid almost the same amount for our 20 minute taxi ride back than we did for our tuk tuk driver’s few hours of work!

We were a bit discouraged after our abandonment of our tuk tuk driver, and laughed at how lucky we thought we were with how cheap his services were. Oh well, I guess you win some and you lose some. At least we were safe and made it back to civilization in one piece!

Once we were back in the tourist area, we walked to the Wat Pho, otherwise known as The Temple of the Reclining Buddha. This temple was built on the site that was the center of traditional Thai medicine, and thus the temple is known as the birthplace of the traditional Thai massage. There is a massage center and massage school on the temple grounds, and tourists can experience traditional Thai massages there.

The Reclining Buddha is one of the largest Buddha statues in existence and is housed inside the temple. The gold plated Buddha is 46 meters long and 15 meters high.

 

Outside the temple housing the Reclining Buddha is a small garden centered around a bodhi tree, which is said to be grown from a cutting of the original tree where Buddha sat while awaiting enlightenment in India.

The temple grounds were very beautiful and we spent some time walking around them. They reminded me of visiting the Grand Palace (here in Bangkok) 8 weeks ago.

After all this touring we were exhausted! We spent the remainder of the day shopping for souvenirs for our family and friends and resting up for the following day of touring in Bangkok!