Wat Saket and Wat Arun

After visiting Wat Pho, we headed to Wat Saket, otherwise known as the Golden Mount, otherwise known as Wat Saket Ratcha Wora Maha Wihan. As its name suggests, it sits on a mountain and it is golden.

The location has been used as a temple since the 1300s, but the temple that currently exists was built in the 1900s.

Walking up, there are various statues among ponds and creeks. These included some rather creepy vultures. There are 300 steps, which feel like 3,000 when it's as hot as it was that day! But, it was a great location to visit, so it was ok.

There were also several statues of women holding hair. Or snake hair depending on how you view them.

And lots of bells!

There were several small shrines as you headed up to the mount.

There was a lovely view from the top of the man-made mount.

Flags adorned the temple.

People praying at a shrine.

A different reclining Buddha I got distracted by the picture behind it and didn't notice the Buddha. But there it is!

The golden part of the Golden Mount.

Some more flags.

This was a garbage can, which emptied into a tube that went down the mountain.

Another vulture on the way down.

See that truck? That truck is exactly like the one they stuffed 14 of us into during the Bus Ride From Hell.

Afterwards, we headed across the river on the 10 cent boat to Wat Arun, otherwise known as Wat Arun Ratchawararam Ratchawaramahawihan, otherwise known as the Temple of Dawn. The temple has existed since the 17th century, but the spires were added later during the 19th century. The temple is decorated with colorful porcelain, ceramic and stucco, which is beautiful! The towers are supported by rows of monkeys and demons.

There was a festival in the grounds of the temple, which involved delicious free food and it was wonderful.

One of the spires.

The stairs to the top were unbelievable steep. Going up was perfectly reasonable. Going back down was absolutely terrifying. It felt like you were going to lurch forward on your face and die.

This was the first part of the stairs. They got steeper the higher up the tower you went.

The demon/monkey decorations.

A horse in a tower.

One of the steep staircases. This one you couldn't walk up. If you notice, the stairs were also unusually tall which heightened the possibility of death in my mind.

You can't even see the next step! Shudder.

This girl was so terrified she climbed down clinging to the bar and sitting down. I completely understood this impulse. I sort of stood at the stop of the stairs for a considerable amount of time until a woman's boyfriend suggested that she go down sideways while looking at one stair at a time. She got about halfway down and said to me, "it works!" and I slowly made my way back down. It was still scary though!

The view down. Shudder again...

Also at the top, I saw a guy doing a motivation video blog. "And as you can see, I am at the top of Wat Arun. If I can do this, you can do this. Life is an adventure everyone!" It was... hilarious.

The ceramic/porcelain flowers very cool!

I love this picture!

Afterwards, Dustin and I headed back to Siam. It was a lot more crowded on the boat. Crowded enough that one couple didn't get to the exit on time when pushing through the crowd. We had soup at this local place. I am not sure what it was, it was BRIGHT pink and amazingly delicious. Also, we had Thai iced tea, which is my favorite drink in the world. It's especially good when it's made in rather divey conditions. We headed back to the hostel, rested for a little bit, then headed out to a tower to look at the view of Bangkok at night. But that will be the next blog. I don't have a lot of information for that one. I somehow managed to not write about going up the skyscraper or to the Golden Mount in my journal, even though I have pictures of them. I must have written the blog a few days later. Whoops!