We take a quick bathroom break and dump most of our traveling supplies in the room, then wander back out into town in search of lunch. As we pass the Wat across the street, we notice they are working on finishing the Elephant statues at the entrance. We’ve looked at these unfinished pachyderms every time we leave the hotel and are excited to see them actually being worked on. Plus, it is fascinating to watch how they craft the huge statues from wire frame and cement. Talent – for certain.
Walking around the corner, we hit the restaurant streets, not finding anything to our tastes until we reach the Pricco Cafe, a French bakery we have passed a couple of times now on our walks. They have a great outdoor seating area, but it is too hot for us, so we head inside to a nice two top in the air-conditioning, right next to the vintage TV aquarium.
Ordering French comfort food, I opt for the Quiche Lorraine, and Ed for the Ham Tartine, basically an open faced ham sandwich smothered in cheese. Both arrive piping hot, delicious and filling.
But not so filling as to stop us from our next adventures, which takes us all the way back into town to visit the Haw Pha Kaew, a former temple turned museum that used to house the Pha Kaew (an Emerald Buddha just as important as the Phabang) until it was taken to Bangkok by the Siamese in the 1700’s. Now the Haw Pha Kaew is renowned for its collection of bronze Buddha statues surrounding the temple structure.
We sweat our way down the main street, past the Presidential palace and onto the grounds of the Haw Pha Kaew. It’s typical tiered roof architecture soar high into the cloudless skies, and the bronze statues are definitely worth the walk (and the sweat). Elegantly placed around the exterior of the temple (no pictures inside, thank you), they line the terrace with peaceful stateliness.
Outside, the gardens are gorgeous and lush, providing some respite from the busy, dirty streets.
But the most intriguing thing here (at least for us) are the tree trunk carvings displayed under a tarp tent on the side of the garden. They are magnificent in their detail and we can’t stop looking at them. These are almost more impressive than the Buddha statues (probably because we’ve seen so many Buddha’s, and while we have great respect for the leader, these wood carvings are a really nice change of pace).
You can tell we’re intrigued by the number of pictures! Also intriguing, once again, are the translations. We’re not quite sure what this one means – did they do the 3rd restoration? And kept everything the same? Did they not do the 3rd restoration, and everything is in the same condition? You be the judge!
Done with our sightseeing, we retrace our steps to the hotel, stopping at a convenience store for beer and snacks and finding fresh popped kettle corn popcorn, $0.60 cents USD, which is way too good (and bad for us), then working our way back to hibernate in the hotel A/C until dinner time.
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