Showing posts with label Bangkok guide. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bangkok guide. Show all posts

Monday, 27 June 2016

Wat Suthat Thepwararam Ratchaworamahawihan

WAT SUTHAT THEPWARARAM RATCHAWORAMAHAWIHAN

Founded at the home centre of Rattanakosin Island, this is one of Thailand’s six most important temples. King Rama I wished to make it the central temple of Bangkok and construction began in 1807. Construction was completed, according to schedule, in the reign of King Rama III in 1847. King Rama III gave the temple its name, “wat Suthat Thepwararam”.

Phra Sri Sakyamuni : Cast in “Marn Wichai” posture. The image was previously enshrined at Wat Mahathat, Sukhothai Capital. A stone inscription reports that King Phra Mahathammarachalithai who reigned during the Sukhothai period, ordered the image cast as a principal image in Phra Wihanluang Mahathat.
Phra Puttatri Lokachet : cast in alloy in the Subduing Mara position. The 80 disciples stand front of the Buddha. The image was cast during the reign of King Rama III.

Phra Wihan Luang : Copied from Wat Mongkolbophit in Ayutthaya. The central pair of doors were designed by King Rama II,who began the carving. The murals are considered to be the most beautiful work of the Rattanakosin period.
Ubosot : is the longest, most beautiful chapel built in Thai architecture style during the reign of King Rama III. It is decorated with Chorfah,Bairaka, and glazed green ceramic.

Phra Wihan Kod : was built in the reign of King Rama III, and surrounds the Phra Wihan Luang on all four sides. There are 156 Buddha images enshrined inside. The door frames are decorated with lacquered images of Sio Kang.
Location : no.146, Ti Thong 1 Rd., Bamrung Mueang Rd., Unakan Rd, Khet Phra Nakorn,Bangkok
Transportation Method : By bus no., 10,12,19,35,42
Air condition bus no. : 8 , 12
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Phayathai Palace

PHAYATHAI PALACE
Formerly this area was gardens and fields called Phayathai Field. King Rama V ordered a new residence to be built here for both relaxation and conducting agricultural experiments. The Royal Ploughing Ceremony was held at this palace several times.After King Rama V passed away.Queen Saovabha moved to take up residence here. King Rama VI later ordered the building of five Western- style throne halls.
On their completion, King Rama VI named the palace Phayathai Royal Palace and moved Dusit Thani, a model city established by the King to introduce the Thai people to democracy, into the palace compound.
During the reign of King Rama VII, the State Railways of Thailand asked Royal permission to turn the palace into the Phayathai Hotel. When radio broadcasting was introduced, the Phayathai Palace became the Bangkok Radio Broadcasting Station.
The palace was later presented to the Royal Thai Army to be used as a hospital. Today, it is part of King Mongkut Hospital, Some of the old buildings now are being maintained by the Department of Fine Arts, but the modil city of Dusit Thani no larger exsits. Hours of Operation: Saturday 9.30-1.30 p.m.

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Vimanmek Mansion Museum

VIMANMEK MANSION MUSEUM


Vimanmek Mansion Museum
Upon his return from Europe in 1897, King Rama V (1868-1910) used his personal money to purchase orchards and paddy fields between Padung Krungkasem Canal and Samsen Canal for the construction of a royal garden which he named “The Dusit Garden”.
The first permanent residence in Dusit Garden was Vimanmek Mansion, built in 1900 by royal command of King Rama V. The King had the Munthaturattanaroj Residence in Chuthathujrachathan at Koh Sri Chang, Chonburi, dismantled and rebuilt in the Dusit Garden under the supervision of HRH Prince Narissaranuwaddhiwongse. The celebration for the completion of Vimanmek Mansion was held on March 27,1901. King Rama V then moved his residence from the Grand Palace to stay permanently at Vimanmek Mansion for five years until the completion of Amporn Satan Residence in 1906 where he live until his death in 1910. Vimanmek Mansion was than closed down and members of the royal family moved back to the Grand Palace.
Near the end of his reign, King Rama VI (1910-1925) gave permission to Her Majesty Indharasaksaji to stay at Vimanmek Mansion. After the King’s death. she moved to stay another residence in Suan Hong compound north of Vimanmek Mansion and the Mansion was closed.
In 1982, on the auspicious occasion of the Bicentennial Anniversary of Bangkok, Her Majesty Queen Sirikit, who had discovered that Vimanmek Mansion, with its elaborate architectural style was still intact, asked permission of His Majesty King Rama IX to renovate the mansion for use as a museum to commemorate King Rama V by displaying his photographs, personal art and handicrafts, and to serve as a showcase of the Thai national heritage for future generations.
Vimanmek Mansion is the world’s largest golden teakwood mansion with its elaborate architectural style reflecting a western influence. The building has two right-angled wings, each wing is 60 meters long and 20 meters high, and is three-storied except for the part where King Rama V resided, which is octagonal and four-storied. Although the ground floor is brick and cement, the upper floors are built of beautiful golden teakwood. Altogether there are 31 exhibition rooms, with the bedrooms, the thorne room and bathrooms maintaining the atmosphere of the Thai past. Some display house exhibitions of Thai art including silverware, ceramics, crystal ware, and ivory.
It is open from 9.30 to 15.15 hours daily; (Aphisek Dusit Thorne Hall is open from 10.00 to 16.00 hours). Admission fee is 50 baht for adults, 20 baht for children. Its free if you’ve already been to the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaeo, and keep the ticket for Vimanmek Mansion Aphisek Dusit Palace. As this is royal property, visitors wearing shorts or sleeveless shirts will be refused to enter.
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City Pillar Shrine, Bangkok

CITY PILLAR SHRINE, BANGKOK

At the heart of Bangkok, you can pay respects to the City Pillar Shrine and ask for good fortune and glory.
After establishing Bangkok as the capital of Thailand, King Rama I arranged the construction of the City Pillar Shrine according to the traditional customs. The ceremony is believed to bring unity and fortune to the country. Since then, the site has been revered by Thais as one of the most sacred places in Bangkok.













Apart from bringing unity and peace to the country, Thai people also come to pay respects to the shrine asking for help with their personal matters as well. The shrine is believed to eliminate misfortune, bring good luck, and accelerate popularity and prosperity. Once you come to visit, paying respects to the five angels guarding the city in the hall is also highly encouraged.
In the area, a Buddha image is believed to tell fortunes. People need to lift the image twice; if they can lift the image in the first time and fail the second time, the wish is believed to be granted.

After paying respects to the shrine, tourists can walk a short distance to Tha Chang and Tha Pra Chan where food stalls and a variety of tantalizing snacks are available. You can also hop onto a boat and cross the Chao phraya River to Siriraj port. A number of fine-looking restaurants can be found to fill empty stomachs and bring a pleasant touch to your hot day in Bangkok.
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Sunday, 26 June 2016

Khaosarn Road

KHAOSARN ROAD
The vivid sunset and the vibrant nightlife are the charm that draws people all over the world to this very Khaosarn Road.
In the past, this small road was the busiest and biggest rice-trading area in the period of King Rama VI. Today, however, Khaosarn Road is world famous and a destination to the whole lot of foreigners who want to taste the alluring nightlife experience of Bangkok.

Apart from bars and small shops offering different kinds of drinks, Khaosarn Road is also cluttered with stalls and roadside stands selling all kinds of cheap goods; clothes, accessories, music CDs, used books, and delicate handmade stuffs. Walking along the road and tasting many dishes of delicious street food is also a very popular activity you cannot afford to miss.


Attractions: Bangkok



Credit :www.tourismthailand.org/Khaosarn-Road
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Yaowarat-Night-Market

YAOWARAT NIGHT MARKET
 Bangkok’s Chinatown, Thailand’s largest Chinese community, is commonly known among Thais as Yaowarat, according to the name of the road where it is located. The Chinese community dominated trades between Siam (ancient Thailand) and China since the reign of King Rama I, centered around Ratchawong Pier, while the construction of Yaowarat Road hadn’t begun until 1891 during the reign of King Rama V.  Today, Yaowarat is widely known as the kingdom’s largest center of gold trade and a great foodie destination. Yaowarat simply has two faces: If you visit Yaowarat during the day, what you see along both sides of this one and a half kilometer road are shops selling gold, Chinese herbs, fruits and Chinese restaurants serving authentic cuisine.

   But if you visit Yaowarat after sunset, the road turns into a street food heaven where a number of food trucks prepare you marvelous food, from Chinese fried noodles to iced Chinese dessert, you hardly find elsewhere.
Attractions: Bangkok


 Credit :www.tourismthailand.org/Attraction/Yaowarat-Night-Market--2048

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Wat Pho

WAT PHRACHETUPONWIMONMONKHARARAM RATCHAWORAWIHAN (WAT PHO)
Wat Pho is situated behind the Grand Palace, near the Tha Tien Pier. It is a large temple that was originally called Wat Photharam and was built during the Ayutthaya Period. King Rama I ordered its complete restoration in 1789 and installed many Buddha images that were removed from abandoned temples in other parts of the country.

 King Rama III ordered another major renovation of the temple to make it a center of learning and art. This restoration took sixteen years to complete. Texts from treatises on various fields of knowledge were inscribed on marble slabs and placed in pavilions in the temple and on stone statues. Wat Pho thus became a source of knowledge for people of all classes and has therefore been referred to as Thailand’s first university.






Important features of the temple include Phra Buddha Dheva Patimakorn, Phra Buddhasaiyat. Phra Buddha Dheva Patimakorn, a Buddha in the mediation posture, is the principal image in the temple. King Rama I brought the image from “Wat Si Na”
The Phra Buddhasaiyat, or Giant Reclining Buddha, is the phra vihara for which the temple is famous. It was constructed in the Third Reign. On the sole of the foot, inlaid in mother of pearl, is the aspicious number 108.

Wa Sukree Mansion: is the palace of Somdet Phra Mahasamanachao Krom Phra Poramanuchit Chinoros, one of finest Rattanakosin era poets. He was honored by UNESCO as the worlds finest poet.




Wat Pho School of Traditional Medicine and Massage: The preparation of herbal medicine and diagnosis of disease is taught here, as well as the traditional massage seen in the sculptures complied on the orders of King Rama III. The teaching is practical and everyday large numbers of visitors, Thai and foreign, come to study and to be massaged. The temple is regarded as the first centre of public education and is sometimes called Thailand’s first university.
Credit : www.tourismthailand.org/Wat-Pho
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Chatuchak weekend market

CHATUCHAK WEEKEND MARKET

Chatuchak weekend market is a heaven for shoppers, especially if they are ready to bargain! The plant market is held every Wednesday and Thursday, while on the weekend, Chatuchak becomes the biggest market in Thailand when over 8,000 vendors from all over the country converging in a single area. The market is divided into 26 sections including antiques, books and magazines, fashion, food, furniture, handicrafts, jewelry, paintings, pets, plants and miscellaneous items.

                            

Forget designer malls, Chatuchak Weekend Market or JJ Weekend Market is Bangkok’s true paragon of the retail experience. This is shopping as survival of the fittest: only those with finely tuned consumer instincts will persevere - the rest can get lost - literally. Taking the long turn’s almost a given in this sprawling, city-sized marketplace, upon which thousands descend every weekend, to trade everything from Burmese antiques to pedigree livestock. Originally a flea market, Chatuchak quickly outgrew the confines of the insect world to become much more than the sum of its disparate parts. These days, young Thai designers take advantage of the low onsite rent to punt their creative wares; if you so desire, you can peruse piles of customized Zippos that once belonged to American Gls’ during the Vietnam War and tasty pickings conveniently punctuate in many directions. Additionally, the exotic pet section supports the theory that JJ has somehow evolved its own diverse eco-system (albeit one that periodically is raided for peddling endangered species).


All this can be a bit overwhelming at first, but persevere and a semblance of order begins to crystallize from the chaos (Nancy Chandler’s famous map also comes in invaluable). Go in the early morning or late afternoon to avoid the worst of the heat and the crowds. With many stalls opening for business on Fridays, you can come for a leisurely browse before the real surge hits - although only the weekend gives ardent shopaholics the fully-brown, unadulterated fix.

     Chatuchak market is held on the grounds of a park donated to the people of Thailand by the State Railway according to the wishes of His Majesty the King on the anniversary of HM’s 4th Cycle birthday in 1976. Inside the park there are many gardens of various themes, an herb garden, and a garden devoted to flowers in literature.
Also of interest in the Prestigious Train Hall, located near gate 2. The Train Hall exhibits the history of transportation and features a wide variety of exhibits from London taxis to Japanese patrol cars used during World War II.
The Six Asean sculptors’ exhibition displays work from artists from six countries of the Asean region: Brunai, Indonesia, Malaysia, The Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. It is open daily 9.00 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, please ring the call center on 1545.
Credit : www.tourismthailand.org/Chatuchak-Weekend-Market
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About Bangkok

ABOUT BANGKOK

Bangkok became the capital of Thailand in 1782, when the royal court relocated from the city of Ayutthaya, which had been left in ruins following years of conflict with the Burmese. After settling temporarily on the western banks of the Chao Phraya River in Thonburi, the capital moved again, this time to the area of Rattanakosin in present-day Bangkok. Almost entirely surrounded by water, the new location was easier to defend against potential attacks. The final move marked the beginning of the Chakri Dynastry. Rama I named the new capital Krung Thep (City of Angels) in reference to the past glories of Ayutthaya, and he ordered the construction of two of the Kingdom’s most illustrious religious monuments, Wat Phra Kaew and the Grand Palace, to consolidate the new capital’s ruling status.

During the subsequent reigns of King Monkut (Rama IV) and his son King Chulalongkorn (Rama V), the city developed rapidly, culminating in the modernisation and explosive growth of the 20th century. After visiting some European capitals, Rama V moved the royal family to the leafy enclave of Dusit. The modern architectural monuments built in this neighborhood include the Thai Parliament Building, the impressive marble Wat Benchama Bophit and the enormous teak Vimanmek Mansion.
Greater Bangkok now covers an area of 7,761.50 km² and is home to some 12 million residents. Ratanakosin remains the spiritual center of the city, graced by the dazzling splendor of the Grand Palace, Wat Phra Kaew and nearby Wat Pho.
Modern downtown Bangkok stretches southeast of Ratanakosin and looks very much like many other Southeast Asian capitals, with gleaming skyscrapers, deluxe apartment projects and lots of snarled traffic. The core of the new city encompasses the Sathorn and Silom districts and Sukhumvit Road, which includes upmarket shopping plazas and leafy public parks. These major downtown neighborhoods are connected by the BTS Skytrain and the MRT subway systems. These gradually expanding public transportation networks, with their bright, snaking trains carrying excited tourists and weary commuters alike, have not only helped relieve the city’s notorious traffic congestion and pollution, but given this City of Angels a modern, 21st century feel.
Thai rarely call their capital ‘Bangkok’ but instead refer to it as ‘Krung Thep’ (City of Angels), an abbreviated version of the full ceremonial and official name. This can be translated as ‘The city of angels, the great city, the residence of the Emerald Buddha, the impregnable city (of Ayutthaya) of God Intra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukarn.’ It is no surprise that the Guinness Book of Records registered it as the world’s longest name for a capital.


Credit :www.tourismthailand.org/Bangkok-capital-of-Thailand
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