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Saturday, March 29, 2008

A trip to the land of smiles -- Day 1 (III)

I can't recall exactly how long it took us, but i do remember that we were all sweating like crazy after walking under the hot weather for so long (even though it was already 5pm+), and we stopped by a grocery store to buy some cold drinks. The way we gulped down the drinks was as if we were in a desert and had gone without water for days.

In the store, i asked for direction from the boss just to ensure that we weren't going the wrong way. He managed to point us at the right direction even though he didn't seem to speak any English at all. It's really ironic how sometimes people who don't speak each other's languages could communicate better than those who do speak the same language.

By the time we reached the Golden Mount, it was already passed 5.30pm. Near the entrance to the Golden Mount, there were these nice buildings, which i presume were temples.



We then met a guy and a monk walking up and down the stairs that spirals up the mount. The guy actually speaks Mandarin, and he told us that the operating hours were until 5.30pm and we wouldn't be able to walk up to the top of the mount as it was already closed.



He told us that the pagoda at the top of the mount holds the Buddha relic, and if we had some time on the following day, we could come here earlier and climb up to the top. The gang decided to reserve some time for the next day to come visit again.



Even though it was already closed for the day, we were still able to walk a few steps up to a resting place, where there was this stretch of huge bells lining along both sides of the resting compound.



I'm not too sure what the purpose of these bells were; my bet would be these were some sort of prayer or wishing bells.



Anyway, just for the fun of it, i did strike the clappers of a few bells and they made a very loud sound. I didn't make any wishes though when i rang the bells.

We left the Golden Mount from a different route. We took the back door, as according to the research i had done, that path would lead us to the Democracy Monument.

When we were back on the streets, it seemed to be turning dark already.



To go to the Democracy Monument, we gotta walk some distance again. We went pass a river and saw a crowd waiting at the bus stop boat stop jetty.



I had read that boat is another popular mode of public transport for the Thai. Indeed, we saw that the people were waiting for the boat as if they were waiting for the bus on land.

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Friday, March 28, 2008 @ 4:56 am: A trip to the land of smiles -- Day 1 (II)
Wednesday, March 26, 2008 @ 3:42 am: A trip to the land of smiles -- Day 1 (I)
Wednesday, March 26, 2008 @ 1:28 am: Summer bearistas
Monday, March 24, 2008 @ 3:53 am: Back from vacation
Wednesday, March 19, 2008 @ 12:50 pm: On vacation
Monday, March 17, 2008 @ 4:31 am: The past week
Thursday, March 13, 2008 @ 4:42 pm: Back in SG
Sunday, March 09, 2008 @ 9:36 pm: Going away again
Sunday, March 09, 2008 @ 9:29 pm: We've spoken
Saturday, March 08, 2008 @ 4:53 am: A long way from home