A few days ago, I explored a Buddhist temple and met cute cats there. I had a pack of cat food with me this time, so the cats were especially happy to meet me. 🙂 Let me share images and the story of the walk.
Yes, Wat Bang Na Nai. I saw this stupa many times from the skywalk leading to Bang Na BTS but I had never visited the wat. It was time to correct this omission.
Those panel buildings were constructed, probably, in the 1980s and 1990s, not pretty but cracked and blackened so they create that feeling of ancient things. And there is a golden stupa in between them.
Wat Bang Na Nai on Google.Maps
It's easy to find the way to the temple since they have the traditional arch gate over the alley leading to the wat.
The details are gorgeous.
On the left and the right, there are residential three-floor townhouses with laundry hanging on balconies + all those bunches of black wires, classic for Thailand.
This is another way to the wat - along modern high-rise buildings and parked cars.
Up close, the temple turned out to be no less beautiful than from afar. Look at this gorgeous stupa.
It looks ancient, and is probably older than most buildings around it. (The wat was founded in around 1890 but I don't know if they constructed the stupa in those days).
Meanwhile, there are many fresh buildings around the stupa.
Cells for monks, a crematory, a temple.
The decorations on them look impressive. (Can't say about every new temple in Thailand).
The gate leading to this temple was closed but not locked so I decided to risk and entered the place. Happily, I could see no dogs there.
I loved the details of the exterior. Alas, there was no way to enter the new temple. So I set out to see the interiors of older buildings. And that's what I found there:
Amazing!
There was only one visitor who seemed to be meditating.
I decided not to interfere, took a few photos, and moved on to explore the territory of the temple.
The only thing I was disappointed about was the fact I didn't find a single cat at the temple. And cows and goats didn't compensate it.
But Lady Luck smiled on me on this day. I was heading back towards the avenue when I met this beauty at the entrance to the parking lot:
She was shy at first but, when she noticed I crouched, she immediately approached me, and got playful.
I think she lives in the parking lot and is sometimes pampered with food, like rice. 😥
She ate a lot of my cat food. I didn't forget to give her water as well.
Meanwhile, someone else wanted my attention:
Lovely schoolchildren asked me to take pictures of them. Then, they asked me to show the images and photographed them right on my camera's screen with their mobiles. That was unusual.
Then, I found more cats.
A cat shelter... That looked rather like a cage.
That was a small room with bars instead of the front wall. Despite the room being open from one side, I could feel strong smells of feces. Some cats were super hungry and rushed to eat my food.
No idea why people do this. Cats were super bored in that cage, they obviously hated the smell, and they weren't full. What kind of shelter is this?
It was getting dark, meanwhile.
I left the alleys and ascended the skywalk to photograph twilight views from above. Despite a couple of disappointments, I felt completely happy after interacting with those beautiful cats.
More images and stories from Southeast Asia are ahead! Check out the previous ones on my personal Pinmapple map.
I took these images with with Nikkor 50mm on Nikon D750 on January 18, 2024 in Bangkok, Thailand