12 days in Bangkok - day 3 - Khlong Lat Mayom market and Ghost Tower (again)

Hello everyone!

I started this day at 8:00. After obligatory morning shower and breakfast I went down to the skytrain, where I boarded the train to Bang Wa station, the last station on this section of railway. From Bang Wa I took a taxi to Khlong Lat Mayom market, where there was also supposed to be a floating section. The whole trip - including 20 minute walk from hostel - took me a good hour.

When I arrived to the market, I took some pics of the stands, just to show you how it looks like. It is possible to buy practically anything, from food to produce to clothes, statues, essential oils, and I could go on. Here is some of the stands that caught my eye:

As I was making my way through the tightly crammed market, I noticed a shop that only had a small door for entrance. I peeked in and caught a sculptor at work. I asked him if he'd allow me to take a pic while he's working and he gladly agreed. In return I promised him I'll mention him in my blog. His name is Nattapol Nakngen and you can find him on facebook. If anyone will be going to the Khlong Lat Mayom market, take a look at his artwork, he's very talented.

Here he is at work:

And this is one of his paintings, I loved it but sadly couldn't bring it back home with me, as my space is very limited since I'm backpacking:

I also passed an antiquity shop, where I was fascinated by this old school coke and pepsi paraphernalia:

While wandering around, I found an empty section of the market and liked it enough to snap a pic:

As I was exploring aforementioned empty section, I looked in a side passage and discovered a buddhist shrine:

There are shrines like this one all over the place here, I've even seen them on the roofs of some buildings. The shrines vary in size, but otherwise they all look pretty much the same, at least to my western eye.

It's nice to see random people on the street take a moment out of their busy days and take off their shoes, walk up to the shrine, burn an incense and say a short prayer. They seem much more sincere and devoted than I'm used to from seeing church visitors in Europe. I also got the feeling that there's much less fear involved in their religion, they only seem to express respect and kind of fellowship with their deities. If I'd be religious, I'd take hinduism over christianity anytime.

At last I made it to the river, where there was supposed to be a floating section of the market. Sadly there were only about 5 boats, and this is the only half-decent pic I managed to take:

I decided to grab some food before heading back. I took a chance at this nice lady's stand:

This is what my meal looked like:

It was quite tasty, she even poured some sauce made of lemongrass over the whole thing, which really brought all the flavours together. And the price was comically low; I paid 30 THB or about 80 cents in euros.

After the meal I went back to the hostel, where my new German friend - Richard - was waiting on my return. We decided to climb the Ghost Tower again today after my semi-failed attempt.

We climbed all the way up this time, and the view itself was absolutely worth it. The first thing you see as you start to ascend is this graffiti:

And here are my favourite pics from the top:

The building in the background of some pics with golden roof is actually a sister building of the Ghost Tower, but they were able to actually finish that part of the project.

I'll finish my entry here today. Tomorrow I'm meeting 4 of my friends that are coming to Thailand for a stag party, and they'll stay here in Bangkok for 4 days. I plan to join them in bar hopping and do some night shots of the streets - if my crappy equipment will suffice.

See you all again tomorrow, have a nice day :)