Today I has touring interesting place in Bangkok comes to present .
(WAT BENCHAMABOPHIT AND VIMARNMEK MANSION)
WAT BENCHAMABOPHIT
WAT BENCHAMABOPHIT
Take an early morning taxi ride to the Marble Temple to watch monks receive alms then continue to Vimarnmek Mansion, former royal rustic getaway. Known as 'the world's largest golden teak wood structure', it houses a lovely art collection and personal effects of the king.
About 6.30am ask a taxi driver to take you to Wat Benchamabophit at the junction of Rama V and Sri Ayutthaya roads. Alternatively,bus numbers2 and 72 stop nearby. The rest of the itinerary is best completed on foot. As you'll be visiting a temple and a royal building, appropriate dress is required.
Each morning before dawn, some 100,000 Buddhist monks throughout the kingdom don their saffron robes and walk barefooted through village and city streets. Buddhist families waiting outside their homes place rice and curries in the silent monks' black baht (alms bowls) which they will later eat at their monasteries. The ritual is slightly altered at Wat Benchamabophit (Marble Temple; daily dawn to 6pm).Here, Thais take the food to the monks who wait in the tree-shaded street before the temple. It is a moving sight and offers a chance for some superb photos.
Watch the almsgiving which continues until 7.30am; then proceed through the gate into the temple courtyard. Wat Benchamabophit was built in 1900, the last major temple constructed in Bangkok. Designed in cruciform shape, the exterior of the viharn (prayer hall) is clad in Italian Carrara marble, hence its name, the Marble Temple. Inside the hall the stained glass windows depicting praying angels are a radical departure from tradition, both in the material used as well as in the treatment of the subjects.
Phra Phuttha Chinnarat
Buddha Images
The Buddha image here is a superb copy of Phitsanulok's famed Phra Buddha Jinnarat, which is said to have wept tears of blood when Ayutthaya overran the northern town in the 14th century. Perhaps the most striking departure from traditional architectural style is the temple's enclosed courtyard. Note also the curved yellow Chinese roof tiles. In the cloisters behind the bot (ordination hall), King Chula- longkorn placed copies of important Asian Buddha images to show his subjects the many ways in which the Buddha had been portrayed in Asia throughout history. Through the rear entrance of the courtyard is a huge bodhi tree, approaching a century in age, which is reputed to be derived from the tree under which the Buddha gained enlightenment in India. Leave the temple through the northern door onto Sri Ayut- thaya Road, turn left and keep going until you reach the next junction. Turn right into the broad plaza with Its equestrian statue of King Chulalongkorn. Walk past it to the Ananta Samakom (Royal Throne Hall), the former home of the Thai Parliament and originally built by Chulalongkorn in 1907 as his throne hall; unfortunately, it is closed to the public. Continue around the building to the right and halfway around on the right you will reach the gate to Bangkok's Dusit Zoo (daily 8am-6pm). The zoo, while not one of Bangkok's star attractions, provides a fairly decent introduction to the animals of Asia's jungles, with the rhinos, the large aviary, the orang-utan and the royal white elephants being special favourites.
Dusit Palace Vimarnmek
At about 10am, return to the zoo entrance and continue in the direction you were heading before. Behind the Ananta Samakom is a gate marked 'Vimarnmek'. At the doorway, present the ticket you bought at the Grand Palace or pay the small admission fee. Free 45-minute guided English-language tours are conducted at half-hourly intervals beginning at 9.45am (last tour at 2.45pm). You are not allowed to wander on your own inside the palace.
Vimarnmek, or 'Cloud Mansion' (daily 9.30am-4pm), was originally built on the island of Ko Si Chang in 1868. However, during a tour of Europe in 1897, King Chulalongkorn
was so impressed by the number of royal residences with spacious gardens on the outskirts of capital cities, that he moved Vimarnmek to its present location in 1901. Today, displays of classical dance and kick-boxing are staged throughout the day.
The building, constructed completely from golden teak wood, is a pastiche of Thai, Italian and Victorian styles. The collection of objects and furniture is equally eclectic. Chulalongkorn was the first Siamese king to travel to the West and Vimarnmek tells us what strange things caught his eye. The brass bathtub may have been the first of its kind in Siam. Note the array of small containers for storing betel leaves and areca nuts; they are covered with precious stones, ivory and gold. Nowadays, Thais regard the chewing of these substances as a repulsive and addictive habit, but it seems to have been a principal pastime of Chulalongkorn's womenfolk. The photograph of the king on a visit to England surrounded by a dozen boys in morning dress amuses many tourists. Yes, they were all his sons - and all about the same age. Chulalongkorn had about 40 concubines and twice as many children.
Some of the wooden houses in the grounds were the residences of favourite concubines, others were the homes of palace officials. These houses, including Tamnak Ho and Suan Si Ruedu, are now used as museums, each with its own delightful collection of period pieces. The Royal Elephant Museum is also within the grounds of Vimarnmek, as well as a number of photographic museums. The Abhisek Dusit Throne Hall houses exquisite Thai handicrafts created by the Queen Sirikit-sponsored SUPPORT foundation. At the end of Vimarnmek's west wing, on the edge of the khlong (canal), is a cluster of stilted wooden houses. The king had them built so that he could pretend to be a commoner/It is said that the king actually did the cooking himself and had his royal relatives wash the dishes.
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