Towers and Dragons
The weekend has finally arrived, which means a lot of free time to explore Bangkok.
Right after dawn, I went to get breakfast (chicken), ate 1/3, then got ready and ordered a Grab to Benchakitti Park, about 15 minutes away by car. When I arrived, I found a few hundred people in one place, mostly teenagers in sports gear. I assume they had some sports event that just ended, or they simply organized themselves and came to train... Besides them, there were many other people scattered throughout the park.
The main part of the park is a (man-made?) rectangular lake, surrounded by greenery and walking/running paths. I made one lap around this part, then left the path and headed west over hundreds, if not thousands, of micro-lakes, using a bridge that stretches, branching in all directions, above all these lakes.
Benchakitti Park is connected to another park, Lumpini, via a bridge located on the edge of the park that passes above the homes of ordinary people and is over 1.5km long! It took me at least 15 minutes to walk across it, and fortunately, it is mostly in the shade (at least at that time of day, i.e., morning).
Lumpini Park
Lumpini Park, compared to Benchakitti which looks like an ideal place for some physical activity, is a real park for relaxation - greenery everywhere, a playground for children, a lake, benches, a few open-air shops... and dragons!
Unfortunately, I didn't explore the entire park, but I did see most of it and will definitely visit again, most likely at night because they have already started putting up lights in the trees which must look great when lit at night.
Wrong Turn
The last location I planned to visit today was King Power Mahanakhon, perhaps the most famous skyscraper in Bangkok with a very interesting appearance... Upon exiting Lumpini Park, I made a wrong turn and went in the opposite direction of the skyscraper. I could have turned back, but there was also a temple I wanted to visit along the way, so I decided to continue in that direction. This Buddhist temple is called Wat Hua Lamphong and I think I was the only tourist around it at that moment. There is no entrance fee, but there are places where you can donate money for the poor.
Since I was wearing shorts, out of respect, I didn't want to enter the temple itself, so I only saw it from the outside.
Around the main temple, there are other buildings in the Buddhist style, which serve as places for prayer, funerals, and various other things I couldn't translate. There were many statues and flower bouquets.
King Power Mahanakhon Skyscraper
After visiting the temple, I headed towards the skyscraper. I wanted to take pictures from multiple angles, so I did that and wandered through the streets around it. Along the way, I stopped at a store for a refreshment, and outside I bought a slice of watermelon from a local vendor.
Almost 4 hours had passed since the start of this mini-expedition, so I headed back to the apartment. I decided to walk this time, even though I was almost an hour's walk away, so I managed to see other parts of the city as well.