Thailand - Bangkok

From Cambodia, it was off to Bangkok, Thailand. This is huge city - with around 8.5 million residents, has some of the most amazing temples in the world and the world's largest weekend market (with over 9 000 stalls).

This is Wat Arun - or the Temple of the Dawn, which we passed on the Chao Phraya river on our way to see the reclining Buddha and the emerald Buddha.

This is a view of the grounds of Wat Pho - the largest Buddhist temple in Thailand. It holds the largest number of Buddha statues and is home of the great reclining Buddha.

This is the reclining Buddha, a gold plated, 46 meter long and 15 meter high statue of Buddha.

From there, we went to the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew (the temple of the emerald Buddha). This complex was very impressive, housing some of the most important Buddhist icons in Thailand. The emerald Buddha is so revered, that photographs of it are not allowed.

The Golden Stupa, which is said to hold Buddha's ashes.

This is Phra Mondop, a library which was built to hold the Buddhist scriptures.

Since this temple complex is built inside the Grand Palace, there are no resident monks, but we happened to see three of them passing by.

If you look in the bakground of the last picture, you can see several of these little demon figures on the stupa. The detail and intricacy of these figurines was really quite impressive. In fact, all the buildings and statues were incredibly detailed.

The Grand Palace, which is only used for ceremonial purposes.