Wat Pho is a giant complex full of halls, temples, thousands of Buddhas, and the original Thai massage school. This is the last of many temples we visited today, but by far the biggest. So here we go.

The most famous Buddha in the Wat Pho complex is the Reclining Buddha. It’s huge.

And it has cool feet.

Each courtyard is surrounded by Buddhas as well.

Watch out for the eaves around the courtyards. Low clearance.

There are plenty of chedis and ornate roofs and decorations…

And as with all the other temples we visited today, it’s still an active place of worship.

After wandering around for a while, we went in to get massages. Now here’s a little back story: I don’t get massages. The last time I got a massage was 11 years ago in this very same place. I understand the point of them, but they honestly don’t do anything for me. I know they’re supposed to loosen tight muscles and release stress, but it’s all just lost on me. But I was willing to give it another shot, since Isa loves them and I’ll do anything with her.

It wasn’t pleasant.

I’m pretty flexible, so this didn’t hurt, but whatever she did to my neck and shoulders was almost unbearable. And she cracked my knuckles and snapped my hands, which was just unnecessary and unwelcome. Out of the half an hour, I probably only enjoyed (like actual, oh, that feels good!) 2 or 3 minutes. About 20 minutes felt like it was just moving skin and muscle around, kinda whatever, and 7 or 8 minutes was just downright painful.

But Isa loved hers.

When we came out, the place was almost empty, which made for some good nighttime shots.

We walked for a little bit down to the river…

…and then over past the palace…

…toward Kao San Road, backpackers central.

We ate dinner here, sought shelter in some shops when it started to pour, and then started to walk in the general direction of the metro. We unfortunately wandered into a political rally. The people were getting really riled up and it was loud and got a little scary, so we turned around and walked a different direction. I found this picture of what we tried to walk through. Scary, huh?

Finally, we found a tuk tuk willing to take us back to the metro so we could go home (100 Baht ~ $3).