Today we spent time touring some famous temples to help us understand the Budhist part of this culture. The first temple is located on a hill in Bangkok, from here you can overlook the city.
Along the steps to the top of this temple there are flowers...
...and statues...
and bells.
At the top there is this golden spire, I do not know the significance, that is surrounded on each corner by smaller bells.
Inside there were these prayer stations, where people could buy flowers and incense. They would kneel in front of this container and pray, then stick their incense in the container to continue burning and their flower in the vase next to it.
We then left this temple to drive to the next. 
These "tuk tuk" taxis where all over Bangkok, kind of a three wheeler with a cover.
There were temples all over, you could see many of them as we drove.
These next pictures are from the royal temple and palace, a very ornate temple where occassionally the Thai king will still come to worship or conduct meetings in the palace.
There was a courtyard will several ornate buildings...
...all surrounded by a wall that was intricately painted the entire perimeter of the complex.
This is outside the temple with the famous Emerald Budah, you can't take pictures inside so you will just have to trust us that it was really there.
This is a view of the front of the palace. The king does not live here anymore, but occasionally will hold meetings here. Tourists are not allowed inside.
A lot of the buildings had statues on either side of the entryway. There were these lion things, or elephants, or other figures that appeared to sybolize status or serve as guardians.
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