We had a relaxing breakfast in the hotel this morning and had the privilege of being joined by our Tour Director Mike. He is a native Thai who lives in Bangkok working for Gate-1. He speaks very good English and is a joy to be around. We enjoy talking to him about his family because he is so proud of all of them. He will soon be adopting his 8 year old niece who's father recently died. He is so proud of her, his eyes light up every time he talks about her.
We will be touring both a palace and a temple today, so we need to be very careful regarding our clothing. For the temples, we have to cover our knees and shoulders, but a shawl is fine. For the palace, a shawl will not do, we actually have to have sleeves on our shirt. A skirt is good as long as it covers our knees, but if we choose to wear pants, they have to come clear to the ankle and can not be tight.
We chose to do the optional morning tour of Wat Phar Kaew, also known as the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, and the elaborate 18th century Grand Palace. The Grand Palace was the home of the first three kings of Thailand. They all resided there until their deaths. Thailand is now being ruled by their 9th king and no other king has resided at the Grand Palace.
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| An army soldier giving me a thumbs up. I thought our son-in-law would like this! |
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| The Royal Army marching in as we enter the palace grounds |
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The crowds are huge, once again
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When a palace is built in Thailand, thy immediately strive to make the surrounding grounds as beautiful as possible, and build the most elaborate temple they can. Despite the close proximity of the palace and the temple, there is a distinct contract in style between the Thai-inspired Wat Phra Kaew and th European design of the Grand Palace.
On the grounds of the temple there are three pagoda's, the first in Indian architecture, the second in Thai architecture and the third in Cambodian architecture, all within the grounds of the Grand Palace.
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Our first glimpse of the Temple and the Pagodas
The emerald buddha is housed in a very large structure on the grounds of the palace. Pictures are allowed from the outside, but once you climb the stairs of the temple no pictures or video are allowed.
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| The temple that houses the Emerald Buddha |
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| It is very ornate from every angle |
The Emerald Buddha is 23 inches tall and is made from a single piece of solid jade. It is surrounded by a very ornate "alter". We spent the entire morning touring the grounds of the palace and enjoying the very ornate structures all around.
Some are covered completely in gold leaf, while others are decorated with porcelain from China. As the porcelain was brought by ships from China it was all broken in the rough seas, but the pieces were used to build the structures on the grounds of the Grand Palace.
The Grand Palace is a very interesting building built in a western style. The Thai people were upset about this and asked why the palace would be a western style building. The Royal family said "Don't worry", and built the roof of the Grand Palace in a Thai style, making the people happy. The king and his family lived in the palace, but his harem lived in a separate building.
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| The Grand Palace is the building on the right, the King's harem lived in the building to the left |
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| Another view of the Grand Palace |
There is also a large model of the Angkor Wat temple of Cambodia on the grounds.
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Large model of the Angkor Wat temple of Cambodia
As we were leaving the temple grounds, we were held back by soldiers and officials for a few minutes. We later found out that they were escorting the General of Pakistan out of the temple. I just happened to catch it with my camera. |
There is a small white building on the grounds of the Grand Palace, and in this building the eighth king of Thailand was shot in the head and killed by a civilian coup of some sort.
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| The building where the 8th king of Thailand was assassinated |
Security is high at the palace, as you can see below:
As we have driven around Bangkok over the last week, we have noticed that there are pictures of the queen everywhere, but no pictures of the king. We asked our guide Mike about it today and he said that the Queen's birthday is August 12th, so on her birthday they hung pictures of her throughout the city. Those pictures will stay in place until the King's birthday which will happen on December 5th. The city has already started planning for the King's birthday by hanging lights in the trees along the main streets of the city. They will be lit up on his birthday, and all of the pictures of the Queen will be replaced with pictures of the King.
It is also graduation day today for the many prestigious university in Thailand. The ceremony was held right near the Grand Palace, so we were able to see the graduates and their families taking pictures in the park.
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| Graduation Day in Bangkok |
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Street vendors offer everything to celebrate the graduates
As we got near our hotel after this mornings tour, our road was closed down, as was the train tracks. Mike told us that the daughter of the Crown Prince was being escorted through town. As soon as they passed, we were allowed to go again.
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We returned to the hotel for lunch. Steve and I immediately went out for another Thai massage. Mine was a little too rough this time, but Steve liked his. Again, 200 baht (~$5.75) each for an hour. Of course we like to give a very nice tip on top of this. As we were checking out and drinking our tea at the end, we looked into the nail spa and the cutest little boy was sound asleep while is mom was getting her nails done. The mom was thrilled when we said we wanted a picture!
After our massages we both grabbed a coffee at 7-11 and then we headed back to Center-One Plaza where we each had Tom Yum with shrimp at the food court. The bowls were 50 Baht (~$1.40) each. It was delicious. It is always very hard to order in the food court because everything is written in Thai. Today one of the restaurants in the food court had a man working that spoke very good English, so he helped us with our order. It was so nice to actually know what we were going to get before we received it.
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| A small portion of the soup...we almost forgot to take a picture! |
I love feeling great about eating fast food! Thai fast food is so healthy! On our way out of the food court we ordered a banana and chocolate crepe to share. It was delicious!
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| Our crepe was 40 Baht (~$1.15) |
In the evening, we chose to attend the optional buffet dinner and stunning performance of the “Journey to the Enchanted Kingdom of Siam”. There was a cultural center within the building which taught a lot about Thai culture old and new, and a buffet dinner that we all thought was very good.
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| A Thai House at the Cultural Center |
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| Gardening at the cultural center |
The show was the highlight of the evening with over 150 performers, and showed Siam’s history and culture. At one point during the first act, part of the stage became a river with real water. We thought it was just a few inches deep, but then one of the actors dove into it. It was amazing! There was also a lot of Thai dancing and the incorporation of live animals including an elephant, goats and chickens. They were all well trained to leave the stage on queue. The second act was Fiery Hell, and the final act was Utopia, which included many trapeze artists and aerialists. It was a great show that I would highly recommend.
We stayed at the Century Park Hotel in Bangkok again. We were very happy that we came in to Bangkok early to see the city on our own, so that we could really enjoy these optional tours without feeling like we missed out on Bangkok.
We will leave tomorrow morning for Ayuthaya, which we are very excited to see, but we will miss the wonderful sights and people of Bangkok!
So far we have been very impressed with Gate-1 and Mike. He has been very flexible and is always thinking of ways to change the tour if traffic is too heavy, or giving us options besides what is in the plan. For instance at our dinner and show last night, he gave everyone the option to also see a transvestite show or a Thai boxing match if we had wanted to. We would have had to find our own transportation back to the hotel, but he also gave instructions for that as well. He was very willing to help with the ticketing.
Mike is also very good about making sure our attire is appropriate for where we are going if we have concerns, and pointing out food and restrooms often. Although he lives in Bangkok, he is not a huge fan of Bangkok. He hates the traffic, and feels that other parts of Thailand are much more beautiful. We can tell that Bangkok is very stressful for him. We love his honesty!
Tomorrow morning, we will get up at 6:00, put our luggage outside of our room at 7:00 and catch the bus at 8:00. Gate-1 will move all of our luggage for us in a separate truck, and it will be waiting for us in our room when we arrive in Ayuthaya tomorrow afternoon. They really make it easy for us.
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