The Grand Palace

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Today we got to visit the Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha in Bangkok, and it was stunning! The palace is no longer inhabited by the king, but it is still used for royal ceremonies. The Emerald Buddha was in the royal monastery, and is made of jade, and it has seasonal pure gold outfits that it wears. There is a mural that goes all around the walls that surround the temple, and the pure gold high temple holds the ashes of Lord Buddha. The pictures with the scaled buildings is a model of Ankor Wat in Cambodia. The monkeys and demons hold up the pyramids around the temple, and you can tell them apart because the monkeys are barefoot and the demons wear shoes. It was an amazing place. The palace had a side house which, in the picture, looks like a house with a high walkway and a slanted bar in front of it. This was how the king got onto his elephant. The palace was built after the king visited Europe, and is a mix of traditional Thai and Western architecture. Later that day, I went to the national museum, and learned a lot about Thai culture and history. The back part of the museum was in the old palace, and it housed many amazing artifacts. They had these tusks from other kings elephants that were ornately carved, and the chariots used to carry the urns with ashes of old kings down the street. Everything is so ornate and very beautiful. Also, there was another temple and a queens home brought from Ayuthaya to the museum which were really cool. After all that, we went back to our friend Am's house in Bangkok, and his sister's boyfriend, who is a chief, made us a delicious dinner, and his neighbors came over and played us some traditional Thai music. We had a few drinks and danced and sang karaoke, and it was a really great time. On Sunday, we went to the Chatchuk market, which is the biggest market in Bangkok, and shopped around. It was a really fun weekend!

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