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Published: June 19th 2010
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Ho Phra Monthien
An auxiliary library. Okay, I made that up. (Click "view full entry". When you are finished, click on "next entry".
We knew when we left Thailand in 2008 that we would come back. There was so much more to see and do, and we had never even been to the Grand Palace, which someone told us was one of the seven wonders of the world. There is no over-the-top word to describe it. To call it a "palace" is like calling the Louvre a "museum".
Anyway, We arrived at our hotel near the airport just after midnight on May 26, 2010. Morning arrived and as we stepped outside into the convection oven that is Bangkok, we wondered how we could have possibly forgotten how hot it is...we needed a day just to get ourselves acclimated, and over a couple of Thai ice teas, decided to go for a two hour Thai massage that was advertised as "Happy Hour".
We were led to a private room and given paper thin pajamas to put on. Our girls came in and were deceptively frail and friendly looking. I was lulled into a false sense of security as my feet were lovingly massaged for the first thirty minutes, but things turned Decorative doorway
That leads to I forgot wat nasty when she decided to pull off ALL my toes. When that didn't work, she went for the fingers and even tried to wrench my arms out of their sockets. In a last brutal move, she attempted to twist my upper torso from the lower. My scream must have made her feel guilty, as she spent the final thirty minutes massaging my face, nose and eyeballs!
Dane said he was bent into impossible shapes and subtly stabbed with a screwdriver in the large muscle masses. His girl also walked on his back, pressing her hands against the ceiling for added weight, which he said was pleasant by comparison.
The cost was only 598 Baht, less than $20USD, so we left a large tip, feeling at least a couple of inches taller!
Back to the Grand Palace...the feast for the eyes definitely takes your mind off the heat. Built to be a self sufficient city within a city, it is blocks and blocks of splendor and perfection in every wat, bot and prang, although I am not sure which is which. There are libraries, chapels, hundreds of gilded figures and murals, all exquisitely decorated, not to mention the
Ornate glass inlay
Each tile is beveled glass with color or gold underneath. wonderfully maintained landscape, gardens and lawns. There are books written on the palace, but just let me say, it's definitely a "10" on the opulent scale and well worth the time to see at least an overview of it.
I am embarrassed to say that we got sucked in by an overly friendly tuk tuk driver who offered to take us all around the city for a very low price. He told us it was a special Buddha Birthday weekend and the Grand Palace was closed. He took us to Wat Pho instead, probably because it was closer to some shops he wanted to take us to so we could buy stuff and he could get kickbacks. Wat Pho was very lively and lived in, teeming with monks. It all turned out well, as we got a fun ride all over the city at a very low price and didn't buy a thing.
There are more than 400 wats in Bangkok and so many fascinating attractions. It is almost impossible to narrow down a list of "must see" destinations.
But we did squeeze in the "Jim Thompson House", that was most intriguing...an American man who was an
Royal Guard
Bet this guy is dying for a Thai iced tea! architect by profession. He came to Thailand in 1945 and fell in love with it, eventually revitallzing the entire silk industry and becoming quite a celebrity. His home is six connected Thai houses on stilts and an amazing collection of Thai artwork and sculpture, not to mention the surrounding landscape. He disappeared on Easter Sunday in 1967 without a trace; one of the world's great unsolved mysteries.
Go to the next blog entitled "Bridge on the River Kwai" to see our visits to Kanchanaburi and Ratchaburi, the floating market.
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non-member comment
looks like a riot . . .
Well I guess not exactly a riot, seems like a good tour . . .is the city still hard to breathe?