What Started Out as a Slow Day ...

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I woke up kind of sluggish this morning. It kind of always happens in trips like this; there is always a day that the non-stop pace just catches up with you. I had planned out my day (I realized last night that I only have two full free days left; the other ones are taken up with a couple of excursions and the cooking school) and it involved a lot of walking. Didn't really feel up to it so I decided to do the other sites that I had left on my list. First breakfast and making my way through the asian breakfast menu ... this morning Khao Pad; fried rice with chicken and it came with this little side dish of sauce with chopped thai peppers. Spicy in the morning; heartburn in the making but it was actually really good.



So I took the skytrain to the Victory monument and from there would take a taxi to the Vimanmek Mansion and Dusit Palace. First the Victory Monument, obviously a monument but also one ginormous traffic circle. And being below the equator, the circle goes clockwise ... oh no wait that probably has more to do with the driving on the left thing.... mmm.









So I hop on the taxi and being the smart girl I am, I show the driver my ticket for the Mansion (you get in free when you visit Wat Phra Kaew and the Grand Palace) and there is a portion that is written in thai. He looked at it puzzled and at this point I am thinking "oh no Udom the sequel!" ... no no he just needed this reading glasses!



I actually got there too early and it was not opened. There were people milling about so I milled about with them.



















As I waited, I went to sit in the shade which attracted the attention of a large group of thai women who were waiting for the site to open. They started asking me where I was from, how old I was and on and on ... there was a face touching incident when one thought I was much younger than 37 and many a laughter when they realized how pasty white I am beside them. That, just in itself, prompted a round of photo taking!! They would ask me something; I would answer and then they would talk among themselves and laugh ... mmm not feeling paranoid at all. You should have seen the photo taking when they saw my tattoo ... good times.



So this area is just huge and includes tons of buildings but the major one is the Vimanmek Mansion. I veered off as to avoid the large groups and sort of worked backwards. I came upon two little buildings which housed photos taken by King Rama IX (the current king) himself. I has seen a large billboard of him and he actually had a camera around his neck so I guess he is an avid photographer.



The first house were more personal photos; taken on trips throughout Thailand, a self-portrait of him playing the trumplet which he used the fisheye lens (stunning photo), one black and white of hoards of photographers shooting him and one called four hearts(it's four heart shaped leaves on a tree). The second hall was more journalistic in style and showed photos of the thai people, state dinners, etc. There were also paintings that he had done of his wife, Queen Sirikit.



I then went to the Abhisek Dusit Throne Hall, which houses a throne obviously as well as different collections of silver, silks, hide carvings, soapstone carvings, wood carvings and bamboo baskets. Those baskets were absolutely stunning; some quite large, some looked like beautiful intricate purses and others that were as small as thimbles.









While I was there and as I was walking towards the Ananda Samakhon Throne Hall, I could hear this man in what I would say was an angry voice over a loud speaker. After asking a few of the guards, I finally found someone who explained that it was a demonstration (the grounds are close to some government buildings) against some changes made to the constitution and how they wanted it reverted back to the old one. So not only do I get an amazing site; I also get a show. I did not approach too much but they definitely sounded quite enthusiastic!!


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demonstrators outside the gate</td></tr></tbody></table>


So this second throne hall reminded me of St. Peters Basillica and it turns out that it was designed in the Italian Renaissance and Neo-Classical style and the marble was from Carrera, Italy.









So then I made my way towards the main attraction; the Vimanmek Mansion. As I was walking I hear a what could only be described as a jubilant "Caroline". Who the hell knows me here? Oh that group of women ... well that prompted a series of sawadee kha's and bowing to each one of them. About ten of them asked me "Caroline, you like????" ... yes yes I like. And then another series of photos when the pasty white Canadian became a fascination because by this point she was beet red because of the incredible heat. So after being held pretty much hostage for 10 minutes I made it to the mansion.



Oh phew ... the computer just crapped out on me; very glad that this saved automatically. They have just sent me to the Dream 2 Hotel and I just realized that I could add photos on this computer. I'll do that tomorrow ... a couple at least. Funny thing; the keyboard has the english and thai characters. Gotta have a picture of that!! By the way, sorry for rambling on and on but this is kind of my travel journal so there are a lot of details that I'm just putting for my own amusement!



So off to Vimanmek ... after going through the security check (and tenth shoe removal of the day) and what can only be called an ass-grabbing incident I am off on the compulsory tour. I couldn't really get good shots of the front of the house because it was in scaffoldings.



So this mansion ... the largest golden teak house in the world, no nails, only wooden pegs. This house was in Chonburi and dismantled and brought to Bangkok as a temporary residence to King Rama V. There are 72 rooms and areas are delineated by having the rooms painted in different colours; ivory, blue, green, peach and pink. Some areas were restricted in access to certain people and they would know by the colour of the room.



The objects within the home were pretty typical of these kinds of museums; porcelains, works of art, buddha images and the like. A few that jumped out at me were the antique thai typewriters, a china set that had a colour for each day of the week (the King's favorite being the pink one for Tuesday because he was born on a Tuesday), an antique picnic set. The home itself is huge but not ornate. Certain portions are still used for royal receptions; signs of modernity such as the Queen Sirikit's dressing room, a TV and a Yamaha piano. There was also a moat at the back of the house which led to traditional thai house on stilts; used for "commoner" friends of the King.













I stopped for lunch, grabbed a cab (after being refused by two because I wanted to go back to a skytrain station ... again being smart and pointing at my BTS card) and went to Suan Pakkad Palace; something similar to the Jim Thompson House. A traditional thai home with different works and collections all within a beautiful garden and lotus ponds. I paid my bahts for the ticket (the ticket came with a little wicker fan ... I would soon find out why ... no fans in the house ... darn hot!). There were ornate tapestries made of gold guilding laid out on lacquered wood, buddha images and the best part a small collection of khon masks; the traditional masks and costumes used in the traditional thai dances. Each mask represents a character; each with different powers. There was also a display of how those costumes are made; essentially papier mache. So ornate and yet so simple to make. In my spare time I might try to make one ... or dad you could whip out the fiberglass; haven't seen you do that in a while!!

















I stopped at Amarin Plaza and did a little souvenir shopping. Finally found something for my dad that is NOT a t-shirt!!! Woohoo!!! I still have not found a buddha that I like and I think that that needs to be on my list of things to bring back!! That and a book like I always do.



So then it was off to Lumphini Park. It is huge, beautiful and a green haven in the middle of all of these large office buildings. Similar to Central Park I would imagine. There were photo ops everywhere ... the duck shaped paddle boats for example!


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I think that he saw me take his picture!</td></tr></tbody></table>




















And then it happened ... I was walking along this khlong (canal) that cuts through the park and I see this beautiful gnarled tree so I go to take a picture. But wait the tree just moved ... is that a crocodile???? Oh no just one massive lizard. And I know that all of you right now are thinking that I am being a drama queen (in light of my fear of worms) but NO! This thing was huge ... and then it happened. There were two! And nobody seemed to pay attention or be bothered by them. One jumped back in the water and just went on its merry way. So off I went on my merry way ... but what if it crossed the river and came to my side? So I would walk and then ... gasp there it is ... oh no that's a tree stump ... then walk some more ... gasp there it is again ... oh no that's a rock oh no wait it's moving oh it's a turtle. A turtle ... good grief there's a whole ecosystem right in this park!















So I grabbed a drink and a waffle (the phrase that so often come to mind during this whole trip is ..."How random") ... yes they sell waffles at the BTS Skytrain stations and I had to have one at least once before leaving.

So tomorrow; very early start! 6:30 pm pick up and off to Kachanaburi and the bridge on the River Kwai and the Death Railway ... This has the makings of a very long day.

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