Grand Palace and Wat Pho Temple

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Yesterday, we started the day with our first Thai meal with a buffet breakfast at the hotel and it was delicious, but very different than what we are used to. There was fried rice, soup, stir fried veggies and grilled potatoes. There were also some staples we are used to like bacon and corn flakes. Thai table etiquette is to have your spoon in your right hand and fork in your left hand. You use your fork only to shovel the food onto your spoon and then eat with your spoon. I still haven't quite figured out where the knife comes into place. It is actually harder to do than it sounds and feels really weird because at home it is considered rude to eat like this. However, it is rude to eat with your fork here, so spoon and shoveling it is!



After breakfast, the hotel let us leave our bags with them and we took a taxi down the Grand Palace. We checked with the front desk before we left that our outfits were appropriate. You are supposed to wear long pants or skirt, closed toed shoes and cover your shoulders. When we got there, we felt SUPER out of place...



A little background... the king passed away in October and the country is still in mourning. There are large, gold-framed pictures of him surrounded by huge flower arrangements throughout the city. When we got to the Grand Palace, everyone there was dressed in black. Head to toe black. This is like what people wear to funerals at home with some navy and pattern prints. Everyone was wearing solid black. I, on the other hand, was in white linen pants and a bright red shirt. I probably would have felt more comfortable showing up to Forbes Mill in a bikini. The taxi driver assured us we were dressed respectfully, so we got out and started the walk to the Palace. Turns out he was right. There were so many tourists we saw dressed in short shorts and mid drift tops. It is frustrating to see the amount off people who don't do any research about the culture before coming to the country. Although it is hot here, Thai people generally dress very modestly, especially at sacred sites such as the temple and Grand Palace. I think people forget that these are site seeing places for tourists, but holy places for the Thai people.

The Grand Palace was really beautiful and I haven't seen anything like it before. Everything seems to be covered in gold and jewels. Most of the good was paint, but the big dome (see pic) is covered in 24 carat gold leaves. We got a tour guide who was has worked at the palace for 26 years. She was very knowledgeable and quite the spitfire. There were thousands of people there, but we got some really good pictures because she yelled at people and made them get out of the way. She yelled at probably 10 different tourists for being rude or disrespectful. She actually chased a guy and tried to whack him with her umbrella when he hopped a barrier to the palace.

After, we walked to the Wat Pho temple. Kev got chased 2 blocks by a very persistent woman trying to sell him a picture. At the temple, there are is a giant reclining Buddha. It is 30 feet tall by 150 ft long.

We took a tuk tuk all the way back to the hotel which was a terrifying 45 min ride. We were starving st this point and stopped at the first place we could for food. It was an American type sports bar and everyone in it seemed to be from the us or europe. We decided to skip the chicken nuggets and nachos and got traditional Thai food. I ordered the Pad Thai and it was delicious!

Then it was off to the airport which consisted of a ride in a tuk tuk and railway. Now we are finally in Chiang Mai.

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Comments

[Lisa]

SO Beautiful!
Happy you all are having a good time! Thank you for taking time to share so we can live vicariously through you! It looks beautiful.