Day Two - 25/1/11

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Today we went to The Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, a 59 acre city within a city 200 years old. Very nice but it did go on a bit. The emerald Buddha is 29 inches high and made of jasper. We also visited The Giant Buddha, 32 metres high and The Lucky Buddha, people like to get married in front of him. There are fresh fruit stalls along the street, we had a quarter of a pineapple for 20 baby (30p) cut up an served in a plastic bag with a long wooden stick.

We then made our way to Khao San Road which is the street for the tourists to hang out, so there are lots of bars and stalls. We had Garlic Squid Noodles and Tidy Green Curry with rice. When we decided to go back to our room we couldn't get a taxi or tuk tuk which was surprising, so we stated to walk to the station. Then we found out why the drivers were so reluctant - there was a red shirt demonstration blocking the road, we walked right through the middle of it and never felt at all threatened, the people were demanding democracy. On Tuesday the opposition - Yellow Shirts - will be demonstrating.

We had the local beer, Chang beer, it is 6.8 proof. Good stuff. Long hot day.have us a brilliant nights sleep.

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Photos

The Grand Palace
Demons and Monkeys hold up the building

The Grand Palace
One of the Guardian Giants

The Grand Palace
Very large wall mural round the four walls of one of the buildings

The Grand Palace
One of the buildings that is a sort of town hall type place

The Giant Buddha
32m high and 11m wide

At the Giant Buddha
These lads paid 90 bahts for a cage of four birds to let free. This gives them luck and health for the rest of their lives