Grand Palace and Markets

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Geo: 13.7308, 100.521

After breaky Mum and I decided to go to the Grand Palace, the Royal Barges Museum and possibly the reclining Buddha as they are all close together. When we were here in 2008 we went to the Grand Palace but I can't remember much of it so I wanted to go again. It only took 15 minutes taxi ride to get right outside the gate. As soon as we entered through the gate we were hit by the enormity and beauty of the temples; despite the name, the Grand Palace is made up of 96 buildings of all different colours and sizes. The majority of the buildings are temples which have been painted in gold and covered in detailed mosaics, meaning the sun would shine off them; it was magical. Other temples were only made of mosaics; made to look like floral and one was simply gold tiles making it really stand out. Between the temples there would be large one- wall corridors that would go for 30-300m and the entire wall would be a mural of different things, usually in dark colours and then gold paint in certain spots. There were also open-walled rooms for you to sit in the shade for a while.

My personal favourite feature of some of the buildings was their terracotta red roof tiles with a green border. Just like the blue roof tiles on many houses, it oozes wealth and sophistication. Columns are another object that us Westerners don't 'design' and decorate but with a square shape and a ‘W' shape carved in each corner they are just another place that the Thai's decorate; usually with mosaics and despite the lack of space amazing pictures and patterns are created.

Only one room was open to tourists and that contained the Emerald Buddha which sat on an elaborate 15m high throne that was 20m across and again painted gold. (Again no cameras allowed!!). For such a huge throne you would expect the Buddha to be big, but no; it would've only been 30cm so you could barely see it. The hall was filled with people praying (?). We spent a fair while walking around taking everything in; it was very peaceful until the Dutch and Japanese tourists came who were absolute pigs; and that's putting it nicely! They walked in front of our photos, stood in front of you etc. Sadly, just like the Golden Buddha, the Grand Palace had lost some of its charm to vendors and locals hassling you to take their tour or whatever it was.

Once we'd decided to leave and started walking to the exit we realised that the whole path was closed for renovations. We had to do a big loop around a few buildings to get out; when we got through the gates we still had to walk another good 400m to get to the road. Along the way out we went into a few other buildings; we saw old weapons used, which were mainly spears with different heads - none of which I would like to have running with me! We went into a hall that had an amazing throne used for when one of the kings turned 19 and then a throne behind that held a Buddha statue- despite the throne being breathtaking the real treasure in the hall was the 20 year old standing fan! I can assure you that we did spend a good ten minutes standing, marvelling in its glory (and refreshingness).

We then proceeded into the Emerald Buddha Museum, despite the name it had nothing to do with the Emerald Buddha. Inside the old, cold, eerie-feeling building we passed a sleeping guard and found obscurely placed rooms with glass cabinets containing artefacts that were once used in Buddhist temples around Thailand. In contradiction to all the temples that we had just seen and most others the pieces were all dark colours and mostly made of concrete. Some were so old and decayed that we had absolutely no idea what they were and of course the few signs that there were were all in Thai. As we wondered through the rooms we came to a large open one with a long pedestal in the middle and a single string barricade. We both looked twice at seeing animal bones; we're talking elephant heads and such things! In one of the last rooms were brand new signs in ENGLISH which told us a short history on a few temples.

Understandably we were both hot and bothered by this stage because when we had decided to leave the Grand Palace we didn't know there would be this ‘detour'. There were plenty of other buildings to look in, like one for fabrics and clothing, but it was just too hot - nothing was going to stop us from escaping back into our cool hotel room; except maybe the changing of the guards. There were guards at every entrance to the building (I have no idea what the building was). These men were dressed in white blazer with gold belts and buttons and black slacks, as Nana calls them, with red stripes (I know, someone needs to call the fashion police!). This was topped off with typical olden-days English Police officer's caps and a gold spike, like those on fences, around their chin but barely above their mouth and a gold band.

All the soldiers were holding rifles (the guns in Western movies; I hope). As the hand ticked over to the hour another soldier walked up to the one currently on guard, whilst starring into each others eyes, they did weird and incredibly well practised moves with their gun for some apparent reason; it was enjoyable to be part of. Yes, I mean "be part of". I was innocently posing next to the guard for a photo but that meant nothing to the guards who worked around me, making small steps instead of large and only twisting their gun until it was centimetres from me. It was one of those weird situations where I didn't know whether to stand still or run; mum offered no advice so I awkwardly stood there trying to act like I didn't exist - very embarrassing.

The corner of the building was right next to the path leading from the road to the entrance/exit to the Grand Palace and there we spotted another guard; although he probably regrets us spotting him. In the same immaculate uniform as the rest, this man had taken his helmet off and was hiding his phone in it trying to hide the fact that he was texting. I thought that in this day and age everyone would have mastered the art of texting without looking so no one can tell what you're doing. As we got to the path, mum reminded me that we still had to go back to the entrance and buy some postcards - just what I wanted to hear! After a bit of negotiation I got a bottle of cold water too; only now does it seem pitiful.

With no restaurants around the hotel that looked… safe… we succumbed to having dinner at the hotel again, but at the normal restaurant; where we have breakfast. It turned out that it was exactly the same food but cheaper. In the photos of dinner, at the back in front of Nana there is a chicken dish; I have no idea what it was called now but gosh was it tasty! The chicken had been battered or something so it was crunchy on the outside. The restaurant was completely empty apart from us.

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Comments

[dad]

at least you did't argue with the locals today or is that what you are doing now. good to see ur having a fun time hope all stays well and you keep having heaps of fun

[Lyn]

We walked around China town, marvelling in the huge array of wholesale &retail goods for sale, from rolls of plastic or materials, plumbing supplies, jewellry,grooming goods,food stalls every few metres,stationery,luggage, clothing, ele
ctrical appliances and supplies, mobile phones, covers, ipads & pods, kitchen ware.