Glitteratti: Wat, Wat, Wat... What Next? Wat!

Continued ... Cruising along Chao Phraya ...

We got off at Tha Tien Pier, walked through a small open market selling food and souvenirs. As soon as we stepped foot out of the pier, we were ambushed by people trying to pull the most common Bangkok scam on us: Telling us that the Grand Palace was closed and they could take us to some other temples or shopping. Has noboby told them that all tourist books warn of this scam? These crooks were not aggressive though, so we just smiled and continued walking. With temples housing Buddha statutes just feet across the fence, one would wonder how could these crooks lie in front of the God that they worship?

While walking towards the Grand Palace, we saw a sign showing Silpakorn University on the left and we just gave it a peek. At the Grand Palace, the entrance ticket cost us 250B each. If you are Thai, we can just walk pass the barrier without having to pay a Baht.

We were given a booklet about the Grand Palace but I prefer picture with short and simple words. Just to let you lot know: The Grand palace complex was established in 1782 and it houses not only the royal residence and throne halls but also a number of government offices as well as a renowned Temple of the Emerald Buddha - Wat Phra Kaew. By the way, Wat means temple in Thai.

The building in the Grand Palace is divided in two structures. One is the modern building and the other half is the old Thai building structure and I think it is quite unique though.

There was a horde of snap-happy tourists and our hopes of good photos or even looking around in peace were quashed.

The King no longer lives there but you can admire the architecture and watch the changing of the guards.

The temple of the Emerald Buddha Wat Phra Kaew houses a very small emerald statute of Lord Buddha that was originally covered in clay and during a lightning storm the clay gave away and emerald was revealed. The statute has travelled around a bit, most shuttling between Laos and Thailand until the founder of the Chakri Dynasty (Rama I) brought it to Thailand. There is also a replica of Angkor Wat that is built to scale.

Around Wat Phra Kaew, there was 3 other temple buildings that are closed to public. One of them is golden (real gold leaf), built in Sri Lankan style. The other 2 are used for special ceremonies by the King a few times each year. Both these temples have beautiful cravings of the Buddha on them. There are also cravings of serpents with five heads, but the heads are of humans. Such depictions of nagas are very rare.