Grand Palace

  Sunday, October 2, 2022

Grand Indeed!

Grand Palace looks majestic and opulent even at a distance.

Joker told me that they have a dress code for Grand palace to cover our legs. I was wearing a capri pant. So he took me to a store near the ferry port to get an elephant pant.

The Grand Palace is a complex of buildings at the heart of Bangkok. The palace has been the official residence of the Kings of Siam (and later Thailand) since 1782. 

Though the royal family of the constipated king does not live there anymore, the Grand Palace is still used for official events. Several royal ceremonies and state functions are held within the walls of the palace every year. 

Everywhere we turn, there are beautiful structures made with intricate designs. If Joker was not with me, I would have completely lost inside the complex.

Some of the buildings had the same decorative porcelain like Wat Arun. 

Beautiful flowers fabricated with pieces of porcelain mimic the real flowers around there. 

Flowers dripping with honey attracts the bees in hoards!

I can just stand and marvel at each wall and each window for hours!

We walked through the hall with the reclining Buddha. His humungous feet had instructions inlaid with mother of pearl. 

Everything was pearlescent and ornate in that temple. 

Fun to chime the gong.

The school of Thai massage had instructions on the different pressure points in the body and other instructions on the wall painted like murals. Ancient wisdom immortalized!

There were several walls inside the walls. The doorways were guarded by creatures. The roof always had pointy things that Joker explained that it represented the beak or talon of Garuda.

The details of the buildings were so minute and very symmetrical. It had a lot of gold and gem decorations, it reminded me of Indian gold jewelry or a silk saree. I have never seen them much of gold ornate decoration in this scale on walls and pillars in my life. I really enjoyed the beauty of these buildings. How time consuming it would have been to do these decorations, no expenses spared. 

Constipated King keeping watch over the people.

Opulent! 

The Grand Palace features extensively used gold tiles, mosaics, and gold leaf. It is adorned with Italian-imported gold tiles during King Rama V’s reign. These reflective materials cover numerous structures, including spires, roof ridges, and intricate murals.

The murals were so realistic and even the tiny details were so beautifully done. The whole wall was full of hundreds of figures and processions and building done in realistic scale.

It was amazing to see how they could capture a bird-eye view of the whole city in a small mural.

Many of the details were rendered in gold leaf and that added an extra dimension and a richness to the murals. They gleamed differently in different angle as the light hit the wall at different time of the day!

The ceilings are so tall and the pillars are so pretty. Every inch is covered with jewels.

Joker knew the right spots to take pictures and he was a good photographer too!

After walking through several ornate buildings and walking past the reclining Buddha and the Emerald Buddha, we came to the palace area. 

I really liked the manicured landscaping and the wonderful Dr. Suez looking bushes.

My favorite part is that there were not many tourists here when I went. The whole place was empty even though everything was open as usual. The post covid time was the best to travel.

While we were sitting under the shade of a bush in front of the palace building, I saw a group of soldiers walk in formation and did a ceremonial routine for the change of guards. I videotaped them. Joker told me that it is not allowed to videotape the guards but he looked the other way so I could do it!!! He asked me to send the video to him because he doesn't have one.

We walked past few other really beautiful royal residential buildings. Joker pointed out to the roof structure and explained the Thai architectural elements.

He was an amazing guide. He is very informational as well as very punctual and caring. The day before the tour, he told me that it will be hard to hit all the spots I wanted to see in one day. I told him that I want to see them all even if I have to run from one place to another. 

He took my hint and beautifully planned the route so we can hit all the destinations without rushing. He had alarms set for every hour to see if we are on schedule. He gave me few minutes here and there to relax and he had an old paper fan that had the picture of the map of old Bangkok. He used it to explain how it used to be and what had changed, while fanning me with it when it was hot and humid.

After our grand tour, we went to the Khaosan Road to eat lunch and wait for Papu. Her cooking class will make lunch and eat together. She also brought a lot of food that she cooked for us to try later.

 So Joker and I bought crab omelette rice from a roadside stall. The crab omelette by a street food old lady got a Michelin star and was supposed to be so good. But when we were in Thailand, she had gone to Italy for an award and her restaurant was closed. 

We met up with Papu and went for a leg massage with Joker before heading back to our hotel to check out.