Grand Palace & Wats

We skipped school and headed downtown today. First stop was Wat Phra Kaew (a Wat is what they call temples here). This Wat is part of the Grand Palace complex. It was really incredible. There were all kinds of buildings, one more ornate than the next. They all seemed to have a golden glow to them and many of them sparkled as if they had gems in them. On closer inspection it is gold paint, mirror, and coloured tile and glass. It really was spectacular.


We then visited the Grand Palace. We couldn't go in, but we had a good look at the outside. It was sweltering hot and we felt pity for the poor guards dressed in their heavy uniforms.


While in the area, we decided to take in one more wat - Wat Po. It houses one of the largest reclining Buddhas in Thailand. It was huge! From the picture below you can see the gray toes of the Buddha and at the other end you an see a full sized door next to the head.

After Wat Po we were all feeling the heat and so we headed towards a market in hopes of finding some ice-cream. We found Old Siam Centre and looked around a bit in the air conditioning. We got our ice-cream and by then it was time to head back.

We got a tuk-tuk to the pier. We all thought it was quite funny because before arriving in Thailand we had only ever seen a tuk-tuk at Children's Museum at the Museum of Civilization back home. It was pretty funny to ride one for real.

We came home on a boat. It was quite a long ride, about an hour and a half, but it was a nice way to see the river and Bangkok from a different perspective.

CM