NotSoSolo Trip Bangkok (June 2024) - Grand Palace Murals

 

One of the very first attraction I found myself admiring when I first entered the palace ground, was these super long and beautiful mural painted on the walls of one of the building. Since the free tour registration desk was just next to the mural, I spend almost 20minutes looking at the murals while waiting for the tour to start. It went all around the building's wall. Later on, the guide told us that it was the longest mural in Thailand. And it tells the tail of mythical Siam long time ago. Stories of good and evil, and of royalty. 

The mural was very impressive to me, especially the detail and the colour of gold used in many parts of it. The stories can only be understood if you knew it before hand. Else you would just be looking a pictures without really appreciating the stories behind it. So apparently long time ago, there are giant demons that come and destroy villages and cities. Kinda like the story of Attack of Titans! Lol.

There were also scenes of funeral processions. Apparently when a King dies, the funeral may take up to a year, as they need to build a crypt for him. And you know by now, how decorative and elaborated their tombs can be!

More giant demons attacking people! I kinda like the drawing of giant demons. Do note not all the whole wall is like these! Hahahaha. I am just drawn to these demons. 

Here, a more elegant part of the mural. I love how they draw the costume of the people inside. The murals are constantly being touched up by artist to restore it. In fact, I saw some of them busy painting on the ladder while I was waiting for the tour to start. Artisan at work is always in a flow. 

To find out more on the mural, you can scan the QR code here :)

NotSoSolo Trip Bangkok (June 2024) - Grand Palace Inner Ground

 

The Grand Palace, is actually pretty grand, and compact. The ground area isn't that big, but everything is placed inside of it. So it's a lot to take in when you first stepped inside. You just don't know where to start. And there are tourist everywhere, fighting for the best spot to take a photo. It was rather overwhelming! 

But to enjoy the Grand Palace with all it's grandeur, you have to slow down, and walked slowly. Cause everywhere, there was beauty that can be seen. Even on the roof of the buildings are adorned with beautiful jewels and tiles. So where was I going to start? Well, thankfully, I found a corner where there was a sign that says free tour available. So I went and registered for the 10am tour. It was free! Suddenly the 500baht ticket didn't seem so expensive after all if I get a free tour guide!

Checking on the ticket, apparently the 500baht also allowed me to visit the Emerald Buddha Museum, The Textile Museum, and even a free Khon Performance! Not too bad a deal!

The tour started, and the lady in the mask above is our tour guide. Her English was fantastic, and she was rather generous in sharing her knowledge and history of the palace with us. The tour was around 1 hour, and she took us out to the outer palace as well, assuring us she will bring us back (cause once you exit, you weren't allowed to come back in on your own). She explained all the key elements of the palace, which I will try my best to replicate here. And lastly, she said that we must not miss seeing the Emerald Buddha. Apparently some independent tourist do sometimes miss it.

I was just amazed at the level of detail and decorative tiles and glasses that went into the building. Above, all the walls, the doors, were covered in glass. You can see the whole place shine when the sun is out. Sadly on that day, it was rather cloudy. Even then, you can see the shine on these buildings. It was like coloured mirrors. Truly wonderful. I felt like I was in some fairy tale kingdom. 

As mentioned earlier, even the roofs are decorated. The walls are high too! So much work has gone into it. Maybe that was what Ayutthaya looked like before all it's glory was looted from it?

There was also so much gold! These are female nymph door guardians. I think they looked so elegant. Behind it are gold stupa. There were many many of them here. 

Here is another gold stupa, supported by Monkeys and Demons. I like how edgy the photo looked. 

There were many Monkeys and Demons. And the guide explained that the Monkeys are the ones without shoes, while the Demons are the one wearing them. It is a representation of good and evil. 

Above are Garuda-like gold decoration at the walls of one of the temple's corridor. Most of the halls or temple are not opened to public. They are only opened on special occasion. For these, a photo of what is inside is usually placed at the front for visitor to have an idea what it looked like inside. 

Even in the crowd, you can still find stillness. I love this narrow view of the gold stupa with almost no one near me....

Or there ridiculously big and fat gold stupa. 

In total tourist chaos, one can still find peace, like this beautiful Buddha sitting serenely there, with just one flower ring adorning him. I do love Buddha statues.

And here is the Hermit Healer. I also love this piece. The guide said that he was the official doctor of the Buddha. Well, anything hermit resonates with me. I too am a hermit myself on most days. 

Nearer at the back of the palace, there is a beautiful jade bell hung high up in a highly decorated bell tower. This is the bell that is not often rang. It is only rang when there is a change in the head priest. And since most of the head priest live quite a healthy life and don't die young, hence it is seldom rang, lol. That was what the guide explained to us. 

And here again, a Khmer designed roof. Thai Kings were very fascinated by Khmer design, and they wanted to replicate the beauty of Angkor Wat here in the Grand Palace. When I visited this place, I couldn't quite understand why such a large nation like Thailand looked up to Cambodia so much, which to me wasn't as popular. But after visiting Angkor Wat just this month (Aug 2024),  and finally learning the history of Angkor Wat, I finally understood what the big deal was. It was both fascinating and sad for me to learn about the powerful Khmer Empire. But it is amazing how much I can learn just by travelling. My text book taught me nothing about these wonderful places. And that is why, I will never stop travelling!

NotSoSolo Trip Bangkok (June 2024) - Breakfast and Ferry Ride to Grand Palace

I was excited that I was finally going to visit the 2nd item on my bucket list for this trip, the Grand Palace. My original plan was to rush there as early as possible to see the sunrise, or at least beat the crowd of tourist that might be there. But my friend wanted to go along as well, and the breakfast place we wanted to go to only opens at around 730am. Since it was my favourite hot soya milk breakfast, I obliged. We also ordered some fried dough to accompanied the soya milk. I tell you, I still think about that soya milk till today. I hope I can find similar soya milk in China when I go on my journey to the East soon!

After breakfast, we took a 5 minutes walk to a local pier, paid 5baht (yes, 5 baht) to take the ferry across to the bigger ferry pier, Sathorn Ferry Port. Above is the view of the bridge that connects the two area via road, but taking the ferry is also an option if there is a traffic jam. Bangkok traffic jam is no joke! 

Just slightly adjacent to the smaller pier, is the bigger Sathorn Ferry Port, where you can get almost all the lines of ferry there, including those touristy ferries that goes to the main attraction. It was easy enough, as there are people waving at you and asking you where you want to go. We got our tickets, and got on a touristy ferry that goes directly (with fewer stops anyway) to the Grand Palace pier.  It was fully aircon, and makes a lousy photo opportunity as there are windows that reflect back glares. But I tried my best anyway.....And below are all the photos NOT taken from the ferry! Hahahaha. I ain't gonna waste my battery and space for bad photos!

The pier to get off for the Grand Palace was Tha Chang Pier. From there, it's just a short walk to the Grand Palace. You could hardly miss the way as almost all the tourist would be headed in the same direction. 

I stood at the pier a while to take some decent photographs. The view across the river was actually very iconic. I especially like the above view, with the Thai flag, and thai structured buildings etc. I wonder what that place was. I think I googled it and it was a kind of temple. I will go visit it the next time I am back in Bangkok! The statue of a giant monk sitting there also intrigued my interest, lol. 

Walking towards the entrance of the Grand Palace. You can see some escalators on the right of the photo. So there is actually an underground walkway linking the pier area to the palace gate. I guess it's used when it rains? Given I choice, I would always pick the outdoors to walk in. My sense of direction can get pretty messed up when I'm underground. But to hide from the sun and the heat, or even snow in colder countries, underground is the way to go!

Nearer to the entrance, I saw the portrait of the King, and some offerings in front of it. Uniquely Thai!

And finally, I was inside the palace ground! Almost 930am! 1 hour after the official opening time. Needless to say, it was crawling with tourist, mainly Mainland Chinese. The entrance for foreigner was 500baht. For locals, they can just enter for freeeeeeee........

NotSoSolo Trip Bangkok (June 2024) - Chatuchak and Bangkok Shopping

The next day, we gave our Thai friend a break, and decided to spend a lazy morning enjoying the breakfast at the hotel. It was a buffet breakfast that they had offered to us at a discounted rate, so we booked it just for one day to try. It would have been great to sit outside by the river to enjoy the breakfast, if not for the heat and the birds. It was such a beautiful view. But we get the same view inside, with aircon!

The food was just average. They may have been trying to cater to muslim crowd as there were no pork on the menu. And although they have a little bit of everything, there was just something off about the spread. Even so, we enjoyed our luxury breakfast. I usually won't pay for a hotel breakfast unless it's a resort or a Japanese Ryokan. But as I travel more with friends, I realise some people do like to have breakfast at the hotel. Perhaps it forms a complete image of a hotel stay? For me, I always just eat outside, or buy some food and eat it in the room. But if breakfast is provided, of course I'm gonna eat it!

We took a hotel tuk tuk to the nearest BTS station, and from there we travel to Chatuchak market. It was a thing to visit this market whenever we are here. This is my 2nd time here. It's a huge market, and I would have loved to explore every part of it. But it was also freaking hot, even in the morning. 

We had lunch at the market. Lots of stall selling thai food with lots of tourist. Sadly, the food was expensive and not very nice. I had the tom yam, so no matter how bad it was it was still edible. But the fried soya bean curd was totally not! I usually don't waste food, but even I can't stomach it all. Lol.

After Chatuchak, we took a train to town area, as my friend wanted to pray to the famous four faced buddha in Erawan area. Wow, what a crowd there! The very first time I visited this place, I was 23 years old, on a transit stop from Korea with my first boyfriend. We stayed at a hotel nearby, and walked pass the buddha whenever we went to the mall. It was not as grand as now though. Now, hundreds of people are there all the time, offering prayers and stuff.

You could even purchase an elephant as offering for the gods. I though that was rather cute :)

It was not just the Erawan buddha, almost every big mall or hotel has an over the top shrine in front. And people who walked pass would pray to them. It was something very unique to Thailand, and I appreciate this side of the culture more than the bargains at the mall.

So something interesting to share. When you purchase incense to for the gods, you are not allowed to light them. You just bring them over to the shrine, pray, and placed them there. After a while, a cleaner will come and clear all of the unused incense into a bin and remove them. I was just speechless looking at this process. I hope they reuse those incense elsewhere and not just destroy them. The worshipper doesn't seem to mind. It was the same as the marigold flowers too. You pay for them, placed them in the alter, and they get removed after a few minutes..... 

A few weeks after I came back, there was a tragic death of a group of Vietnamese in one of the high end hotel here. It was due to food poisoning of cyanide over some money deal. Anyway, we went to Big C for shopping after that, and I did ended up buying lots of sauces from there. I love Thai sauces for cooking. Since I always cooked at home when I'm not out, buying sauces is a form of souvenir shopping for me. It helps me recall the wonderful time I had in the country, and reminds me of the delicious food there. 

Lastly, on our way home, we went for some hot soya milk again, and even tried the fried oyster just next door to the soya milk place. They made it super crispy, and it taste just lovely! Little did we know, we will have another awesome plate of oyster the very next day! 

NotSoSolo Trip Bangkok (June 2024) - Ayutthaya Wat Panan Choeng

The last temple we visited was  Wat Panan Choeng, which houses a gigantic Buddha. The first temple also houses a giant Buddha, but it was closed for renovation, so I was impressed with this one instead. Look how big it is! And of course I went in to pay my respect. I love Buddhist temple, cause they are usually quite huge, and bare, and quiet, and you can sit on the floor.

Some official information of the temple.

Side view of the Buddha's knee, lol. What I was trying to capture was how huge it was, and the beautiful red and gold ceiling.

Back part of the Buddha. Even the pillars are decorated in red and gold. It felt so luxurious!

Side view again, but these time showing all the smaller buddhas and monk statue placed there. There were so many!

I just love the themed of red and gold throughout the temple!

Here is another one.

This photo here is a bit blur, but I like these simple looking statues too.

And of course you can donate to them. There was this little monk statue outside that was kinda cute.

Even if you don't have small change, as long as you have your mobile phone, you can also scan the QR code to donate! Ah, technology these days are so invasive, even into the spiritual realm. 

Slightly outside the main temple, there are white stupa with Buddhas inside which looked pretty cool too.

And it was a huge temple, with lots of halls for talks and meditation and blessings. One thing I like there, was these wooden floored corridors that leads to the halls, with their wooden colours pillars. The floor was polished till they shine! It was such a joy to walk here! 

This was the last temple we visited before we headed back to Bangkok. I was glad to have visited such a beautiful place! Sometimes I wonder why I travel to far off places to visit ruins, when there are just so much to see in Asia. I wish schools would teach us more about the Asian history, so that we can appreciate our own culture better, instead of glorifying the west.