a grand place indeed.

we finally got around to heading into bangkok and seeing some of what makes this city so special. we were off again on thursday for constitution day and decided that we were going to take advantage of that and see the grand palace. by the time we got the group together and arrived at the location, it was already 1:00. this didnt give us much time inside since it closes daily at 3:30. some of our group needed to rent clothing because of the strict dress code and so that took time as well.

finally, we got inside. it was amazing. reminded me a lot of things i saw back when i was in india and i was reminded again of how similar, but still different, these cultures are. this is me just inside the main entrance:

the main reason people go to see the grand palace is the temple that is a part of it which houses the famous emerald buddha. its actually not emerald, but jade. apparently there was a common practice years back of covering the buddhas made of richer materials with plaster to hide what it was really worth. there was a person who noticed the plaster chipping on the nose and saw green shining through and automatically assumed it was emerald, so the story goes.

we spent most of our time at the temple and didnt even realize that we hadnt yet made it to see the actual palace, which looks like this:

but the whole place closes at 330 every day, and it was extremely hot in the sun, so we decided to hang around and grab some fruit shakes and food downtown as an end to the afternoon.

since i was in town the night before, i did not take my slr camera with me. it was unfortunate because i saw so many interesting photos at this site. however, i am sure it is somewhere i will visit again, hopefully when someone from back home makes it out here to visit. *hint*hint*