July 12 - Grand Palace
Today was the day to see the Grand Palace. This is the formal residence of the King of Thailand, though it isn’t currently being used as such on a daily basis. It is the home of the “King” of “The King and I”. We hired a guide to take us through the palace, meeting her at the Asia Hotel near the SkyTrain.
The palace had many beautiful buildings throughout the grounds. We won’t try to describe them to you , but will put up some pictures to give you a sense of what we saw.
Following the Grand Palace tour, we were taken to a gem showroom. The treated us very nicely, giving us drinks with a beautiful and peaceful setting. Of course, like so many other things we’ve seen here in Thailand, there was a pretty powerful sales approach as well. No time to think or consider, but a constant push for more and more. We left without making a purchase, but we did convince them to deliver us to the Jim Thompson House, rather than the Asia Hotel.
Jim Thompson was an American silk trader who chose to make his home in Bangkok. The home was built of teakwood, in a combination of Thai and Western architecture. Thompson disappeared mysteriously in the late 1960’s and his house has been turned into a museum. It’s pretty amazing to think that the park-like setting of the estate was in the middle of town, just a few blocks from the bustling MBK Center that we were in on Sunday.
Jane met us at the end of our tour, and we had a delightful lunch at the new restaurant on the grounds.
Then it was time for the seemingly never ending quest to get the right fit for our clothes at Sunny’s. So we got a taxi again and made our way to Khao San Road. This fitting seemed to go better for everyone, and we grabbed another taxi for home. However, when we got into the taxi, he didn’t want to go across the highway, and tried to negotiate a separate fare from the meter. We immediately hopped out and grabbed another cab. Aren’t we becoming quite savvy? We were close enough to rush hour at this point that we took over an hour to make it home. We even paid an extra 40 baht to take the highway, which is a toll road, to speed things up a bit.
The palace had many beautiful buildings throughout the grounds. We won’t try to describe them to you , but will put up some pictures to give you a sense of what we saw.
Following the Grand Palace tour, we were taken to a gem showroom. The treated us very nicely, giving us drinks with a beautiful and peaceful setting. Of course, like so many other things we’ve seen here in Thailand, there was a pretty powerful sales approach as well. No time to think or consider, but a constant push for more and more. We left without making a purchase, but we did convince them to deliver us to the Jim Thompson House, rather than the Asia Hotel.
Jim Thompson was an American silk trader who chose to make his home in Bangkok. The home was built of teakwood, in a combination of Thai and Western architecture. Thompson disappeared mysteriously in the late 1960’s and his house has been turned into a museum. It’s pretty amazing to think that the park-like setting of the estate was in the middle of town, just a few blocks from the bustling MBK Center that we were in on Sunday.
Jane met us at the end of our tour, and we had a delightful lunch at the new restaurant on the grounds.
Then it was time for the seemingly never ending quest to get the right fit for our clothes at Sunny’s. So we got a taxi again and made our way to Khao San Road. This fitting seemed to go better for everyone, and we grabbed another taxi for home. However, when we got into the taxi, he didn’t want to go across the highway, and tried to negotiate a separate fare from the meter. We immediately hopped out and grabbed another cab. Aren’t we becoming quite savvy? We were close enough to rush hour at this point that we took over an hour to make it home. We even paid an extra 40 baht to take the highway, which is a toll road, to speed things up a bit.
posted by Alan Welch at
7/12/2005 10:45:00 AM
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