The Grand Palace

The view from outside the palace

     On Saturday the KEI group went to go visit the grand palace and some of the surrounding temples. We got up early and took a van into Bangkok. As you can see from the picture above it was quite a crowded scene. In order to enter the grounds of the palace one had to be dressed very conservatively. If you broke their dress code then they would allow for you to borrow some cloth to wrap around yourself until you left. We weren't able to go inside many of the buildings. Those that we could enter did not allow pictures to be taken. I think it is pretty clear from the outside though that the site was rather magnificent.

Outside the temple with Rebecca

The outside of The Emerald Buddha Temple

One of the more modern palaces

         Once we were finished at the palace we went to a beautiful riverside restaurant for lunch. When I sat down I almost went overboard because the leg of my chair slid between the planks and into the dock. Luckily Tierra saved me with her lightening fast reflexes. The food was amazing!

Table topper at the riverside restaurant.
You know just in case you get cold during this 95 degree winter.

      Once we finished lunch the group headed off to visit a few more temples. While there we learned that the monks were some of the first to open a medical school in Thailand. There are many monks seen throughout Thailand. They are only allowed to eat breakfast and lunch. There are also seats of the buses and the sky train that are permanently reserved for them.

The head of the reclining Buddha

The feet of the same statue

outside of the the temples

      The climb to the top of the pagodas below was a thrilling yet scary experience. The steps were so steep that you had to use the rope on the handrails to literally pull yourself up the side. After climbing the last temple we headed back to the van and went home. I was rather tired after the eventful day/week and cuddled up with "The Vow" while looking through pictures and working on the blog.

The view from one of the pagodas that we climbed

The very steep climb up the pagoda