The Grand Palace

The Grand Palace is not quite what I had expected, but to be honest I believe we only saw a very few buildings of the entire complex. It was formerly the official residence of the King of Thailand from the 18th century to the mid 20th century, I think ending with the death of King Ananda Mahidol.
It was covered top to bottom in all things gold, clearly establishing it's place as a "Grand Palace" and primary attraction of Bangkok to tourists.
This guy below reminds me of Temple Guards I've seen in temples in Korea and China, although there are usually 4 of them, two facing two, out of a total 12 "avaiable" temple guards, different temples pick which 4 to guard their temple, kind of like different Churches have different Saints in them. Temple guards are also normally right in the entrance of a temple, I think with the idea of keeping bad spirits out. This guy was not at an entrance to a temple nor did he even appear to be directly facing any temples. He was just out there, in the open, a really amazing and beautifully painted statue for people to photograph and pigeons to roost upon.
Another statue that I really just fell in love with. Seriously statues like this, and the one above with it's amazingly intense colors, make me a little gaga. I just want to stare at them and not miss a single inch.
Another Chedi- although quite different from the ones we had just seen at Wat Pho. There were a couple of Japanese girls taking each other's photos, so I offered to take their photo. The girl looked at my camera & laughed because I have a Nikon D70 & hers is a D80- essentially the same camera! So I took their photo then handed my camera over and she took a photo for Dina and I.
I don't know exactly what this little miniature "building" was, although it could have been a small altar of some sort- it was quite intricately decorated.
There is a difference between being in a place like this vs. in a very "local" part of a city. In the Grand Palace, you are surrounded on all sides by amazing and beautifully decorated things. There is gold and bright tile wherever you look. You have little choice but to see beauty. But it is also very false in many ways. What you see is not the reality of daily life. Imagine standing inside a cathedral in Europe. It is amazing, the workmanship, the paintings, the woodwork- one can stand in awe for hours and cannot leave without being moved by the immensity of it all. But if you ask a European to describe what they see in their everyday life, it's unlikely they will describe the inside of a Cathedral. Same for the Grand Palace. While many temples in asia are a part of daily or nearly daily life, they are still only a part, and the bulk of "life" is lived elsewhere. In a place as amazing as the Grand Palace, you begin to tire of seeing so many beautiful things. You appreciate them, but after awhile, you miss things. You don't see all the details.
Now if you move onto the street, you see some very different things. Streets are not always clean, pollution may brown the sides of buildings and clothes hang out windows drying in the humid air. Trash on the streets and sometimes even graffitti on the wall. Then out of the overwhelmingly grey-brown landscape, you see an altar sitting just in the edge of an alley. Clean and bright and covered with flowers as offerings. Or you see a woman with pink cheeks sitting on her cart selling small cups of coconut custard. It's the difference between seeing all beautiful and missing the sweet little details....vs seeing all and discovering the sweet little details.

One of the buildings inside the grand Palace was Wat Phra Kaew which houses the famous Emerald Buddha. Unfortunately there were no photographs allowed inside, but I can say the emerald Buddha was pretty *small*!
playing around a little with my camera...
Dina couldn't figure out *what* I was doing, but I thought these lillies were really beautiful!
These guys were around a Chedi- so bright and shiny and metallic, really amazing!

I wish I knew the story behind these guys! There were actually two Chedis being "held up" by several of these Temple Guards.

I so would not mess with this guy...
So much beautiful painting on the walls. This came from a completely painted wall surrounding this Wat- again I really wish I knew the stories that went along with the paintings, I am sure they would be as tremendous as the paintings are intricate.
The little guys on the side of the river seemed to be watching the Buddhas float dead bodies in the river. The ones I'm referring to as "Buddhas" (not sure if they are) have human faces, the little group in front who appear to just be watching appear to be the same as the temple guards shown above, their faces look nearly identical to the statues holding up the Chedis.
Yes, there are still more Grand Palace Photos...but that's it for today. Perhaps tomorrow there will be more photos.