Thailand II The Grand Palace (Wat Phra Kaeo)

Words and pictures cannot describe how truly ridiculous the Grand Palace was. It was a beautiful place to be; and yet it was so freaking gaudy and over-the-top. Everything was gold and mosaic; every building glittered and shone in the sun in the name of Buddha. It was by far the largest palace or temple I have ever visited, and there are some pretty large ones in Seoul.



There's me looking like a tool in the last one. There were also a LOOOOOTT of tourists of course. Strangely enough, there weren't a lot of Canadians, or even Americans; it all seemed to be big European men in their speedos (although you wouldn't be able to wear just a speedo to the Grand Palace because there's a dress code).

I just had to add this guy. He looks so jaunty.




By far the best part was the temple of the Emerald Buddha. The exterior of the temple was like all the others: grandiose, gold and ridiculously big, but inside was really interesting. To enter the temple there were a lot of rules: we had to take off our shoes, our toes couldn't point directly at the Buddha, we weren't aloud to take photographs, and we had to be silent. So upon entering there's a sudden silence, and the inside is equally ridiculous. The Emerald Buddha itself was so high up on an altar of sorts that you could barely see it. The walls (which of course were immense) were covered in a beautiful, ultra-detailed, gold-illuminated paintings. The actual Buddhists were kneeling and praying, but tourists such as myself who just wanted to see pretty things, felt like they didn't belong as they sat in the back, looking at everything.