Visiting the royalty

We couldn't visit the capital city of Thailand without a visit to the royal palace. Despite the bad predictions on the weather forecast the sun was shining and we were ready for a full day of being typical tourists. We took a taxi to the palace and I had prepared for this and was wearing a t shirt that covered the shoulders and leggings to cover the legs, I've got the hang of it after visiting so many places with dress codes. However we were surprised to find that leggings are not allowed in the palace! I was turned away and we had to visit a store across the road to buy a wrap around skirt for me to wear, luckily it was cheap. That shop must make a killing as so many people turned up in shorts and vest tops. The palace was incredibly grand with all the buildings covered in mosaics of bright colours and even gold. It was very heavily decorative and we enjoyed exploring all the buildings that made up the main section. In the heart of the area is a temple where an emerald Buddha is housed inside. From past experience of emerald Buddhas we knew not to expect anything bigger than a foot or two tall and we were right! At the top of a huge decorative tower sat the small emerald Buddha. Our tickets allowed us entrance to also a coin exhibition at the palace. This has currency dating back hundreds of years on display and it was really interesting to see how it had developed and changed. We also had entry to a textiles exhibition that was organised by the Queen to showcase her own dress but the craftsmanship of others around Thailand in relation to Textiles. Something right up my street and it was such a shame we couldn't take photos. Our next stop to visit was a temple called Wat Pho, about a 10 minute walk from the palace. We did stop off for a juice and ice cream on the way though as it was so unbelievable hot without the rain. One of the buildings inside houses the largest reclining Buddha who completely stretches the whole length of the building. He was huge! So huge that you just could not get a good photo of him at all. You loop round and go back to the start of the building behind the Buddha. Here they sold coins for a donation and as you walk you drop them into cauldron like pots along the way. The sound created from many people doing this echos throughout the room creating a beautiful noise. We have no idea what doing it means but it was pretty cool. We explored the many tucked away places of this site before calling it a day and heading back. As it's our last day in Bangkok we headed back to the restaurant where I had my amazing cashew nut dish. It was still amazing but not quite as good as the other day. I found out it's a signature thai dish with plenty of recipes online so that's good to know! A pretty good sight seeing day really.Read more