Second Class

This morning (Sunday) we finally made it to the Grand Palace.  What a magnificent complex!  Despite our relatively conservative dress, we were still forced to cover up, as most of the arms and legs need to be covered for both men and women.  It seems they are much stricter in Thailand's temples than in Italy's cathedrals!

The Grand Palace dates back to 1782 and is the main royal residence in addition to being an accessible tourist attraction.  It was built by King Rama I (the first in a long line of Ramas) and signaled the official change of the capital from nearby Thonburi to Bangkok.

When you first enter the complex, you usually end up at the Upper Terrace, which draws you in with it's glittering gold spire (actually a reliquary in the shape of a golden chedi). From that vantage point, every where you turn there is something fantastical.  As at Wat Pho, the intricacy of the designs was stunning.  Every inch of every surface had been planned out, adorned with petals or leaves or gold leaf.  Statues stood guard at ever entrance, and the corners of buildings reared up into dragon heads.  Go a bit further and there is a miniature model of Angkor Wat, the incredible temple complex just outside Siem Reap, Cambodia that we will be visiting in a week.

Next, we visited the Emerald Buddha.  Found covered in plaster in 1434 in a stupa in Chiang Rai, the abbot noticed a green color on the chipped nose of the plaster Buddha and originally thought it was made of emerald.  The stone was moved to the Grand Palace, to its own Royal Monastery.  It has become one of the most venerated sites in Thailand for Buddhists.  The Buddha has clearly left behind its humble plaster past; it now sits atop an intricately-patterned gold pyramid, attended by gold guardians, clothed in still more gold.  Rows of worshippers kneel before the Buddha in prayer, with a special section on the right for monks.  Everyone is careful not to point their feet toward the Buddha and show disrespect.  Setting in front of the Buddha, I felt quite peaceful and in awe of the beauty around me - not just of the building but of Thailand more generally.

We wandered through the other buildings, pausing to admire the palace itself with its Western bottom and Thai roof.  Like so many things on this trip, the palace is a clear junction of east and west.  

Finally, on our way out, we stopped into the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles (as much for the AC as for the exhibit - the AC was more worth it).  About half of the museum was dedicated to the various outfits of the Queen, a type of exhibit that I have always found weird.  I did find it interesting that Thai dress had fallen out of popularity around 1940 in favor of Western styles.  Queen Sirikit then had 8 different styles made up for a trip abroad around 1960, and loved the outfits so much that she used them when she returned.  These 8 styles have become the foundation of modern Thai dress; one has been modified for the uniforms of Thai flight attendants.  These styles have now been around over 50 years, long enough that most of our generation thinks that these styles have always been Thai traditional dress.  The other half of the exhibit was dedicated to SUPPORT, a charity founded by the Queen to help rural farmers supplement their income with traditional Thai silk weaving.  Honestly, it sounded like a lot of the same things that Jim Thompson is credited with doing, but the government-sponsored version.  More research is required to get to the bottom of this, but it felt odd being in a pat-myself-on-the-back type museum.

We walked out into the nearby marketplace to try to find lunch, only to discover that it is mostly a Coin and antique Buddha market.  Serious collectors wandered around with little magnifying glasses, trying to find The Real Thing.  We stopped at a stall that seemed to be there to provide lunch to the vendors and had some delicious pad kee mao, a dish that Chris loves.  It was wonderful having a private table in the middle of a bustling market, watching vendors play chess as they waits for interests customers.

We then tuk tukked to the National Museum Bangkok, a history and art duo of museums in one complex. In true irreverent backpacker style, we had crammed four of us into a tiny seat, with me lying across the others' laps again.  We spilled out as if it was a clown car, making the street vendors crack up. The museums are housed in the former Viceroy palace, meant for the king-on-deck of Siam/Thailand.  We started with the history side, which was incredibly detailed, very pro-monarchy, filled with dramatic dioramas of elephant battles and tales of incredible royal strength and valor.  The art museum, in which we spent less time, was a collection of some fairly random items (like hundreds upon hundreds of painted dolls) in a dilapidated building without labels or explanations.  It was a bit like wandering through an organized but unlabeled antique warehouse, but without prices.

Our final stop in the area was the City Pillar, originally put up by Rama I at the founding of the city.  

The golden pillar, standing in the center of the temple, is joined by a second pillar made by Rama I'VE.  Both were accompanied by horoscopes for the city and are visited by many, many people for reasons that our group doesn't completely understand.  Outside of the temple is a row of short wooden columns on table.  People were gathering to it right scarves around them and tuck notes inside.  Next to that was a mor traditional prayer space with a Buddha and worshippers kneeling in front of it.  The city pillar remains something of a mystery, but it was an interesting day of city beginnings.

On our way back to the hostel, we stopped at Terminal 21 to stock up on snacks, which we complained quite successfully.  You never want to be hungry on a 15-hour ride, and the food offered on the train is apparently terrible.  It was a doubly successful mission because I got a mango blizzard with sticky rice on top from Dairy Queen.  I would go to Dairy Queen so much more often in the US (not hard, since I never go now) if they had such amazing flavors.  They also had green tea and red bean!

Laden with bags, we scurried down the street to meet Suki and her family for dinner.  Her son and had and had gone out to find interesting foods "for fear that she would serve us boring pasta", so we got to snack on seaweed, Thai beef flavored potato chips, and seaweed flavored potato chips in the meantime.  When they returned, they brought a feast.  Five pork dishes, two types of fried dough, a chicken and rice dish, fish cakes with scallions, the delicious coconut treats we had on the street the other night, chicken skewers with peanut sauce, a whole cooked fish, and other treats.  We were stuffed.  But then they brought out mango with sticky rice, a sweet coconut cake, and... Durian!  We would finally get to try our stinky treat.  I wasn't a huge fan, but David loved it.

As a final surprise, they had their driver take us to the train station.  Our hostel owner was concerned when we were getting into a strange car, since most hostel-dwellers probably don't have friends with nice things in random cities.  And so we arrived at the train station in comfort, with plenty of time to spare.  The train station was also more elaborate than I had realized.  While it lacks a functioning Departures screen, it has a huge TV screen for showing music videos and a sound system rigged throughout the entire main room.  The bathrooms also have showers and you can buy basic toiletries at the door.

Finally, we got on our train.  Nicholas and I explored third class, which consists of harder seats facing each other in pairs, or of long benches down the sides of the car.  Our second class seats are actually very comfortable, recline, have a tray table, and have tons of leg room.  Luggage is stored overhead.  We were quite cozy, if warm.  But once the train started moving we got a good breeze and some good sleep.

Onward to Chiang Mai!

Spotted: embassies.  The American embassy here in Thailand is huge, with something like 2,000 employees.  In addition to a huge residence for the ambassador, the US has vast stretches on two sides of the street for its embassy.  In between the residence and half the embassy lies the Netherlands embassy, which has herds of painted cow statues on either side of the gate.