First of all, I'd like to start out by apologizing that it has taken me so long to put out posts, but I have been busy, and am just starting to find time to update my blog. I realized that I am just about a month behind in my blog posts, so there will be lots to update you guys on.
So as the title of this post says, I went to Bangkok on August 20th and spent the 21st, and 22nd there. One of the things we did there was visit The Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. This place was absolutely spectacular. Everythign was ornately done, and very colorful. Like most of the temples that I have seen, the main colors were blue, red, green, and gold. Mainly gold though. We went to The Grand Palace with my host mom, my host sister (who is now in America), my older host brother (who is studying in Bangkok) and then some other family members that I am not totally sure of the relations. We hopped into two taxis and drove there.
This is the main entrance to the temple. The part that is cut off (right in front of the temple) is an area where you can pray. I was given a flower to place on the table, some insense to burn, and a candle to place in front of the temple. There were a lot of people doing this, and it was quite the experience. As you can see, the place is huge, and this is just the first building I saw. This is one of the less ornate buildings that I saw, believe it or not. You may not be able to really tell in this picture, but the window decals are all done with gold designs with colorful glass inbetween the gold parts. And the colors are more vibrant in real life.
This is a section of the mural that can be found in the temple. I'm not sure what this section depicts, but the entire mural tells the story of the history of Buddhism. The mural can be found under a "walkway" that goes all around the temple. I am not sure how to describe it, but essentially its like a long corridor with the mural on one side, and the rest of the temple on the other. Thats a horrible description, but I don't know how else to describe it. The mural is inlayed with gold pieces (the shiny "yellow" pieces) in the picture.
This is a picture of me and one of the guards of the temple. You may not have noticed this, but my outfit doesn't match at all. Red skirt and purple shirt...that actually wasn't my fault. I had been told that I had to wear long pants, so I wore my tights and the long shirt, but when we got to the temple, we found out that my pants couldn't be tight. The sollution was simple, I would rent a sarong from the temple, and then it would be all good. I didn't get to chose what color, so thats why I don't match. You probably don't really care about that, but I thought it was an interesting part of the trip, so I thought I'd put it in. Behind the guard is the walkway with the mural in it.
So this is another building within the temple grounds. As you can probably see, it is made with lots of gold coloring. You can't really see the other colors, but there is green and blue glass tiles within the gold. It was very big, and I had to be extremely creative in order to get the entire building in the picture. I got a few weird looks, as I crouched on the ground, trying to get as much of the temple in as I could.
This is the group of us that went to the Temple. My host mom is on my right, and on my left is my host sister, and then the other random family members that I am unsure of the relation. My host brother is taking the picture. The background is the same building as before, but you can just see the colors a bit better, and it is a bit brighter.
Okay, so this is another section of the walkway, "guarded" by the two guards. I thought that this was a good picture that showed the colors of the roof, and just more of the temple. I wasn't allowed to go to this part because it was blocked off for restoration purposes. But you can see the different colors, and the size of the temple.
This is just a entrance way to a temple. I thought it was pretty and showed a lot of the detail in gold as well as other colors. The two statues in front are the "guards". I was told that they ward away evil, but I'm not 100% sure on that fact.
This is one of the doors to the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. I wasn't allowed to take pictures within the temple, so I thought I would take some of the outside instead. You aren't allowed to step on the threshold of the building, it is pretty much taboo. Luckily someone told me that cause I probably would have stepped on it, and gotten in a lot of trouble by the guards. If you even took out your camera in the temple, a guard would pop up and be tell you no, and if you didn't listen you would be not so politely escorted out of the temple. I saw one guy get that done to him, and he wasn't pleased. The inside was breathtaking. There was the final scenes of the mural, along with an emerald Buddha, and lots of other statues that all had meanings, but I don't know the meanings.
This is just another building that I found pretty. It has less gold than the other buildings, and is more focused on the green color. Not much to say about it, because I don't actually know what the building is used for.
The Grand Palace. This is the Grand Palace. It was too big for me to get a picture of the entire thing, but this is a picture of the main entrance. It was pretty spectacular. There were a lot of people here, so it was extremely hard to get a picture without hundreds of people in your picture.
This is an extension of The Grand Palace, and the people that are walking in white and black are the guards. They were pretty scary. They looked like they were there to do their job, and if you messed with them, they weren't afriad to remove you.
So that was my time at The Grand Palace and Temple of the Emerald Buddha. It was pretty cool, and I had a blast here. Our next stop was to the airport to send Namwarn (my host sister) off to America. It was pretty sad, and it reminded me of when I left, so I almost cried. It wasn't really fun. While we were here, there was another group of students that were leaving, but for 10 years instead of one. Apparently Thailand sends their top 5 smartest students off to America to study for 10 years. I thought that was insane, but I guess its "free" education, because the Thai government will pay for your schooling.
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