Bangkok's Grand Palace and Muay Thai & the Oasis of Bangkok tour (May 17)

and the palace is indeed GRAND.

We spent three hours on the grounds of the Grand Palace today -- three VERY HOT hours.
Even after a shower, I am still hot.  But the palace lived up to its title -- GRAND.  The grounds  includes many buildings, all glitzy.

The exterior is as ornate as the inside.  The amount of gold in the temple and in the palace buildings is somewhat astounding, with some tall buildings covered in gold from the tip of the steeple to the base.

As you can tell, the mosaics are beautiful too, and the monkey and demon kings were everywhere.

There was an especially ornate building enclosing the emerald Buddha which was "clothed" in summer attire.  The Buddha has three sets of "clothing" -- all gold: one for winter, one for the rainy season, and one for the hot summer season.  Unfortunately, we could not take pictures inside, but here is one from the internet.

Emerald Buddha in summer clothes, rainy-season clothes, and winter clothes (on left),
Anna, our guide, on the right with another picture

The view into the room where the emerald buddha is held.  It's quite high up on the pedestal.

The Buddha sits high on an altar in the temple called Wat Phra Kaew, and the statue isn't actually very large -- about 2 feet by 2 feet.  It is, however, carved from one piece of stone.  We had to take off our shoes to enter the building, as well as any hats or sunglasses.  We had to be covered almost to the ankles, and shoulders also had to be covered.  If you didn't wear the appropriate attire, you could rent clothing on the street for 50 Baht along with a 50 Baht deposit (50 baht is about $2).   The lines to enter were long and the viewers reverential, some even crying.

Wat Phra Kaew

Another highlight is the immense mural around the outside of some of the buildings, all hand painted and telling the entire story of the Ramayana with the demon god finally being killed by the monkey god.  The restoration process is ongoing, with every segment having to be refinished about every five years because of the intense heat and humidity.  We saw a couple of sections where they were working on the murals.

The palace itself has multiple buildings, one a banquet hall for state dinners, another a hall where the previous king, Rama IX, laid in state last year, and several other building making the grounds and the buildings quite large.  More gold than you can ever imagine.  Unfortunately, we couldn't get inside the palace buildings but could only gawk at all the gold and at the elaborateness of the designs on the buildings, including the spires.  The palace itself was built in 1782 and was the home of the kings (and the government) until around 1925.

Rama IX ruled the kingdom from 1946 to 2016 when he died; thus at 70 years of kingship, he ruled longer than any other king in the history of the world.  Rama X became king, but there is controversy in the country about the monarchy, even though the monarch is a figurehead who does not get involved in the politics of running the country.

The palace was a stunningly beautiful place.

After a rest and a shower (necessary after the heat and humidity), a small group of four of us headed to the slums of Bangkok.  These slums were located under the concrete freeways of the city, with dwellings made from tin and some concrete blocks.  Our first stop was at a training center for young Thai boxers.  We toured the facility and watched demonstrations from a young boxer and from an older trainer.  The kids who excel can come to this location and live and train many hours a day.  They also can go to school, so it's a positive thing for those who do well in this sport (Muay Thai).  The four of us came away quite impressed and we all donated some money to the group.

up above, you can see the concrete -- the underneath side of the overhead highways

one of the young kids who came here to train

Here, he is telling Anna about winning a regional championship

one of the instructors with Anna.  He was, at one time, a national champion.  Now his fists are in such bad shape that he can no longer box professionally.

Elyse gets a few of her own lessons

Julie tried out the gloves too.

the boxing area.  Again, note the ceiling.  We are under the highways.  

Next we headed to Bangkok's "Green Lung," a place where a group of people has planted a tremendous amount of plants, all in between long water ways, so the plants are lush and the walkways beautiful.  It's an immense park and is well maintained.

pictures

Then we hopped on a motorcycle taxi for a larger tour of the park and for a quicker means to get to the home of the person who organized the "iron lung."  Fortunately, we only rode on park roads which were well maintained and didn't have many bikers, walkers, or any kind of vehicles except us.

We had an amazing foot massage after soaking our feet in a mixture of 17 herbs in warm water.  Best ever, even Harold loved it.  Lastly, we had dinner in the woman's home.  The meal was delicious, but the best part was that we talked about her country, our country, projects such as this in the US, her struggles, and what makes her most happy about her efforts.  pictures  She didn't speak English, but Anna, our guide, served as an admirable translator.  We are all very happy we went, but once back at the hotel, we were ready to sleep!