Emerald means Jade

* Thursday.  Today we got up nice and early again (06:30 as we are still a little jet-lagged).  We got out and about and had a nice breakfast of Cornflakes and Ame had toast!  We like a little familiarity in all this change ;-).

Then it was straight off to the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.  It was a short walk so we decided it would be good to stretch the old legs.  

On route we were approached by old ladies with bird food and we were well prepared for this scam after picking up a scam leaflet in the tourist office.  Basically they try and stuff bird food in your pocket or on top of your bag and try and make you pay for it.  We (and other tourists) were not having that and breezed through.  I suppose it's no different than the heather ladies in Covent Garden.

So we got into the Grand Palace and we were smuggly prepared for the strict clothing policy:  no bare legs or shoulders.  Lots of people were having to borrow clothing at the entrance but we did not suffer this indignity!  Once into the Temple grounds we signed up to the free English tour of the Temple and then the Palace.  The Temple was beautiful and of course massively over the top with decoration.  In a nutshell, the Grand Palace was built by King Rama I when he moved the capital to Bangkok around late 1700.  He also built the Temple as a private area of reflection and placed in it a spoil of war, the Emerald Buddha.  This is about 70cm high and made confusingly out of Jade.  The monk who discovered in hidden in a Temple many moons before mistakenly thought it was Emerald and it stuck.  There seems to be a common theme of mistaken labels sticking thorough out travel! 

The tour was operated by a young guide who looked like she was being assessed by a more senior guide.  I have to admit, I couldn't really understand any of her English so I only got a few words now and again.  But I admired her effort and she was extremely happy and proud of what she was doing.  Let's face it, her English was better than my Thai! 

We wandered around the tourist packed compound and were amazed by the sights.  This guard is a demon and apparently you can tell that because he is wearing pointy shoes!

I managed to confirm that the colour in the builds in stained glass, not jewels, but the gold is gold-leaf.  I'd like to know how much gold is there!  It must be worth a fortune! 

We were taken past excellent hand-painted walls with extreme detail depicting legends.  I particularly liked this one!

Then we entered the Temple itself.  No pictures were aloud inside so hence no pictures of the Buddha.  What was interesting is he has three different costumes depending on the season (the little diva!):  One for winter, one for the wet season and one for the summer.  Believe it or not this is the winter season so the Buddha had a little expensive cloak on (despite it being 30degrees c outside).  I have to admit I wasn't moved by the sight.  It is apparently one of the holiest sights in Thailand for Buddaism.  Inside, the locals were in silently prayer.  There was of course a lot of "rent a religion" westerns inside pretending they were spiritual.  You wouldn't find me pretending to pray in a English Church, so you won't find me pretending to pray in a Buddist temple.  Just because it's more popular to the west doesn't mean it isn't a little hypercritical in my book.  But still, I enjoyed the atmosphere.

Next it was onto the Palace.  This was the Palace built by Rama I which all the preceding King Rama's live in until Rama VII (the current Monarch) who moved his residence to a bigger compound further out to help him administer his projects for the people more easily.  He is a very popular King and the people love him.  Again there were beautiful thrones,  ceremonial rooms and gorgeous gardens. 

After the tour we felt quite knackered after all the walking, jumped in a taxi to Khaosan Road, had lovely lunch and fell asleep by the pool for about an hour.

Next task was to go and see what was happening with our camera and then try and go to this posh bar at the State Tower.  We got a taxi across town to our Panasonic Service Centre and handed in our service slip.  He returned with our camera.  FIXED!  No cost, on warrenty and fixed.  We couldn't believe it.  Go Team Amy and Rob!  So jumped in another taxi towards the state tower.  It's great hoping in public taxis because they aren't corrupt like some of the tuk-tuk drivers and you get to feel your exploring parts of the city you just couldn't cover otherwise.  It's great for people watching.  Eventually after 1 hour in traffic, we arrived at the State Tower and read the annoying words on the door:  No shorts.  Oh for God sake.  Really?!  I'm not used to dress codes but it is their country with their rules and customs in posh places.  We went up the 64 floors, got up to the bar, the hostess politely informed us that I needed to go and put trousers on, she showed us the view and then we got back in the lift.  Oh well.  Maybe another time.

So back to Khaosan for us.  We  went to this great, poshish bar around the corner.  It had loads of trees with lights and water features.  It was great for chilling out in.  It was also great to have our camera back in all it's glory although Dad's camera has served us really well.  We just love our wide-angle lens!

We watched the sun go down in this bar and the twinkling of the lights in the water.  It was great.  We then snuck off down another corner of Khaosan into a cool, hippy restaurant and had dinner.  

By 20:00, we were so tired again and went back to the hotel.  To be honest, we'd spent most of the money we wanted to spend and had a great time.  We are due to fly the next day so an early night was well called for.  It's been great here in Bangkok and a real lovely introduction to South East Asia.  Tomorrow night we will go to bed in our room in Siem Reap, Cambodia which we will live in for 6 weeks.  Crazy times.