Bangkok: Grand Palace

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Bangkok Trip: Grand Palace (Day 4) – Grand Palace is a historical site in Bangkok, Thailand where many years back, it’s the palace of King of Thailand. In year 2006, I went there once, and 6 years later, I went there again! It hasn’t changed a bit, but there’s some renovation going on in the Grand Palace. The tourists are more than before and the weather was hotter than before.

Although Grand Palace is located right next to Wat Pho, but then the main entrance is very far from Wat Pho! OMG. It took me about 10 minutes walk from Wat Pho to Grand Palace’s main entrance under the scorching hot sun. It’s really very very hot. I suggest starting the trip at Grand Palace first only go visit Wat Pho and Wat Arun, visit in the morning will be the best as it’s not that hot yet.

Looks pretty and like a Thai girl right? Hehe.

I have heard about the Grand Palace scam which is that the tuk-tuk taxi driver will approach you and tell you that Grand Palace is close at that time, and will instead bring you to other temple like Lucky Buddha and shopping at the gem shop, only you completed the “tour”, they will bring you back to Grand Palace. They charged only about 100-200Baht for the trip. Sounds good right? But it’s actually a scam and it’s a time wasting tour. Grand Palace is in fact opens daily. When they bring you to these places, they actually receive commission.

However, I did not approach with any of such tuk-tuk driver. I’ve read on the Internet, it’s better to beware. If you are approached by them, just say no, or in Thai, ‘Mai Owl Rock’, which means I’ve been here before.

Going in to the Grand Palace is pretty troublesome because one needs to be properly dressed. I have shorts, and Hueisean has shorts too, so we have to rent something to cover up. 200Baht per piece and you will get back the deposit when you end the tour. I got myself a wear on pants and Hueisean got a piece of sarong-liked cloth. 3/4 length pants and skinny jeans are also not allow in the Grand Palace, and spaghetti straps too. What a strict place, but since you get to rent the cloth for free, so why not checking it out?

Entrance fee to Grand Palace is very expensive at 400 Baht (RM40) per person! Since we have already there, no point getting back already, so me and Hueisean bought the ticket and went in. We only have about 1.5 hours to tour the whole Grand Palace because it closes at 4pm every afternoon. The weather was really very very hot, perspiring drops were all over the body and the pants they lend were hot.

We started off the tour at the temple area which is the Temple of Emerald Buddha – Wat Phra Kaew. I think this is the most beautiful part of the Grand Palace compound and with most things to see. Other than that is just no-photo’s Throne Hall which is just normal.

The Italian Renaissance-style of Throne Hall and King’s Residence is pretty cool. It’s a blend of Thai and Western architecture. When you are at the ground level, you can see Renaissance-style architecture, but when you look at the top of the building, you can see the Mondop-style roof. Pretty cool.

Actually Grand Palace is not as big as you seen from the outer wall. Many parts of the Grand Palace are prohibited from enter. It’s just maybe a small little part of Forbidden City in Beijing. However, if you haven’t been there before, I think this is a good place to tour on. Not big, but still good. We returned the pants and got back the deposit that we’ve made then we went to look for a cab to go back to hotel. Unfortunately, cabs around the Grand Palace just don’t want turn on the meter, so no choice that I paid 200 Baht for a 30 minutes trip back to hotel.

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