Touring It Up!

Bangkok, Thailand

Did the tourist thing today. It was heavily recommended to seek out the temples in Bangkok so I set aside some time and knocked it out. Some were free but of course the ones that actually looked appealing were not. Paid the tourist price (overpriced but still reasonable at the exchange rate) to walk through the grounds of the Grand Palace.

Grand Palace

Would have been nice if someone would’ve let me know BEFORE I paid my money that most of the place was under construction, you aren’t allowed to enter hardly any of the temples and photos/video are prohibited inside of them. A security guard tried to confiscate my camera phone for lack of understanding. All the while he was harassing me, loads of other people were getting their shots off. This dude was a joke. I had to literally pry my phone out of his hands and he was trying to grab it back and shouting, “police!” He wanted my password and I told him he wasn’t gettin’ it. He knew English well enough. If he wasn’t such an ass he could have just asked me for what he wanted, which was to delete certain photos. In the end, I did because I have no use for a blurry photo of fake gold and a tiny green Buddha-- I’d already photographed 10 other Buddhas today, and guess what? They're all quite similar. That squabble with the local guard at least made my time in the Grand Palace remotely noteworthy. I’ll post photos but while things were pretty, they were inauthentic—at least in appearance. I’m not sure that they are truly historically significant because I see new ones being built on the streets today and I think they just want to take tourist’s money. Fake gold and gold colored foil everywhere. There may be a worldwide shortage in gold acrylic paint because of Thailand. Crafters, unite!

Outside Temple of the Emerald Buddha (where I was basically assaulted for my phone)

Just a cool golden statue

In front of Grand Palace

Inside a "gold"-filled temple (all look similar/same inside)

"Same same, but different" in Asian speak. They have T-shirts with this saying.

Remind anyone else of a warrior in Disney's, Mulan?

Tall guard statues. 'Bout 25-30 ft tall. Mostly gold.

Lots of their buddha statues are in this pose that has the right hand up in a "stop" gesture that I translated to, "talk to the hand". Can't really see the golden buddha's hand which just makes me look stupid.

"Golden" guards

Golden doorway (seeing a trend?)

Golden standing Buddha. Huge. Not good with heights so I don't know. 40ft?

Hate to sound so pessimistic, but even the Monks were a disappointment! They wore the orange garb, but they had far from a remote style of living. They were rockin’ iPods, smart phones, Ray Bans, and some were even taking photos of temples like they were the tourists (maybe they were on some type of sabbatical?). It was funny to be smacked in the face with the reality that movies are a crock of poo and that I was just as guilty of relying on them as the Australian population is of using them as a basis of their opinion of America--Everyone else, too.