Closed Until 2pm

This morning we decided to start off our stay in Bangkok, on the first real day of our adventure, with a visit to the Grand Palace.  We set out to take the Skytrain to Taksin station, along the Chao Phraya river, and from there catch a ferry to Chang pier, which is right next to the Grand Palace.  At least, that’s what we set out to do, but the ferry terminal was a little confusing and before we quite knew what was happening we ended up on the “tourist express” boat that–to our surprise–does not stop at Chang pier.  We got off the boat as near to the Grand Palace as possible and started walking towards it, only to be stopped a short distance later by a Thai man waving his arms and explaining that the Grand Palace was closed until 2pm because of “Buddhist ceremonies.”  In the guidebooks, we’d been warned about this type of scam–that in the touristy areas, “friendly locals” will approach you on the street and offer to help you find your way and meanwhile explain that where you want to go is actually closed and maybe just go with them instead and they’ll take you on a “special tour.”  Apparently this “special tour” typically means a trip to the jewelry store where you’ll be pressed into buying fake gems and the friendly local who brought you there will receive a hefty commission from the store owners in exchange.  I think we both felt a little bewildered by the man waving his arms, but not really understanding what was happening, we continued on our way.

As we rounded the corner towards the entrance to the Grand Palace, a woman approached us, introducing herself as a palace official and also telling us that the palace was closed until 2pm because of Buddhist ceremonies.  This time we hesitated.  “Is it true?” we thought.  We chatted with her for a minute.  She asked where we were from, and when we said the US, she wanted to talk about the upcoming election and the respective merits of Romney versus Obama.  Meanwhile, all this time, despite walking the length of one side of the Grand Palace walls, we somehow had managed not to hear the announcement repeatedly being broadcast in English from loudspeakers all along the walls ringing the palace grounds.  The loudspeakers blared, “Do not trust anyone who approaches you and tells you that the Grand Palace is closed.  The Grand Palace is open everyday from 8:30am to 3:30pm.”  Hmmm.  And here I had always thought that guidebooks described these types of scams out of an abundance of caution, but this one turned out to be totally accurate.

We continued down the street and through the main gate into the Grand Palace, where the place was decidedly open and bustling with activity, and with our tickets in hand we headed into the Wat Phraw Kaew temple complex.  To quote a New Yorker article I just read, the heat here in Bangkok is infernal, which caught us a little off guard.  I guess we think of ourselves as accustomed to extreme heat, given the summers in Austin, but the humidity here is intense, and there’s not much to do about it except accept that we’re just going to sweat.  A lot.  The temple complex was so beautiful, and I really wanted to be excited to tour it all, but I felt totally dazed by the heat.  It kind of stunned me into a sense of paralysis, but fortunately John stayed on form and snapped a bunch of pictures.  Also–and I’m embarrassed to admit this–my first thought was that it had a kind of Epcot feel to it.  Is this because my first introduction to an Asian style of architecture was at Epcot?  Is Epcot really that true to reality?  I was ashamed of myself for feeling that Disney quality about the place, but John said he was feeling it, too.

We wandered through the temple, saw the Emerald Buddha wearing his summer robes (and later saw his winter and rainy season robes in a museum on the Grand Palace grounds) and toured the other buildings on the property.  When John discovered the air conditioning vents in the museum, we backed ourselves up to them in an effort to dry the sweat off our backs.  And then once we’d seen all there was to see, we headed off to a late lunch, before the Grand Palace really closed at 3:30pm.