For our 2nd day in Bangkok we decided to focus on some of the most popular and highly rated attractions on tripadvisor so we wouldn’t feel like we missed the best that Bangkok had to offer. Although we didn’t completely agree with the order of the rankings, we sure did enjoy seeing the many of the recommended places. Our first stop of the day? To see the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. Holy Shmoly was this place amazing. I felt like I should be taking a picture just about ever minute we were there! So cool!
Before going in Adam and I had to “borrow” some clothes so that we would be appropriately dressed. The temple offered clothes for a 200 or 300 baht deposit (I forget which), which you got back at the end of your tour. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me, and we were just grateful we didn’t need to go home to change, or have to go out and buy other clothes.
I happened to be wearing capri’s that day that were mid calf, but even as modest as those are, I still needed to put on a longer skirt. Adam’s shorts to his knees wouldn’t do either. So we both borrowed pants and a skirt to get in. What a great idea to offer this service to customers!
As we were walking into the wat there was a lady offering private tours for about $10 for both the wat and the palace so we jumped on that and loved that she was able to tell us so much about these amazing structures! These were the highlight for me of the day! Plus it meant that we got lots of family pictures since she was nice enough to take them for us! Even better!
The grounds around the temple were so amazing, with lots of demons to guard the palace and lots of other structures that were so ornately designed. I was seriously in awe with all the details and that there was just so many beautiful things everywhere you looked.
This was the temple that held the Emerald Buddha. They let you into the building as long as you removed your shoes and were reverent, but wouldn’t let you take pictures of the buddha. So I took a picture of a picture of the Buddha below. In it you can see how they change the Buddha’s clothes during the different seasons in Thailand.
Our tour explained to us that each of these towers, doors, windows etc, took several years of detailed work to complete. I can’t even begin to imagine how many skilled hands it took to build just this one huge temple!
The wat also had a hallway with different paintings depicting stories about their Gods. This was very interesting to learn about.
This was our lovely tour guide. She was a great source of knowledge and did a fantastic job with our tour!
And that was just the temple. Next up? The Grand Palace!