Grand Tour with Koala Bear

After brekkie Jun headed off to meet her Thai colleague while koala bear brought me to see the Grand Palace that was basically a wee bit far off from the hotel. We took a cab which cost us around 70 baht. During the ride, we passed by buildings that reminded me of Ipoh old town. Except every sign board is in Thai. I wondered how they read their language. It looked so complicated. Am glad koala bear was with me. At least he spoke Thai. He told me that in certain countries, a man has to enter a car before a woman. I asked why. He said so to protect the woman from being driven off immediately. So each time we enter the cab, he enters first. Not sure whether it was a koala bear trick. haha!

The journey to the palace took about 40 minutes. Mostly due to the jam, which is another factor I realized about Thailand. The jam is horrible. I rather walk. Even a tuk tuk is not worth it. I did find out that they have motorbike taxi available. Apparently you just flag one down and pay them a sum to bring you to your destination. Usually a short one that requires them to drive you down the street or something. I didn't dare try though I saw one gwailo riding on one. Pretty cool but can be pretty scary for a girl.

So here I am at the entrance of the Grand Palace and the Temple of The Emerald Buddha. You pay 20 baht to enter and the place was swamped with tourists and locals as well. I wondered what was the fascination until I realized the locals were there to pray at the temple itself.

Some of the pictures I captured at the place. The area from outside looked big but we only covered a small area since majority of the place was closed up.


Here is the Grand Palace. Guarded by a skinny guard. A car actually came out of the gates. We were not allowed in but as you can see from the picture it really looked like it has british influences on its architecture doesn't it? The compound surrounding was huge and am wondering whether the guard can actually protect the king if anything were to happen.


Koala bear needed his ciggie break. Took this picture while he overlooked the musuem. We didn't go in though. Not very interested in articles such as that and we were both tired. Then some tourists passed us and I took one picture of a couple. I wonder whether he realize the statue outside the musuem was more chinese influenced than thai. Ahh... gwailos.