An amazing day today visiting The Grand Palace but before we get to that a few words of caution. The taxi & tuk tuk drivers have been fairly aggressive in offering rides. Most of the time, we ignore them and use Grab (the “Uber” of Asia) to get moving but when we landed at the pier and headed to the Grand Palace, several tuk tuk drivers told us the palace would be closed until noon. They offered to take us sight seeing elsewhere to other tourist sites then bring us back to the palace at noon when the ticket office opens. It was all a lie, we kept walking toward the Grand Palace, bought tickets and entered without any problems whatsoever. It was clearly a scam to get us to buy long rides to other tourist areas.

It’s always best to check with a reputable travel agent or book tours through known services such as Viator before falling for these types of scams.

Depending on where you’re staying in Bangkok, it’s likely you will need to ride one of the many confusing boats to get to where you’re going. I say confusing because there are many different classes of boats. The big hotels here have their own boats that ferry people to certain piers. There are also boat taxis, boat tours, and other boats. Depending on where you want to go, you have to visit a specific pier and get on a certain type of boat. Most of the people at the piers are helpful to guide you on your way but it does get confusing.

Outside the Grand Palace (image below)

The Grand Palace (image below)

The detail around each structure is amazing. Some buildings are adorned in gold, others in green emerald colors and some are multi-colored.

Caution: The Grand Palace is mostly concrete or stone flooring and it gets very hot in the area so take plenty of water with you when you go. You can’t wear certain clothes such as short skirts and tank tops so be careful to check before you head out.

There is a ritual to cleanse and water the green emerald Buddha.

Amazing adornment of most of the structures in the Grand Palace.

After a half day spent at the Grand Palace, we headed to Wat Arun Ratchawararam (image below).

The ferry from Than Tien to Wat Arun Ratchawararam is about 20 baht although pricing seem to change and was confusing at times.

You can toll the bells…if you wonder who the bells toll for, they toll for thee…..

The image below shows how busy the boats can get during peak traffic times around noon. It was standing room only on this boat ferry.

After Wat Arun Ratchawararam, we wondered around looking for the right pier to head to Iconsiam which is a large multi-story high end shopping complex. Our goal there was to eat and buy some needed supplies for our aching feet. I picked up a new pair of sketchers sandals after wearing out my walking shoes. The image below shows Iconsiam from our hotel. There are public concerts, water sport games and other activities to celebrate the new year.

It was a long day, we arrived back around 3:30 p.m. so we’re off to get some rest then head for dinner later.

Categories: Bangkok
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