Day 3..the Grand Palace, Bangkok

The Grand Palace

I made my return to Grand Palace in the morning of my last day in Bangkok. I took MRT directly to Hua Lamphong station (last station), negotiated with the motorbike taxi guy on the fare to send me to the Grand Palace. It only took us 15 minutes to reach my destination, but what was more interesting I got to see many other nice buildings (mainly colonials architecture) along the way since we were taking a different route from the one I passed through the other day.

The motorbike taxi guy. They put on the orange jacket as official uniform.

The ticket price to enter Grand palace complex is B500/person for foreigner.Tickets can be bought at the ticket counters located about 100 meters from the main gate entrance. Most visitors mistakenly thought the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles building just next to the entrance is where we can buy the ticket to Grand Palace complex. Do not simply follow the queue at this Museum when you are actually want to purchase ticket to Grand Palace, it can be very confusing especially when one visit during peak time when there are so many people around. Walk a bit to the right, to the  area where the staffs will be checking the bags (security routine in Bangkok) and provide you with some colored ribbon to acknowledge that your bag was checked. Then walk straight  towards the internal main entrance to the palace, you will see the counters on the left hand side.

Ticket counters

The tickets include access to the Grand Palace and Temple of Emerald Buddha, to the Pavilion of Regalia, Royal decoration and Coins and also to the Vimanmek Mansion Museum. The Grand Palace complex open daily (Monday to Sunday) from 8.30am to 3.30pm. Grab the guide to the Grand Palace leaflet or you can choose to have audio guide with certain fee. One need to dress properly to visit this site, no sleeveless shirt, short, miniskirt or flip flop. But in case you already done up in any of them, there is a place to rent proper dress, at the counter in front of Queen Sirikit Museum.

Once you entered the entrance to the complex, you will be greeted by impressive  sight of Temple of the Emerald Buddha, which houses the Emerald Buddha, Thailand's most revered religious icon. The Temple entrance is guarded by 2 huge statues.

Temple of the Emerald Buddha



Day moon

On the left, there are The Upper Terrace which consist of few other beautiful buildings including The Royal Pantheon. I walked around the temple area for almost 2 hours before entering the Grand Palace compound.

Phra Siratana Chedi

Door at The Royal Pantheon

Impressive carved walls and pillars

Angkor Wat miniature

The ground of the Royal Monastery are encompassed by galleries. The walls are painted with scenes from the Ramakien. I enjoyed looking at the paintings, it seems to be endless.

Part of the drawings on the galleries

Restoration work in progress

Another act of restoring

After almost 2 hours I moved to Grand Palace compound. Another impressive architecture.

Right wing of the Grand Palace

It was a great time I spent at the Grand Palace complex, admiring the carvings and the golden colors on the great architectures. It was already late afternoon by the time I left the palace. I choose to hop on the orange flag boat from the nearby No. 9 pier back to Central Pier. It's time to go back to Kes's apartment and pack my backpack and  fly home (ooppps...to second home).