Dear Family and Friends,

Ok, part II (see below for part I). So, after we were “watted out,” we re-crossed the river all set to see the Grand Palace complex. As we began exploring to locate our next destination, we met a few really nice men who kept telling us that the temple complexes were closed ‘til 1:00 and suggesting an alternate temples. Before embarking on today’s tourist activities, we both would’ve benefited from re-reading the Lonely Planet’s warning:

Many tourist[s] are caught by scams in Thailand. Near popular temples, you could be approached by a well-dressed Thai person who speaks your native tongue masterfully. The person seems nice and trustworthy and advises you that a temple is closed today. This could be the beginning of a slow and costly con game. Your new friend might tell you about some other temples to visit or about a one-day-only gem fair, all things you’ve wanted to check out but weren’t sure where to start. Sadly, if you agree to accompany them, you might get hustled into buying fake gems, overpriced suits, or a variety of other expensive mistakes. While the Thai people are very nice and hospitable, most honest individuals are not likely to be hanging around touristed sights. Keep on your guard.

Now, family and friends alike, please do not groan or mentally berate me despite the fact that you know and I know that I’m about to tell you that my friend and I took a sight-seeing detour on one of these scams. The placement of nice, well-spoken individuals should’ve been a tip-off – in fact, in the beginning it was. But several used the same story… and my friend and I have been accustomed to hanging around non-touristed areas and talking to nice, genuine Thais and we were definitely up for some adventure. So with the help of our friendly man, we negotiated succumbed to the allure of a 50 B tuk-tuk (that allure ends fast when breathing fumes from a bus) and were taken to the apparently sacred “Black Buddha” Wat. This time it is easy to spare you the details as this wonderful Black Buddha was housed in a teeny temple with a wood Buddha encrusted with gold plate and a genuine-enough sounding man to escort us around while the driver waited. This didn’t take long and then the driver was quite pleased to take us to an “Exposition” where everything was a good deal because government has suspended taxes to assist Thai economy that is in a slump. In actuality, the Exposition was a dump that had a ground floor of jewels, a mid-floor of tourist items and a top floor of silk. From previous shopping forays, we immediately recognized that the prices were high and the quality was poor – and so we spent little time there, strongly resisted being sold anything and gently but firmly refused to be taken any place else. We were eventually delivered by a peevish tuk-tuk driver to the Grand Palace – but as far away from the entrance as possible.

At this point, we were hot & tired & rather dispirited so we ended up forcing our way through the crowds to hunt down a lunch of friend chicken + rice + coffee before returning to the Ground Palace + Wat Phra Kaew entrance. Finding the entrance was no mean feat – and figuring out what “appropriate dress” meant was scarcely easier. I passed muster by tossing a shrug over my sleeveless top while my friend was forced to rent a rather horrid polyester mans shirt to properly cover her shoulders. But we were both pleased to find that we could wear our own sandals. We paid the 250 B entrance fee and found ourselves in the most amazing of temple complexes.

Again, I will insist that any description I produce, any photograph that I took is inadequate to describe the ornate details found at such a complex. Lonely Planet says that “Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha) is an architectural wonder of gleaming, gilded chedi seeming buoyed above the ground, polished orange and green roof tiles piercing the humid sky, mosaic encrusted pillars and rich marble pediments.” See???? Even professional, matter-of-fact travel writers could not capture the myriad of gleaming color glasses and ceramics, ornate paining, gorgeous statues of Buddha and other mythical creatures, and the amazing structures. Gentle readers, please consider this a case of you get what you pay for re: temple descriptions - and I shall move on. Remind me to show you the pictures or tell you in person… or save us both and go visit yourself. Just make sure that your shoulders & knees are properly covered – and that you have on gobs of sunscreen.

After about forty-five minutes, we picked our jaws off the ground, had the presence of mind to pay our respects to the most famous Emerald Buddha and then we walked through the ornate palace grounds (no longer used for the King for anything but ceremony). We snapped a few more pictures and declared ourselves done. We made our way back to the river, managed to miss one boat in our confusion but eventually made it on to another boat, past the hotels, past barges, past children swimming on the banks of the river (ohhhh!), and to the Skytrain where the air conditioning was welcome and the subsequent walk down our soi was very welcome. Just as we were approximately a block from our W House, it began to rain. “Perfect timing” we marveled.

Naturally, I was rather drained after the day’s activities, so I practically ran up the stairs to shower, smooth some aloe on my sunburns (Yes! I had put on sunscreen but had made mistake of not freshening it), and napped until I was awoken by pounding rain – which drove me downstairs although Bushy-bearded man and his wife are watching the television at full volume so I’m about to take refuge back upstairs so that I do not get arrested in Bangkok for a murder charge – even if there a myriad of people that would thank me for it. Although for the record, I have been advised that Thai jails are an excellent way to experience culture + loose a great deal of weight – it worked for Bridget – but I think I’ll return my nose to the grindstone.

As Mr. Keillor says and my darling father has adopted, “be well, do good work and keep in touch.”

Love,

Laura