Grand Palace and Wat Po

Today's activities were designed to get us out and experience Thai culture and get our bodies moving again after 30+ hours of plane flights.  We took the skytrain to the Chao Praya River, transferred to a river taxi, then walked a block to the Grand Palace.  After the Grand Palace, we walked 15 minutes to Wat Po, the temple with the enormous reclining Buddha.  Following the temples, we retraced our steps with the river taxi and skytrain back to the Sala Daeng station and walked to the Thai Red Cross snake farm.  The latter will be in a separate blog posting.

Riding the skytrain to the river are Mikayla, Mor Mark, Manoj  behind Lexie, Adam behind the bars, Maria, Jordan, Zach, Natalie, Shae, and Dom.

The river taxis were quite full so most of us had to stand while we cruised north to Pier 9, where we got out close to the Grand Palace.  Here are Mikayla, Shanon, Zach, and Landon.

To enter the Grand Palace, you have to be dressed conservatively and respectfully.  Thus, no shorts or tank tops.  Here you see most of our students either putting skirts over their shorts or zipping on the legs to their zip-off shorts.  The weather is approximately perfect with the temperature in the low- to mid-80's.

Here's a photo op that we always take advantage of in front of the Grand Palace.  Front row (L-R) Raechel, Natalie, Shae, Adam, Manoj, Landon, Zach, Jessica; back row Mor Mark, Mikayla, Jordan, Macy, Lexie, Maria, Dom, Shanon .

Shanon and Raechel in the Grand Palace with Landon in the background.  The Grand Palace was built in the late 1700s when the king moved his residence here from the site of Wat Arun on the other side of the river.  The king and government were housed here until 1925 and now it is the crown jewel of Thai tourism.  It was really crowded here today.

Macy, Zach, Shanon, Jordan and Mikayla in the Grand Palace grounds.

Zach, Adam, Manoj, and Landon strike the pose of the demons behind them.

In front of the building that houses the Emerald Buddha, Buddhist holy water is available  to sprinkle on your head with a lotus flower.

The Emerald Buddha is the most sacred Buddha image in Thailand and was carved from a single jade stone.  It is thought to have been created in India in 43 BC.   Only the King may touch the Emerald Buddha and he changes its seasonal cloak 3 times/year.  No photographs are allowed in the hall with the Emerald Buddha, so you have to take photos of it through the window in the front.

Wat Po is a famous temple that houses a spectacular 141 ft long reclining Buddha. Macy and Mikayla are in front, with Shanon, Adam, Manoj, Zach, and Landon behind them.

108 bronze bowls representing the "108 auspicious characters of Buddha" are in the corridor next to the reclining Buddha and people drop coins in the bowls to bring good fortune.  Here is Lexie dropping coins in the bowls.  It worked… the rest of her day was fantastic.

Maria and Mikayla on the bow of the river taxi on the ride back to the skytrain and the Red Cross Snake Farm.