Our final day in Bangkok led us to the grand palace and the home of the emerald Buddha (who is actually jade). We had been pre-warned about scams aimed at tourists in Thailand and finally in Bangkok we were thought to be perfect marks. In venturing towards the grand palace, one man told us it doesn't open until 2pm (it was 10:30am) due to a "royal ceremony". They say this in hopes you'll get into their tuk-tuk so they can tour you around the rest of Bangkok until the tourist site "opens". We luckily ignored him and moved on. A couple of blocks later, another man mentioned that my Keene sandals were not allowed in the palace property since they showed my feet skin. This is complete bullshit too since all temples/wats in SE Asia that we visited required that you remove your shoes before entering. Luckily, we ignored them and made our way to the former palace of the Thai kings.
Wall murals in the grand palace
Hot, humid, sweaty
After the palace, we visited the textile museum with an exhibition honoring the queen of Thailand, Queen Sirikit exhibiting all of her fashions over the years. She did relief work in the villages by re-introducing craftwork production and the gift shop was filled with their impressive products. It was an impressive museum and with that we left Bangkok and headed for Siem Reap, Cambodia.
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