Thailand Part 2 - the Grand Palace and the downside of visiting Bangkok

The next part of our tour took us to the Grand Palace complex, which was established in 1782. In the complex there are the royal residence, where the body of the universally loved late King still lies in state, throne halls, government offices and the famous Temple of the Emerald Buddha, which is a complex of several buildings in itself. 

Everywhere we drove in Bangkok, and along the road into the city, huge portraits of the late King hung on the sides of high-rise buildings and in many other places, paying the people’s respect. Clearly he united and inspired the entire population, large numbers of whom are still making a pilgrimage to the Grand Palace every day from right across Thailand. There are usually about ten to thirty thousand such pilgrims flooding the complex every day, many of whom are dress in black. When you add to that all the tourists visiting this complex at the same time, you might imagine how crowded and slow-moving our visit was.

It was interesting gaining entrance to the complex. Our bus had to drop us off quite a distance away.  Thais walked across one small bridge into the complex. Visitors had to walk in two separate single files over another bridge, women on the left and men on the right, holding up a copy of our passport as we did so, all of which was filmed. There were police and palace guards everywhere, who had everything under control and running smoothly without being officious. I felt very safe with them there.    

The beautiful crafted, intricate, ornate works and different building designs were just stunning to see. It was very hard to take photos because of the crowds, and we were not permitted to take a photo of the Emerald Buddha, which was beautiful but quite small and all the more difficult to see because it was set in a glass case mounted high up on a very elaborate platform. We also were not permitted into the palace itself. So my few photos cannot do justice to this amazing place, which I had always wanted to see, having loved the story of ‘The King and I’, which of course is a fantasy . . . but a delightful one.   

What an incredible heritage of art and craft and tradition the Thai people have in their temples and palaces. (The new King lives in a separate palace elsewhere in the city, but we did not see that.) I just hope that with the establishment of ASEAN and other international trading partnerships that the living conditions of the battlers will be able to be improved.     

I am so pleased I had a chance to see a little of Thailand. The downside of this amazing tour, however, was that it was so extremely hot and humid, and apparently the air was so polluted, that after walking for over 90 minutes I suffered heatstroke and an asthma attack, and only just made it back to the bus with the help of some very kind fellow passengers who noticed my predicament, fanned me and gave me water, and one gentlemen gave me his arm. I just had to keep planting one foot after the other, relying on sheer willpower. 

This took a great toll on me, however, and I have had to cancel two of my shore excursions in Singapore. Instead I am undergoing treatment for the worst asthma I have ever had at the ship’s very good medical centre. So I will not be having breakfast with orang-utans at the Singapore Zoo tomorrow morning after all, or tour the city this afternoon (the ship has just docked at 2 pm). 

This is not the first time I have experienced heatstroke. I suffered heat stroke twice up in the Kimberley when I travelled there about four years ago. On both occasions we had been hiking for some time in rocky terrain, when there was no shade, in 41- 43 degree heat. But at least the air was dry and clean, so I did not get asthma as well. Clearly my body is simply not built to withstand such extreme conditions, so I will have to be very careful from now on not to push it so far. I still have more than 6 months of travel to go.   

In Thailand elephants symbolise royalty.

Some of the many buildings in the temple complex - this is the problem with being vertically challenged - you cannot 'chop off' people's heads.

Close-up of some of the intricate work on the walls.

Part of a procession of Thai mourners in black, who I believe were allowed to pass by the body of the King in the palace. The black and white ribbons were everywhere around the city to symbolise a country in mourning. 

Part of the Grand Palace on the left, at the time of a changing of the guard.