Scamster Alert in Paradise!
Day 1, Part 1. Thailand Old City
“It sounds plausible enough tonight but wait until tomorrow. Wait for the common sense of the morning.” H G Wells
This is so true. I do this for
all the major decisions and also amazon purchase ideas. I put what I think
of as ‘reasonable and absolutely required purchase’ and it doesn’t seem the
same in retrospection.
However, travel opportunities are
like striking gold, if you don’t grab it, it might just slip away and even
after getting a hold, you need to plan and execute till you can feel the aura
of El Dorado!
Thailand first day was literally striking gold!
We left around ten from Lisa’s Place walking towards the Grand Palace entrance gate. It was just 1.1 km away and so we started in the direction leisurely clicking pictures on the quaint bridges on the canals. Boughs of bougainvillea had clambered over the walls of the bridge, and it was picture perfect, almost idyllic in this part of the old city with its blend of the old neo-classical government buildings and traditional Thai structures.
But before we could reach the
gate, we were approached by two guys (a tall and short combo) who had set up shop
just opposite one of the closed palace gates with a large flex sheet ad of a
river cruise. They looked very decent sitting right across the palace with no
real red flags. They told us that the morning entry in Grand Palace was reserved
for prayer for Thai people only and that we could go across to Wat Arun instead
and that they will take us in Tuk Tuk to the ferry jetty and from there in a
boat across the river Chao Phraya to Wat Arun and back in time. Now, this is
where prior research comes in handy. I had already checked out the timings and
was absolutely sure that whatever they were saying was hogwash. So, I urged the
others to ignore and head towards the gate and it was truly wide open and
welcomed us with ticket counters and umbrellas, map brochure and free water
bottles for a pleasant tour inside. Glad that we escaped the scamsters, or else
could have been fleeced royally on day one itself.
There was an option to take guided tours in various languages which seemed very good if you want to pay for the service. We decided to roam around the huge palace on our own and then go for the Operatic Khon Show which is included in the ticket. The delightful open rides take you to the theatre and back after the show. The Khon show was the highlight of the day for us. The show was divided in two parts, the first one showed the evolution of dance forms in Thailand with performance of all major dance forms across Thailand. The following part was a short excerpt from the Ramayana show. It was about the Hanuman’s quest to convince the water nymphs to allow them to build the ram-setu to Lanka. Although not as grand as the traditional stage setting for operas in Europe, it was still remarkably well done. Different landscape stage settings depicting the underwater kingdom, and the forests mesmerized the audience, who clapped in delight. They also managed to make the audience sing in one of the sequences. It was overall really fun.
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Grand Palace was huge! It had
different types of traditional structures encrusted with precious stones which
sparkled in splendour on a bright sunny day. The garden was also beautifully decorated with bonsais and manicured lawns and aesthetically shaped and trimmed trees and
shrubs. We had a satisfying walk across the grandness of the palace and its
museums took us through the Thai royal history. Grand Palace is actually a complex
of many buildings, and it used to be the home of the Thai Royal family and many
of the government offices. But after the dissolution of absolute monarchy in
1932, all had moved out of the complex and now it hosts most of the royal ceremonies
and functions as a tourist attraction also.
It is worth spending your morning in the palace and must be included in
the Bangkok itinerary.
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