Tourist Doing Tourist Things in a Tourist Town During Tourist Season: Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha

The grounds of the Grand Palace

Bangkok gets over 20 million tourist a year.  And every one of them was at the Grand Palace this morning.

Since this is the official royal residence -- ceremonial only -- the Thai Royal Family actually lives several blocks away at a place that is not over-run by the international tourist hordes on a daily -- there is a military guard on duty.

Lots of stupa here on the Grand Palace grounds.  There are so many that there is nearly one for every tourist.  Well, one for every 500,000 tourists.

As I said, Bangkok is tourist town.  It is packed with the tourist hordes.  But Bangkok is not one of those "too cool for tourists" towns like they have in Europe -- Barcelona I am looking at you -- tourism is a source of economic vitality.  Bangkok loves their tourist visitors and, so far, I've not seen anyone being even remotely overtly rude to the Bangkok population in return -- well, except for the incessant self-taking endemic to tourist towns around the globe.  Generally, everyone is happy.  Legitimately happy.  Not "fake smile for tips from tourists" happy.  Genuinely happy.

It pretty much offsets the problems of the massive numbers of tourists in Thailand.

The only problems seems to be pick-pocketing.  You constantly are being warned to be wary of pick-pockets.  So wallets in the front pockets.  It doesn't mean you're happy to see Thailand.

Let's see the tourist horde during tourist things at this tourist site in this tourist town during tourist season, shall we?

Unlike us Catholics, Buddhists never burn the incense inside the building.  Outside incense burning only.  An obsessive use of incense, however, is yet another parallel between the religious accoutrements of Buddhists and us Catholics.

Taking a break from looking at the tourist hordes and the beautiful architecture the tourists have come out to see, a golden stupa:

And here's one of the tourist horde over-dressed on this hot and humid day.

In the instructions for the tour, we were advised to dress "modestly," specifically no shorts or short-sleeved shirts and definitely no tank tops.  Or durian.  No durian either.

Is this a man or this is a chicken?

It's half-man, half-chicken.  Guarding the Buddha.

More tourists.  More stupa.

And check out the ceramic tile on the roof.  And the gilding:

This is a scale model of Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

The real one is much much much bigger.  And probably packed with at least as many tourists.

Another half-man half-chicken.

They're not as common as tourists or stupa.  But they are very prevalent throughout the grounds of Grand Palace

There is sort of clown vibe to this.

For the record, I am NOT anti-clown.  When clown-hating went mainstream, I decided to be the contrarian that I am and I am very much pro-clown.  All they want to do is make children happy.  Why are we so jaded that we do not appreciate a child's joy.  (Foreshadow on the word "jade," as that will play a role in the main sight of the Grand Palace.)

Flower delivery.

Landscaping related, I presume.  It's too early for Valentine's Day.

And here is a tourist posing with a half-man half-chicken.

The tourist has all of this teeth!  Thank you, late night dentist in Chiang Rai.

All the cool tourists were dressed in elephant pants.

Seriously.  These are loose-fitting pants, almost like pajama bottoms, with pictures of elephants on them.  You actually can buy them on the streets of Bangkok.  It's what all the best-dressed tourists are wearing this season.

And the people wearing elephant pants look so happy to do so.

We now arrive at the scene of the star attraction of the Grand Palace grounds.

The Temple of the Emerald Buddha.  Wat Phra Kaew.

This is the place where the tourist are packed most tightly.  Not photos allowed inside the temple, so this is the best picture of the Emerald Buddha I got.

It's not great, but this is the best picture I got of the Emerald Buddha using the extreme zoom function of my phone.

The Emerald Buddha is not made of emerald.  He's made of jade, which makes more sense from an Eastern perspective.  And he's well-traveled.  Discovered in Chiang Rai.  Moved to Chiang Mai.  Then to Laos.  Now in Bangkok.  Where the Emerald Buddha is extremely acessible to the tourist crowd.

And here's a monk taking pictures with his cellphone.  It's a new world for the monk trade.

Back to the crowds.

Crowds are light in this picture:

They must all be queued up to see the Emerald Buddha who really is made of jade.

And here's the gate to exit the Grand Palace grounds.

But let's look back one time at the (ceremonial) royal residence. 

And there's a changing of the guard ceremony happening outside the gate.  Which demands being photographed.

Time to march off to the next destination for the day's tour.