Bangkok Jaunt

A few weekends ago I had the chance to go to Bangkok again. I actually had an informal chat for a potential job. That was Monday morning, so on Sunday, after getting off the bus around 6am, we took advantage of the day and wandered all over Bangkok. I was able to see several things I hadn't seen before.

The first seven pictures below are all located in the Dusit compound. Vimanmek Palace was very interesting and beautiful. It is golden teak wood and is apparently the biggest teak mansion in the world. Much of what we saw looked very European. What interested me the most were the exhibitions of King Bhumibol's photography and the local textiles. I felt like those were the most culturally significant. One because the King is so important here and his pictures captured areas of family, palace, and rural life. The textile museums were interesting because I was able to learn more about the different ethnic groups here in Thailand. The SUPPORT Foundation not only had textiles but wood work and silver work along with other handicrafts.

After leaving Dusit Palace, we walked on to some other sites. But first we were stopped by a group giving out free organic, vegetarian food. We stopped and ate, chatted with a female monk (who was Thai but lived in France) and found that people had been peaceably protesting the government but were taking a break that day.

We walked down to the Golden Mount, saw a view of the city, walked to the Grand Palace and Wat Pho, took a tuk tuk to the Standing Buddha and the Marble Temple and then finally made it back to the hotel.

Vimanmek Palace
Photo credit: Tristan

Side view of Vimanmek

SUPPORT Foundation

Local Textile Exhibition Hall

Ananda Samakhom Throne Hall

Funny signs

Love at first...

Free food - and a peaceable protest - oops!
Photo credit: Tristan

Democracy Monument

Standing Buddha

Marble Temple (Wat Benchamabopitr)

Traveling companions and a tuk tuk
Photo credit: Tuk tuk driver!

The day after all of the site-seeing I had my "interview" (which I still haven't heard back from!) and then I met up with a couple of my former students at Future Park Rangsit - a big mall just outside Bangkok. After that it was back to Chaing Mai!