grand palace

Thai temples are beautiful. They are very detailed and intricate… Everything that Andy would say a girl wants: gemstones and glitter.

grand palace temple of the reclining buddha temple of the reclining buddha

On the otherhand, I don’t know what people did in the past without guidebooks… we would have been scammed today if we hadn’t been warned by our pre-reading.

When we arrived at the Grand Palace this morning, a very friendly elder gentleman ran out from the gates. He told us that Mondays are a day of prayer and that we can’t enter till 12. He sincerely apologized and showed on our map all the different places we could go instead. After a lengthy chat, he offered to get us a tuk tuk to ensure we weren’t ripped off. Too bad this driver of his would have been in on the scam, which usually results in a whole day of being taken to expensive shops and being charged a ton for the ride… not to mention the wasted day! Danger avoided, thanks to Lonely Planet. We walked to the next gate right after leaving this fellow behind and got into the palace without a problem.

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So much for Monday being a day of prayer!