On our first day in Bangkok, my wife and I started with our "temple run" from the Grand Palace grounds and Wat Phra Kaew, or Temple of the Emerald Buddha. We landed at Bangkok around 9:00AM and arrived in our hotel, Courtyard by Marriott, before our target time of 11:00AM, giving us just enough time to see the Grand Palace, which is open only until 3:30PM (from 8:30AM).
We took the train from BTS Ratchadamri to BTS Saphan Taksin for THB25/pax. From my notes, we could have taken the THB15 orange ferry ride from Saphan Taksin to N9 Tha Chang, but there were just too many people lining up that we decided to take the "special" ferry. Little did we know that the ferry was just a small motor boat that we feared could have capsized anytime. And that ride was worth THB100 each. And we were brought not to N9 Tha Chang, but instead, to N8 Tha Tian. Tough luck to start our trip.
Trying to figure out where we were, we walked past the market from the pier, straight to the main road, and we immediately saw Wat Pho. I knew we were close, so we just walked straight another block, then turned left. We got past the Thai-only entrance of the Grand Palace and got to the tourist entrance in around 15 minutes.
Even though there were a lot of people, the queue for the tickets wasn't that long. Each ticket cost THB550, including admission to Vimanmek Mansion. The latter is not within the palace grounds, and was not part of the itinerary, so we didn't visit it. From my notes, it was a 10-minute taxi ride from the Grand Palace, and given our time constraint, I chose not to go there.
The name was very much appropriate for the place, for it was really grand. Almost everything was made up of gold, and each structure was towering in its own right. The details on the walls were very exquisite, as well as ornaments all around. There was even a model of the Angkor Wat, though I really didn't know why they had to put it there. The beauty of the place in its entirety justified the admission fee. I wanted to stay longer, but still had to go to Wat Pho and Wat Arun before the sun set. So we just headed back towards the pier to our next destination, to see the huge, reclining Buddha in Wat Pho.
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