Where we last left off it was a Monday night, and Prae and I have just headed back from Assumption University. For me, the day had been a bit on the lacklustre side thus far, and was hoping that what was planned for that night would in some ways compensate for things on a general scale. That night the two of us were due to attend the Traditional Thai Puppet Theater (Joe Louis) located a short drive away from Prae’s place.

Thai theatrical puppetry was invented in 1901 by a legendary khon dancer and puppeteer by the name of Krae Saptawanit, who gave frequent and popular performances to various localities around that time. Among Krae’s troupe of puppeteers was a married couple; one afternoon in 1922, as the troupe travelled by boat to give a performance, the wife of the couple gave birth to a child, who was later named Sakorn by Saptawanit. Literally growing up in the theatre, young Sakorn quickly learned the tricks of the trade and became a famous puppeteer. The Second World War blighted the existence of this performing art to a great extent – particularly between the decisive years of 1939-1945 – but the real damage was done by the advent of the motion picture scene and the television to Thai shores. It’s popularity – along with many other forms of traditional art – began to wane, and the public soon forgot that such an arcane art ever existed.

Early artistic retirement beckoned and Sakorn was reduced to private performances and the transmission of the knowledge of theatrical puppetry only to his offspring. The tide turned in 1996 however, when His Majesty The King recognized Sakorn as the sole custodian of this art form dying and long neglected; the latter was to that effect bestowed and honoured with the title of “National Artist”, then charged with protecting and further developing this form of cultural heritage. The Thai Traditional Puppet Theater was established soon after, thus allowing for Thai traditional puppetry to slowly be revived once more – even after the passing of Grand Master Puppeteer Sakorn (incidentally known as “Joe Louis” to his friends) in 2007.

(paragraph adapted from the Thai Traditional Puppet Theater introductory brochure)

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That traditional puppetry is unique among the various forms of puppetry in the world in that each puppet first and foremost represents a character taken from the traditional Thai theater, for which there are three styles: the well-adorned khon, the less sophisticated lakorn, and the least sophisticated likay. All of these styles are stylized with dancing, singing and music that is reportedly comparable in complexity to that of the 18th century French Royal Court at Versailles. The most sophisticated of the styles, the khon, only performs the Ramakien – the Thai version of the Indian epic Ramayana. The lakorn in turn performs all other classics of Thai drama, whereas the likay is responsible for the performance of common dramas only.

For me, the most unique part of Thai theatrical puppetry is the fact that each puppet requires the synchronized effort of three puppeteers (each of whom is a khon, lakorn, or likay dancer in his or her own right) in its manipulation – all of whom appear onstage with the puppet.

Hence the name, theatrical puppetry =)

To this end, the Traditional Thai Puppet Theater Company is the authoritative guardian of this recently revived art form: the directors and senior members of the troupe are direct artistic successors of the founder of Thai theatrical puppetry; performances are thus as unique as they are authentic. Thus it should be obvious that I was more than excited to catch a stage performance at the Traditional Thai Puppet Theater itself.

Prae and I arrived at the theater at around 7.30 pm. Without much ado the two of us headed into the well-decorated building, in where Miss Songprasit went about trying to get tickets. Being my usual inquisitive self, I bustled around the lounge of the theater and started snapping photos:

The type of puppet that is used in the play.

A closer look at the detail involved in designing these stage acts. Check out the adorning patterns on the crest of that puppet-head.

Joe Louis himself.

After a brief browse I decided to head on over to see what little Prae was up to…as you will later find out, I really shouldn’t have XD

She was still at the ticketing counter, talking with the ticketing woman who seemed particularly explanatory; so I sauntered up to the counter and nestled myself to Prae’s left, having an – I assume – innocent smile on my face. And then I committed the biggest crime in recent memory – I asked her what was up. The cashier’s head immediately snapped up and she faced Prae; their conversation that followed was of course unintelligible to me, so I asked again – what’s up? The cashier began speaking more urgently to Prae after the second time that sentence left my lips, so I asked Miss Songprasit again – what was going on, and could I know?

She kicked me under the receptionist’s counter @.@

I was like “OW!” and my eyes opened up wide indignantly; Prae responded to all of this with a curt “I’ll tell you later”. She then asked me to produce 900 baht for my entry ticket into the theater. I was understandably quite shocked by this price level – that was RM 90 right there, and with my insistence to pay for Prae’s ticket as well the entry would easily cost over a hundred ringgit @.@

It was after the receptionist had turned away and we had walked away that Prae said – with half-exasperated looks – that the price for locals to watch a show at the Thai Traditional Puppet Theater was 200 baht, whereas for foreign citizens the price was 900 baht. At this my jaw dropped, as I had not expected the price disparity to be so huge. Little Prae went on to explain that she was trying to sell me as a Thai national to the receptionist – a ploy which was sort of working as I sort-of already had the physical looks for a Thai person – but then I opened my big mouth and started getting curious as to what was going on.

Upon hearing my obvious lack of Thai-ness, Prae’s bluff was called (to her embarrassment I assume >.<) and I was charged 700 baht more. Oh bother lol.

Anyway, by then it was 7.45 pm and although the play itself started at 8.00 pm, there was a complimentary documentary on Thai puppetry being shown in the theater hall which had been running for 15 minutes already. So technically Prae and I were sort of late, so the two of us handed in our bags to the coat check and walked into the screening lounge where we were pointed to our seats by an attendant. Since the theater was already halfway through the documentary by then, I admit to being a little bit lost in the proceedings at that point – when I got in an interview of a few of the more famous performers and screenwriters was being shown; it was there that I learned that this same puppet show – entitled “Birth of Ganesha” – had been awarded the First Prize at the World Festival of Puppet Art in Prague not once, but twice – a pretty impressive achievement in my books to say the least =) The documentary then went on to display a few of the training techniques which were used by Thai Puppet Grand Masters to train their apprentices…the word “hard” is an understatement in this one, seriously. Since there are three puppeteers who appear on stage with a single puppet at any given time, it is imperative that all three of these puppeteers be completely synchronized at all times – especially as each puppeteer is given a specific part of the puppet anatomy to control; an example: the first and rightmost puppeteer controls the left leg, left arm and its wrist/ankle appendages; the second person in the middle is in turn in charge of the torso and the head, leaving the final puppeteer on the left flank to deal with the remaining arms and legs. Not exactly an easy task, given that most of the motions have to be in sync with one’s own motions as well; that is to say, the puppeteers themselves will move their own bodies in the exact same stance that the puppet they are controlling is doing.

Have I successfully confused you yet? XD Maybe after a few images things will clear up a bit, and you will see why I find Thai traditional puppetry very very cool in its own right =)

Now, I should state here that the Thai Traditional Puppet Theater expressly forbids the usage of any recording or image-taking devices within their premises – I had my camera confiscated from me (temporarily) the moment I headed into the theater proper. HOWEVER, I have endeavored to make up for this by scanning in the postcards that I bought from the boutique in the wing of the theater after my show =)

Here’s a sample of what I have to offer:

Not the best, but still =) As you can see, there are five puppets on the stage at this point in time, sitting at various locations on what appears to be a palace and a small holy shrine (I think that’s incense to the left of the photo, just in front of the small curtains). The puppet on the far left is the best example of what I was trying to explain earlier – notice that the positioning of the puppeteers are exactly like those of the traditional puppet itself: all three of the puppeteers are facing the main dais of the palace and are seating themselves just like the puppet itself would if it were alive and really attending an audience at the grand palace. Even better – check out the facial expressions of the puppeteers present. Rapt attentiveness, interest and royal dignity are as clear as day on these performer/puppeteers – absolutely amazing.

Sound and other special effects in this play are provided by a Thai traditional music band which is seated at the left flank of the theater; this music group is in charge of providing the (absolutely enchanting) “soundtrack” to the whole affair, with other sound effects (explosions, the clanging of weapons and the like) are provided by a surround-sound stereo system.

The seal of the Traditional Thai Puppet Theater.

And now, on to the plot of the whole affair, shall we? =)

The play begins with a short traditional praying session, in where homage is paid to the ancestors of this arcane art; there is a shrine in the wing of the theater built specifically for this purpose. After that, the play takes it upon itself to brief the audience on what to expect from the show – a demonstration of puppet emotions are presented as a crash-course tutorial in synthetic moods lol. We were displayed a show of love and adoration, in where the character Uma (a deity who is also the consort of the senior god Isuan) gracefully danced around the stage, fingers twirling and regalia fluttering – the three puppeteers working the puppet danced around the stage with their character as well, joyous happiness displayed on every inch of their faces.

Then there was pride – the character of Isuan himself appeared with his three flankers and proceeded to strut around the stage, head held high and arms crossed in a display of absolute power and confidence. The gallant prance continued for quite a bit, with the actors/puppeteers thoroughly displaying all bodily (and puppetry) motions that one could expect from a character filled with godly pride.

However, the most impressive display was that of anger and rage – for this, the Thai Traditional Puppet Theater employed the character of Taraka – a senior and vile-looking demon, also known as the antagonist of the play; the main villain, so to speak. The puppet came out shoulders first, absolutely flying onto the stage – demonic anger was evident even in his entrance. Quick rapid-fire motions were carried out once the character had reached the centre of the stage – strong, furious strokes were used as Taraka vented his emotions on an invisible adversary onstage. Then, he lifted his left foot -

The puppeteers below him (Taraka was hoisted above their heads in order to magnify the feel of anger from this senior demon) lifted their left feet as well -

STAMP! All four feet – wooden and flesh and bone both – were brought crashing down to the ground. I think I jumped from the absolute ferocity of it all; throw in the furious expressions on the visages of the puppeteers below and you have a simply magnificent marriage of rage-like emotions. Absolutely brilliant – I couldn’t wait to get started by this point. Taraka swept his way back into the stage’s wings afterward, leaving me – and the other foreigners/mat sallehs/farangs in the theater with me I’m sure – astounded and rife with anticipation.

Finally, with the light background humming of Thai traditional music instruments, and the appearance of a simple mountain setting on which the senior god Isuan rested, we were finally off. At this point I am going to take the liberty of detailing the plot of the play “Birth of Ganesha“, as I assume not many of you are going to Bangkok, Thailand to watch this tale yourself. Here goes =)

The tale begins with the god Isuan mourning the death of his consort Satee high on a mountain, very much a recluse and a self-imposed ascetic. Upon seeing this, the demon Taraka sees a chance to dislodge him as master of the universe – Taraka asks another senior god, Brahma, to make him invincible and only vulnerable to the child of Isuan. Since Isuan is an ascetic and childless, Taraka feels secure in his position and then attempts to invade heaven with an army of demons.

The gods of heaven – including the senior deity Indra – are unable to defend their position and are forced to flee. Indra heads to Brahma and tells him what has transpired; the latter then orders Karmathep, the god of love, to cause Isuan to fall in love with Uma, his late consort’s reincarnation so that with her he can have a child who will in turn possess the capability to oust and defeat Taraka.

The defence of heaven.

Karmathep being told to create love between the two deities of Isuan and Uma.

Karmathep heads off to Isuan’s location. The senior god has denied himself the pleasures of the world and meditates on a rock, which the deity Uma approaches so that she can offer Isuan a garland of flowers. It is then that Karmathep appears and fires his arrow at the pair (very much a la Cupid), causing the pair to meet eyes and fall in love. The moment this happens, the mood of the play – which up to now has taken on a trend of urgency and battle – starts to shift and scenes become more docile and scenic.

Karmathep firing his arrow at Isuan and Uma.

The characters’ voices in the play are provided by the speakers attached at numerous locales around the stage. Being scripted in ancient Thai, there are also subtitles provided on large screens on both sides of the stage to ensure that foreigners are not lost in the furore of floating projectiles, elaborate sets, and dancing puppets and their masters. Up to now I had particularly liked the articulation of Uma, which had a very feminine feel to it – one can actually appreciate the depth of emotion that she feels for Isuan after being smitten by Karmathep’s love arrow; the graceful movements of the puppets arms, gradually fluttering up and down the flanks of the puppeteers, combined with the intricate music and backgrounds allow for an authentic transmission of puppet emotions into the audience.

Moving back to Isuan and Uma, the pair have now started to live together and for a while are relatively uninterrupted by the goings-on around them. However one day Isuan decides to go on a temporary retreat; before he leaves however, he hands his five-pointed spear to Uma. One day, during Isuan’s absence and when Uma is fast asleep, the demons invade heaven yet again. Uma’s lady-in-waiting, Vichaya hears the noises of battle though, and she rushes to alert Uma after she sees the gods being defeated yet again; once in Uma’s chamber she advises her to have her door guarded.

Vichaya hearing the noises of battle in the palace grounds.

Upon hearing this, Uma withdraws into her boudoir and creates a child from the perspiration of her body – the resulting child is named Kumarn. Kumarn receives Isuan’s five pointed spear and is told by Uma to guard the palace door, which he does at once. However, disaster strikes upon Isuan’s return – the senior god returns from his retreat  and to his surprise finds a large child who is not only wielding his five-pointed spear but also preventing him from entering the palace. In a rage, in orders his accomplice Visukam – yet another god – to send the child only. Not only is Visukarn unable to do this, but he is also wounded and defeated by the strength of Kumarn.

Furious, Isuan throws his trident at Kumarn and incapacitates him, just as Uma appears in the palace grounds. Distraught with despair, she tells Isuan that Kumarn was their child, horrifying him. Gradually, Uma’s despair grows out of control and in her newly developed anger morphs into Kalee – a frighteningly hideous monster of a woman with four arms; if I’m not mistaken four puppeteers were required to articulate Kalee.

Kalee, the severed body of Kumarn, and the horrified Isuan.

Shocked by his wife’s rage, Isuan consoles her and promises that he will reincarnate Kumarn. To this end, he orders Visukam to head off north and bring back the head of the first living thing that he finds pointing in the westerly direction. As Visukam – and his puppeteers I guess – depart the stage, sound and lighting effects are used in concert with the smoke machine to collapse the Kalee puppet and place Uma in its place once more.

Presently Visukam returns with the severed head of an elephant. With the usage of arcane magic, Isuan attaches the head to the headless body of Kumarn and brings him/it back to life. The reincarnated body staggers awake once more, and is renamed “Ganesha” by Isuan; thus, the birth of Ganesha has been completed. The following appearance onstage of Indra comes with the instruction to help the gods retake heaven, a wish that Ganesha speedily complies with.

The birth of Ganesha.

Up to this point I had been more than impressed with the well-constructed choreography and set-plays within the Birth of Ganesha; the only real gripe that I had with the play thus far was that its subtitles were not only poorly worded grammatically, they were also badly punctuated. Their timing was also off, as a screen of sentences very frequently turned up a good length before the same scene was actually acted out. That said, I felt the special effects employed in the climax more than made up for it – the part in where Ganesha finds himself pitted against Taraka actually had a more-than-legal stage twist: in a blaze of pyrotechnics the puppet for Taraka is converted into a well-adorned human actor, who then actually does battle with the puppet of Ganesha itself. Throw into this the mix of the mute emotions provided by the three Ganesha-based actor/puppeteers and you have an enthralling match stage scene before you. No holds barred, the climax features everything from pyrotechnical roars to exploding stage rocks and flying projectiles attached to strings and commandeered all across the stage – very impressive indeed =)

As you can probably guess, the tale ends with Ganesha successfully ousting Tarak from heaven – coiling a giant serpent by the name of Buangbat around him along the way – and being venerated as the god of success and the patron of learning. It was then that the lights slowly came up, and the play came to its end to rapturous applause from the small audience present. The prayer materials on the shrine adjacent to the stage were removed – I watched as the few locals in the hall paid respects to the shrine once more and settled myself comfortably next to Prae as the audience slowly began filing out of the viewing hall.

The little one murmured that we should probably try and get our cameras back and take a peek around the theater’s boutique in the wing. I thought it was a pretty good idea, and soon we were standing on the far end of the Joe Louis Theater, admiring the work put into creating such elaborate works of art:

Scary eh? @.@

Little dolls.

=)

What followed our brief tour of the theater wing was dinner on the Naatayasala Terrace – the place’s built-in restaurant. As usual, Prae did the business of ordering, and I did the business of eating XP

*drools* Gosh, I miss Thai food man @.@

Contrast the Malaysian and Thai expressions when placed face-to-face with such delicious cuisine:

Malaysian – Let’s Go Crazy LOL.

Thai – she probably gets this every day so I guess her expression isn’t surprising XD

Dinner was – as usual – top notch, and I enjoyed every bit of it =) After that scrumptious meal we went to Suan Lum Night Bazaar – just next to the Joe Louis theater – to resume our hunt for photo frames and souvenirs. I picked up a few trinkets but beyond that there was nothing much. We returned to Prae’s place soon after that, as we felt it was best to get some rest due to her having classes tomorrow and my having to meet a friend by the name of Dao at a BTS station nearby. For the uninitiated, Dao is yet another friend from Thailand that I have had the pleasure of making acquaintance with – due to her taking up law at uOttawa for a single semester in 2008. Very nice person =)

And she would be taking me to the Grand Palace the very next day =)

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I woke up the very next day to discover that Prae had already left for her classes and that I would be dropped of at the Saphan Thaksin BTS station by her dad later that day. I checked with Dao as to whether we were still on schedule, and upon receiving the affirmative, happily headed off for yet another cultural visit in Thailand =)

There are many routes to get to the Grand Palace, and going up the Chao Phraya by boat is one of them. The Chao Phraya is a major river of Thailand that runs through Bangkok and indirectly marks the mainland of the country with its low alluvial plain. In any case, I met Dao at the Saphan Thaksin station as intended, and after exchanging warm greetings – we had not seen each other in almost half a year – headed on the ferry-like boat that would cart us over to the Grand Palace.

Safety’s clearly not an issue here – over fifty people on a derelict and rickety boat, and no sign of a single life-jacket (actually after about fifteen minutes I did come across a massive stash of new and unopened life-jackets in one of the boat’s stores…apparently it would be too much trouble to distribute them amongst the public XP) lol. The ride on the Chao Phraya was interesting however:

Steadily cruising along.

The river’s “shoreline”.

An interesting diaspora of people use the cheap Chao Phraya ferries as a mode of common transportation: while I was on the boat I saw schoolkids get off and on, housewives do their grocery shopping, and even the odd monk in bright orange robes. It provided a very very quaint feel to things =)

The view on the boat was nowhere near as spectacular as the one off it though – as the Chao Phraya cuts a swathe through much of the city, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that one can probably catch a glimpse of fantastic architectural monuments in this city of rich pasts:

No line on the horizon – Wat Arun looms in the distance.

A closer (and much poorer) look at Wat Arun. To my deep regret, this is a location in Bangkok that I absolutely missed out on going to >.< Sometimes I still kick myself over it lol – especially after realizing how spectacular it looks in photos and other miscellaneous online descriptions.

Ah well, some other time I’m sure =)

Approximately 15 minutes after we passed Wat Arun, the boat Dao and I were on began to approach the stop that was nearest to the Grand Palace. I whipped out my camera and couldn’t wait to take photos – I admit this must have looked a little silly to locals because the gates of the grand palace aren’t exactly what you come for XD

The square immediately outside the Grand Palace.

But hey you gotta admit, it still isn’t something that appears in Malaysia or Canada every other day, no? =)

Since Dao was a veteran, it didn’t take long for me to find myself and my Olympus Fe-230 in the middle of the palace grounds – all excited and ready to go =D (yes, excitement was an emotion you can frequently associate with me being in another country/locale lol…that’s what happens when you spend the first 18 years of your life in one place haha XD)

Welcome to the Grand Palace.

Part of the palace grounds.

And this was to my immediate left -

I love the purple roofs =)

While I was in Bangkok virtually every stretch of road had this banner posted up; it’s the Queen’s seal – the week that I was visiting just so happened to contain her birthday =)

Heart of the Kingdom.

Even though I wasn’t completely satisfied with taking pictures, Dao persuaded me that even better opportunities for photos lay inside the palace itself; thus without much argument I stowed my camera and headed on deeper into the palace:

Different entry gates for Thais and “foreigners” LOL.

Foreigners visiting the Grand Palace are charged 350 baht for entry into the Grand Palace, whereas Thai nationals can enter for free – another grand example of my being destroyed financially by the local tourism bureaus LOL. I did think of trying to go through the “Thai” gate, but after seeing a burly security guard at the end of the gate I thought the better of it. And no I wasn’t afraid of trying because the guy was big and muscular; rather, he was asking questions in Thai to people who passed through his end of the gate – just to make sure they were really Thai.

I have this feeling I might not pass that test XP

Now, time for some history on the Grand Palace =)

The Grand Palace complex was established in 1782 and houses not only the royal residences and the throne halls, but also government offices and the world-renowned Temple of the Emerald Buddha. The palace grounds cover a total of 218,000 square meters and is surrounded by walls accumulating almost 2 kilometers in length. Built by Rama I, the palace was the end result of the King of Thailand deciding that the old location of the royal palace and centre of administration – in Thonburi, on the west side of the Chao Phraya River – was not suitable as the seat of the Siam government. The two earliest structures established in the Grand Palace complex were the Dusit Maha Prasat Throne Hall, and the Phra Maha Monthian.

Upon entering the palace, I was greeted by this:

Paintings adorn the whole outer exterior of the palace walls @.@

The detail, as you can see, is exquisite @.@

And they stretch all along the palace complex.

These wall paintings depict parts of the Ramakien – yes, that aforementioned Thai folktale adapted from the Indian Ramayana =)

Not only that, some of the walls are also inscribed with ancient Thai script; inscriptions that detail the Ramakien - in verse =) Dao offered to read some of the lines for me – apparently they have to be expressed in a certain tune; it was more than fascinating to listen to her go…according to some of the locals, her mastery of the Thai language is nothing short of fantastic =)

More wall paintings =)

This one painting in particular scared me a little lol – the facial expressions are quite vivid aren’t they?

Once I had torn myself away from these wall paintings, I discovered an arguably even more fascinating feast for my eyes – the architecture of the Grand Palace of Thailand itself:

If I’m not mistaken, Phra Mondop and Prasat Phra Dhepbidorn (The Royal Pantheon).

These statues are believed to act as guardians and are tasked with watching over the place.

Chinese influences?

Magnificent.

Hor Phra Monthian Dharma.

A frontal view of Prasat Phra Dhepbidorn.

A legendary river creature of some sort I think…according to legend this thing is supposed to have seven heads, but they could only fit five on the pedestal lol.

Statue.

See that clay model in front of the main structure in the background? Believe it or not, that’s a model of Angkor Wat – that complex and this one share many architectural similarities =)

Gilded gold.

Dao said that the Temple of the Emerald Buddha was a part of the palace that I should not miss, so the two of us slowly made our way across the complex, taking pictures at intervals as we went -

Model Wat.

Monuments & Melodies =)

The area flanking the Temple of The Emerald Buddha.

Part of the abode within the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.

The practice of constructing a temple within the precints of a Royal Palace of Thailand has been around since the Sukhothai period (1438 A.D.); thus when King Rama I established the city of Bangkok – or Ratanakosin – in  1782 A.D he had the Temple of the Emerald Buddha constructed in the eastern section of the palace, for the express purpose of installing the Emerald Buddha procured from the city of Vientiane in Laos. The construction of the Buddha’s resting place took two years and only in 1784 was it able to be ultimately transported here.

The Emerald Buddha itself is in actuality carved from a single large piece of green jade. According to a reliable chronicle, back in 1434 A.D. lightning struck a chedi in Chiang Rai (northern Thailand) and a Buddha statue covered in stucco was found inside. The image was then brought into the residence of the local abbot who one day removed  a flaking bit of stucco from the visage of the statue to discover a magnificent jade Buddha carving concealed within – the Emerald Buddha.

People naturally flocked to worship this precious statue, which due to its location was in the territory of King Samfangkaen. The aforementioned king sent an elephant to bring the Emerald Buddha to his locale in Chiang Mai, but each time the elephant reached the junction which led to road into the city of Lampang, it would run to that town. This incident happened with all three elephants that King Samfangkaen tried to use. Believing that the spirits guarding the Emerald Buddha wanted the image to stay in Lampang, he had it transported there for safekeeping where it remained for 32 years until a King Tiloka moved it again to Chiang Mai.

Over the years the statue found itself in Vientiane due to a prince of Laos being invited to become king of Chiang Mai, who later decided to bring the statue back with him to Luang Prabang – the capital of Laos then. It wasn’t till 1778 during the Thonburi period that King Rama I conquered Vientiane and reclaimed the Emerald Buddha as Thailand’s own. The Emerald Buddha was then returned to the Kingdom of Thailand, where many believed it rightfully belonged. King Rama I created two costumes for the statue: one to wear in the summers and another to wear in the rainy season; King Rama III would later add one for winter. If  I’m not mistaken when I went there it was dressed in the garments for the rainy season.

The Emerald Buddha.

And oh while we’re all looking at it now, apparently no photos of the jade image are allowed for security reasons lol. Whoops I guess =p In any case, the lap of the Emerald Buddha is 48.3 cm and the height of the whole image (including the base) reaches approximately 66 cm. The image is in a seated position, with the right leg resting on the left one; such iconographic dating allows the postulation of the idea that the statue was carved not much earlier than the 15th century in the style of either Chiang Mai or Chiang Rai. This would mean that it had to be carved only slightly earlier than its discovery in the Chiang Rai stupa.

- History excerpt adapted from History of The Temple of the Emerald Buddha, by Professor M.C. Subhadradis Diskul, and published by the Bureau of The Royal Household.

After 15 minutes in the temple, Dao and I decided to take a look at its exterior profiles; up to now I had already taken 150 shots with my camera, and the count it seemed would keep increasing steadily XD

Garudas holding nagas.

My traveling compatriot – Miss Prangtip “Dao” Rabieb – with her (mum’s) DSLR =)

More shots of the palace complex:

Simply grand.

Dazzling in the rays of the morning light.

More demon gate-guardians.

Many of these statuettes adorn the temple grounds.

Dao and I then decided to push on to the Chakri Maha Prasat Hall, where there were small museums of currency and also weaponry. It was just as we were about to leave that my camera’s charge level started flashing – I began to curse under my breath, for I knew that that meant I would only be able to get another 30 shots at most >.<

Approaching Chakri Maha Prasat.

Chakri Maha Prasat Hall, directly in front of Amornvithi Road.

The hall sits directly in front of Moonstarn Baromasna Hall, and Somut Devarraj Ubbat Hall. It is part of the Chakri Group and was built by King Rama V (more popularly known to us foreigners as King Chulalongkorn) in 1882. The Central Throne Hall is still in service for the welcoming of foreign ambassadors, and for state banquets in honour of visiting Heads of State.

Royal Palace Guard. Dao actually went up to this bloke and asked what would he do if she ran up the stairs XD And no he did not answer – much like the guards on the Canadian War Memorial in downtown Ottawa, he is bound by duty to be completely impassive. In extension, he can’t do as those memorial guards can, and take a beat (march around a little) lol.

Chakri Maha Prasat.

That’s Rajkaranyasapha Hall on the right. Try pronouncing the name of that one. Go on, I dare you. And once you’ve succeeded, try pronouncing “Tanyanan Songprasit” XD

I just loved the Grand Palace, seriously. It’s magnificence and well-maintained architecture was simply astounding. If enough time elapses in between this visit to Thailand and my next one, I might even consider forking out 350 baht again for a second visit.

Or maybe just learn Thai and fool the security guard XD

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We left the palace grounds at 4.00 pm, when things were starting to close for the day. Dao took me across the street, where we had a late lunch together =)

Yum! =D

It was then time for a short tour of the locality – the Grand Palace as you can probably guess is located right in the center of a reasonably popular walking district, and there are quite a few sights to see as well:

Thammasat University, one of the more prestigious local universities in Thailand.

Damn, I only just realized that in my week in the kingdom, I actually visited at least THREE universities LOL – being that the institutions of Chulalongkorn, Assumption, and Thammasat XD

Thoughtful Peace.

The tour of the area didn’t take much longer than half an hour before Prae called in to discuss their plans for the day. It took quite a bit to coordinate things – especially as little Prae was still being overworked by her commitments to debate – before we ultimately decided on dinner near the area of Nonthaburi, where Dao was originally from.

To get there we needed to use the Chao Phraya again =) It would be quite a distance to travel actually – at least an hour. I don’t know how Miss Rabieb managed it, but we got free rides all the way lol.

More cruising along.

Flanks of the Chao Phraya I.

Flanks of the Chao Phraya II – I like this shot =)

This is a ministry of some sort; I can’t remember what. Not Minipax I don’t think

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We finally arrived at the locale for dinner just before sunset. Dao had promised that it would be a gorgeous sight, and she was right – the eating place that she had chosen was directly on the banks of the Chao Phraya river, in a little lush green alcove that was hardly disturbed by the sound of passing boats. The seating in the restaurant provided visitors with the option of going modern or traditional, with indoor seating available for those who didn’t much fancy eating on the dais at night, with only a few lamps for illumination. Dao said it was much more ambient on the dais however, and I couldn’t help but agree =)

We walked around the area for a bit, snapping the odd photo here and there (miraculously my camera was still alive and I could manage to get a few more images out of it yet!) -

Nice =)

Senja.

Approaching normal.

I actually forgot the name of this place lol.

The two of us opted to sit at one of those low-tables-with-cushions-for-seats, where we hung around and talked whilst waiting for Prae to arrive. She ultimately arrived slightly after sunset, which was a shame as the mood around sunset was simply magical…something which I thought the sunset girl would love =)

Dao did us the privilege of ordering the food, which I figured was a wise choice as Prae had never been here herself, and I’m as useful with Thai cuisine as I am at giving birth lol. The food took quite a bit to arrive, but when they did, I could only think of one word – MARVELOUS!!

Absolutely delectable.

Even looking at this one makes my mouth water @.@

Unfortunately these are the only pictures of the food which I managed to salvage – I was too busy eating and appreciating the savoury texture of Thai cuisine that I forgot to do much else XD

Amidst the chewing mouths and the sound of tinkling cutlery, the three of us as always managed to do some talking. Prae was interested in finding out the circumstances of my knowing Dao, as it isn’t often that two South East Asians meet each other for the first time in Canada and get to know each other there. I suppose Dao was also interested in hearing how Prae and I got together; she was amused when it transpired that the two of us had met through debate LOL (Dao you should have known!! XD). And finally the two of them were also interested in looking at my facial reactions upon listening to a dialogue in a language that I don’t understand.

My face managed to approximate this at the time —> @.@

XD

All in all, it was good fun though. It was easily the best ending to an extremely interesting day, and I had enjoyed + appreciated Dao’s company a lot. Thus it was despite my most vehement protests that Dao took the bill for dinner that day; her excuse:

“You’re in my country.”

I told her that she can expect the same if she ever visits Malaysia and I happen to be around. She agreed =)

After that the three of us caught a cab and parted ways at the BTS bus transit station. It was quite sad to part because God knows it would be at least two years until I would see Dao again. I wished her well and thanked her for everything before making my way to the waiting buses with little Prae. The ride back to Bangkok proper was filled with ridiculous jokes and laughter from the two of us, and it wasn’t long before I felt completely at home again…in a foreign city, no less =)

Then Prae suggested that we go have ice-cream before heading home. GENIUS!! =D

The stuff we had.

I’m sure we argued over the bill as always, and I honestly can’t remember how it ended up. All I know is that very much like the ice-cream desserts, the warmth of the moment was shared.

A perfect day, in a perfect week.

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Part IV to follow =)