Bangkok - Day 1 The Grand Palace & Wat Phra Kaew; Wat Pho

We planned to ride a river taxi to the Grand Palace but somehow ended up in a regular taxi. The driver didn't quite understand (or pretended not to?) know where we wanted to go until Renee showed him a picture of it on her phone. LOL After driving around who knows where for about 25 minutes, we reached our destination.

The Grand Palace (Thai: พระบรมมหาราชวัง, Phra Borom Maha Ratcha Wang, lit. The Lord's Supreme, Great, Royal Palace) is a complex of buildings in Bangkok, Thailand. It served as the official residence of the Kings of Thailand from the 18th century onwards. Construction of the Palace began in 1782, during the reign of King Rama I, when he moved the capital across the river from Thonburi to Bangkok. The Palace has been constantly expanded and many additional structures were added over time. The present King of Thailand, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, however, resides at the Chitralada Palace.

The Temple of the Emerald Buddha is on the grounds, or Wat as it is called there. It was quite grand with beautiful tile worked column's and stones. Inside is a solid Jade Buddha. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the temple as it is an active place of worship, but I did get one through the doorway from standing down on the stairs. (Below all of the photos is a general description of a Wat.)

We started our tour in the Wat and then proceeded to the palace so that is the order of the photos. This is just a few of them. There are more of them posted at my SmugMug photo site. http://nolamarimages.smugmug.com/Vacation/Thailand/Grand-Palace/19726959_CJsvXL

After the Grand Palace we wanted to see the Thai History Museum. It was Jim's and mine first experience in a songthaew! The museum was closed, so we went instead to another Wat adjacent to the Grand Palace, called Wat Pho. This Wat contains the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, a massive gold Buddha plated with gold and with Mother of Pearl embedded feet. It was quite impressive. No seemed to object to picture taking there. Here some photos from the Wat, again more at the SmugMug site.

Wat Pho (วัดโพธิ์), or Wat Phra Chetuphon (วัดพระเชตุพน) as it is generally known to the Thais, is mainly famous for the huge Reclining Buddha statue it houses. At 20 acres large, it is the largest Wat in Bangkok, and is technically the oldest too, as it was built around 200 years before Bangkok became Thailand's capital. However, today the Wat today bears virtually no resemblance to that originally constructed, as it was almost entirely rebuilt by Rama I when the capital was moved to Bangkok. It holds the dual honors of having both Thailand's largest reclining Buddha image and the most number of Buddha images in Thailand. More:
http://www.into-asia.com/bangkok/attractions/watpho.php

A wat (derived from the [Pāli] word vatthu-ārāma) is a monastery temple in Cambodia, Thailand, or Laos. The word "wat" (Khmer: វត្ត, Thai: วัด, sometimes rendered "vat" when referring to Laos) means "school".

Strictly speaking a wat is a Buddhist sacred precinct with monks' quarters, the temple proper, an edifice housing a large image of Buddha, and a structure for lessons. A Buddhist site without a minimum of three resident monks cannot correctly be described as a wat, although the term is frequently used more loosely, even for ruins of ancient temples. In Cambodia, a wat is used to refer to all kinds of places of worship. Technically, wat generally refers to a Buddhist place of worship, but the technical term is វត្តពុទ្ធសាសនា (wat pootasasna). A Christian church can be referred as វិហារយេស៊ូ(vihear yeasu). Angkor Wat អង្គរវត្ត means city of temples.

In everyday language in Thailand, a wat is any place of worship except a mosque (Thai สุเหร่า - su-rao; or มัสยิด - Thai rendering of masjid; a mosque may also be described as โบสถ์ของอิสลาม - bot khong Is-a-lam). Thus wat cheen is a Chinese temple (either Buddhist or Taoist), wat khaek is a Hindu temple, and wat kris or wat krit or wat farang is a Christian church, though Thai โบสถ์ (โบด bot) may be used descriptively as with mosque.
[edit] Structure
A typical Buddhist wat consists of the following buildings:
chaidei or chedi (Khmer ចេតិយ), (Thai เจดีย์) (from Sanskrit: chaitya, temple) - usually conical or bell-shaped buildings, often containing relics of Buddha
vihan (Khmer វិហារ),wihan (Thai วิหาร) from Sanskrit: vihara) - a meeting and prayer room
mondop (Thai มณฑป) (from Sanskrit: Mandapa) - a usually open, square building with four arches and a pyramidal roof, used to worship religious texts or objects
sala (Khmer សាលា), (Thai ศาลา) (from Sanskrit: Shala - School, from an earlier meaning of shelter) - a pavilion for relaxation or miscellaneous activities
bot โบสถ์ or ubosoth อุโบสถ์ (from Pali uposatha) - the holiest prayer room, also called the "ordination hall" as it is where new monks take their vows. Architecturally it is similar to the vihara; the main differences are the eight cornerstones placed around the bot to ward off evil. The bot is usually more decorated than the viharn.
bibiloteca (Thai หอไตร) - Tripitaka library where Buddhist scriptures are kept
drum tower (Thai หอกลอง)
bell tower (Thai หอระฆัง)
multipurpose hall (Thai: ศาลาการเปรียญ, study hall) is a building in a wat. In the past this hall was only for monks to study in, as parian is a Pali word meaning 'educated monk' or 'monk student'.
The living quarters of the monks, including the กุฏิ (Thai กุติ kuti or กุด kut - monk cells) are separated from the sacred buildings.
The roofs of Thai temples are often adorned with chofahs.