The Grand Palace

The Grand Palace grounds are one of the numero uno tourist attractions of Thailand. The palace grounds cover an area of 218,400 sq. meters and are surrounded by walls built in 1782. The length of the four walls is 1,900 meters. The Grand Palace houses several important structures: the Government offices, the Shrine of the Emerald Buddha and the Royal residences.

In tourist-friendly anything goes Thailand, the Grand Palace and grounds are one of those rare places with a visitors dress code. All guests are scrutinized at the entry gate: bermudas, short skirts, stringy wear, casual tourist and beach wear of all sorts are prohibited and not just because they are tacky. I am the only one that had to rent blue cover pants to cover my cool bright new short pants...

Stepping inside the compounds of the Grand Palace, you get transported to an altogether different world, a different era! Sprawled around as far as you can see are highly-decorated buildings, temples, stupas, statues, straight out of the Old world dazzling from top to bottom in their shiny traditional outfits of metallic foil, golden lacquer, encrusted with innumerable pieces of glass, ceramic, stone. I could see why they did not want us wearing our shorts and bright beach wear because so many of the tacky tourists would have gotten mixed up with many of the half dressed, brightly decorated blue, gold, and green creatures.

Aja's comment: No, dad is wrong, the reason they made him rent pants was because his are tacky.

photo's at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26080359@N08/sets/72157623582192158/