A Palace Fit For a Queen

Hello Hello Hello!

I am sorry to everyone for how long it has been since I have blogged. We have been go go go the last few days and very tired when we hit the bed at night. This post is in hot pink because Tuesday's color is hot pink and we are getting back to that day.

On Tuesday we woke up bright and early and headed to the GRAND PALACE! At the Grand Palace we were greeted by this man and decided we would be on our best behavior!

 The Grand Palace was built in 1782 and there are three courtyards. The inner courtyard is the most prestigious of the courtyards and it is the only one that only royalty has access to. We got lucky for our tour with a sweet little lady named Lucky. 

Sorry I can't get her to be straight!

Before starting our tour of the Grand Palace she taught us a funny way that Thai people explain going to the bathroom in a squatty potty. For women they say I am going to pick a flower (because girls have to squat really low to make it in the squatty potty) and for males they say going to shoot a rabbit (because the keys have to aim in to a really small hole). That has absolutely no relevance to the Royal Palace, but I thought it was quite funny. 

The Grand Palace was very large and the entire thing was a beautiful work of art. One part of the palace that you can't miss is the 18 karat gold dome in the middle of the the courtyard. 

 Every part of the palace was amazing and the more up close you got the better it was. Every little part of the Palace had a jewel, a tile, or a beautiful shape that catches your eye. I trully could have spent hours just staring at one side of the entire palace. This tile work was one of my favorites parts. 

The walls of the Grand Palace tell stories and thus have lots of amazing statues of gods and warriors. Here are some of my favorites.

Before entering the center courtyard temple to see the Buddha and bring him our wishes we had to be blessed with the lotus flower. Here I am receiving my blessing from Jill.

Here is a picture of Jill and I before we went to inside the temple.

 This is a side door because the main door was swarming with people ready to make their wish. Lucky told us that many people who are sick travel many miles to come to see the Buddha and wish for sight, limbs, the ability to walk, and the power to fight off disease.

Every part of the Grand Palace was beautiful and here are two pictures that show just how grand it was. 

During our adventure, a very sweaty one I might add, we found a few cool guys. This one was a little too serious for me.

These two seemed a little more in to themselves than us.

But this one was by far the most amazing of them all.

 I purchased him for my future home. Andie, I hope you and Dave have room in the storage for my 30 foot Thai statue. =P

     After our amazing time at the Grand Palace, we went back for another English teaching course. I want you all to know I have found a friend here who has me completely topped on the blonde moments. In the class the teacher was explaining to all of us that many Thai students do no understand the english word faucet, because they call it a tap, and asked if anyone could guess why the Thai students wouldn't recognize this word. My dear friend Lara raised her hand, quite ambitiously I might add, and said, "Because in Thailand they don't have sinks!". As this was day 3 in Thailand and we had all been using our sinks for those past three days, Lara's answer was quite hysterical to the entire class. I have a feeling her students are in for quite the adventure. haha

     We followed our orientation classes with a welcome dinner that was held on our behalf. The dinner was really good and we were lucky enough to have performers of traditional Thai dance to entertain us during the meal. Here are some of the pictures from the dances we saw. The costumes were very ornate and although they looked very heavy, the dancers did an amazing job. 

      After the welcome dinner we headed to our rooms for our routine naps and then headed out to an area of town that our Thai instructor recommended, Soi 11. Our group was beyond excited because we found a Mexican restaurant called Charley Brown's and decided to pop in even though we were far from hungry. We actually were summoned in by the owner by a bet with me that there was no way his chips and salsa could impress a girl from California. We spent the next two hours talking to the owner and having a great time learning about Thailand. Turns out the chips and salsa were amazing. Here is our group at the restaurant.

    After a round of passionfruit margaritas we headed to a called called levels with a great view of the city. I didn't bring my US driver's license out and ended up having to sneak in to the club. Using fake ids to get in to a 18+ club and I am 22! Here are some pictures from our fun night at Levels. 

At the end of the night we took a taxi cab back to the hotel and I was super excited when it started to down pour. It was our first site of rain in Thailand, but I know it won't be our last. 

I wanted to share my excitement about the rain with my friends, but you can see they were a little less excited.

I stayed awake and enjoyed the rain the entire cab ride home. Overall, Tuesday was a jam packed day, but a fun one nonetheless. Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. =)

Coming soon: Elephants and bamboo rafting! 

XO