Tickets to the Grand Palace and Temple of the Emerald Buddha are also good for admission to the Vimanmek Mansion and Dusit throne rooms, and it's a good thing you have seven days to use them, because all of that in one day would be a whole lot of walking in the Bangkok heat. So the Saturday of our second full weekend in Thailand was devoted to Dusit Palace Park. (and here)
The Dusit area is dotted with royal residences and throne halls, some in current use and others historical. We spent a good four hours here and didn't come close to seeing everything cool there is to see, so we'll be going back for sure. We missed the royal tuk-tuk! For shame! And the elephant stables! Augh!
We did see three amazing buildings, though: the Vimanmek Mansion, the Abhisek Dusit Throne Hall and the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall. No photos allowed inside any of the buildings, which is too bad, because they were all pretty spectacular. The grounds are beautiful, too. Here we are all set to explore ...
Note to anyone coming to visit us: It's not too smart to wear a bright yellow shirt around, because you'll accidentally be supporting one side in the current political hullabaloo. (Bright red is out, too.) I got enough comments on my shirt that day (all friendly) to permanently remove it from my exploration wardrobe.
Our first stop was the Vimanmek Mansion, which is supposedly the largest golden teak building in the world. It was built by Rama V (who was Prince Chulalongkorn, one of Anna's students in the King and I, if you know that play) in 1900 and has been restored and filled with period furniture and photographs taken by the king. The rooms are beautiful and full of interesting things like an old gramophone, hunting trophies and a random room full of old typewriters. You can see some interior photos if you click on the link above. The outside was surrounded by beautiful gardens and a whole lot of Chinese tourists.
All the guidebooks and tourist sites say you can only go through the mansion as part of a guided tour, but we wandered right in and nobody stopped us. There are people stationed in every room, presumably to keep rowdies like us from touching things (they snapped to attention as soon as they saw the kids coming), and they were happy to answer some questions. We were lucky enough to have our friend Mike with us, who speaks pretty good Thai. A couple of ladies were gleefully outlining some of the king's stranger family history for us. They showed us a picture of the woman who was both Rama IV's wet nurse and Rama V's mother, so wrap your head around that one if you dare.
After wandering through the mansion, which is beautiful inside and out, we took a quick break to check out the durian products on sale at a nearby snack bar. If you aren't familiar with durian, you're kind of lucky. It smells so bad that it's actually banned from public transportation in Bangkok. Lots of people love it, though. Here's a good primer. I guess it's sort of like stinky cheese. If you can muscle past the gag reflex you're in for a treat. I haven't tried it yet, though it's related to jackfruit, and I kind of like jackfruit. We'll see how brave I get.
Check out the ice cream flavors -- including two that are durian-based. Mike tried the durian ice cream, but Johnny and Evie preferred the safety of chocolate and Sam chose his favorite flavor ever -- mango. I would have gone for passion fruit. Mmmmmmmm.
We found this shrine to a Chinese goddess while walking over to the throne halls. The shrine was a gift from a Chinese delegation, and it apparently gets quite a few faithful visitors.
Not sure who the goddess is exactly ... anyone able to enlighten me?
A view of the Vimanmek Mansion from the Chinese shrine ...
The pillars are all adorned with dragons ...
... and this one also features a cutey patootie ...
Johnny and Evie were real troopers on this trip, because they were both feeling kind of sick. They soldiered on without complaining (well ... that's not entirely true, but we can pretend it is).
Next stop was the Abhisek Dusit Throne Hall (and here), which Rama V used to receive foreign dignitaries. Now it's a museum of traditional Thai handicrafts. The current queen is a huge patron of the traditional arts, and her organization, SUPPORT, maintains the museum. We saw some amazing jewelry, baskets, woven silk, niello and kram metalware, and wood carving. At this point, Johnny was really fading, but the sight of all that gold and silver perked him up some. The throne hall is made of teak, but the style reminded me a lot of the Mughal architecture in northern India.
Here's a view of the newer throne hall's dome from the Abhisek Dusit Throne Hall. The buildings are separated by more gardens.
Our last stop was the incredibly impressive Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall (and here), also commissioned by Rama V. (He was quite the builder.) Rama V (following in the footsteps of his father, Rama IV) worked to modernize and to an extent Westernize Thailand as a way of resisting colonization. The incredible thing is that they managed to remain sovereign at a time when most of their neighbors were falling to colonial rule. Impressive.
Anyway, the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall was built by Italian architects in the Italian Renaissance style. The inside is even more beautiful than the outside. You can see a couple of interior photos here (and here), along with photos of some of the amazing pieces of traditional art housed here. The throne hall is another museum of traditional arts, but these pieces are on a huge scale and must be worth several million dollars each. I loved the use of beetle wings in a lot of the art, but my favorite pieces were two huge needlepoint depictions of scenes from the Ramakien. I also loved a giant teak carving that told the story behind the nine sacred gems, or navaratna (and here).
Evie in a gazebo outside the hall ...
Since this throne room is still used for royal activities, it requires "appropriate dress," meaning I had to cover my pants with a sarong. I might start doing all of my tourism wearing a long skirt, because you never know when they're going to get picky. I missed a part of the temple complex the week before because I was wearing pants, too.
When you enter the throne hall, you get a little handset that tells you the history behind all the art you're going to see. Pretty cool, but Evie felt the need to listen to every second of every. single. piece. of. art. By the time she and I made our way through the galleries, the boys were sacked out on a bench by the exit, a clear sign that it was time to get home. Another great day in Bangkok!
The Dusit area is dotted with royal residences and throne halls, some in current use and others historical. We spent a good four hours here and didn't come close to seeing everything cool there is to see, so we'll be going back for sure. We missed the royal tuk-tuk! For shame! And the elephant stables! Augh!
We did see three amazing buildings, though: the Vimanmek Mansion, the Abhisek Dusit Throne Hall and the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall. No photos allowed inside any of the buildings, which is too bad, because they were all pretty spectacular. The grounds are beautiful, too. Here we are all set to explore ...
Note to anyone coming to visit us: It's not too smart to wear a bright yellow shirt around, because you'll accidentally be supporting one side in the current political hullabaloo. (Bright red is out, too.) I got enough comments on my shirt that day (all friendly) to permanently remove it from my exploration wardrobe.
Our first stop was the Vimanmek Mansion, which is supposedly the largest golden teak building in the world. It was built by Rama V (who was Prince Chulalongkorn, one of Anna's students in the King and I, if you know that play) in 1900 and has been restored and filled with period furniture and photographs taken by the king. The rooms are beautiful and full of interesting things like an old gramophone, hunting trophies and a random room full of old typewriters. You can see some interior photos if you click on the link above. The outside was surrounded by beautiful gardens and a whole lot of Chinese tourists.
All the guidebooks and tourist sites say you can only go through the mansion as part of a guided tour, but we wandered right in and nobody stopped us. There are people stationed in every room, presumably to keep rowdies like us from touching things (they snapped to attention as soon as they saw the kids coming), and they were happy to answer some questions. We were lucky enough to have our friend Mike with us, who speaks pretty good Thai. A couple of ladies were gleefully outlining some of the king's stranger family history for us. They showed us a picture of the woman who was both Rama IV's wet nurse and Rama V's mother, so wrap your head around that one if you dare.
After wandering through the mansion, which is beautiful inside and out, we took a quick break to check out the durian products on sale at a nearby snack bar. If you aren't familiar with durian, you're kind of lucky. It smells so bad that it's actually banned from public transportation in Bangkok. Lots of people love it, though. Here's a good primer. I guess it's sort of like stinky cheese. If you can muscle past the gag reflex you're in for a treat. I haven't tried it yet, though it's related to jackfruit, and I kind of like jackfruit. We'll see how brave I get.
Check out the ice cream flavors -- including two that are durian-based. Mike tried the durian ice cream, but Johnny and Evie preferred the safety of chocolate and Sam chose his favorite flavor ever -- mango. I would have gone for passion fruit. Mmmmmmmm.
We found this shrine to a Chinese goddess while walking over to the throne halls. The shrine was a gift from a Chinese delegation, and it apparently gets quite a few faithful visitors.
Not sure who the goddess is exactly ... anyone able to enlighten me?
A view of the Vimanmek Mansion from the Chinese shrine ...
The pillars are all adorned with dragons ...
... and this one also features a cutey patootie ...
Johnny and Evie were real troopers on this trip, because they were both feeling kind of sick. They soldiered on without complaining (well ... that's not entirely true, but we can pretend it is).
Next stop was the Abhisek Dusit Throne Hall (and here), which Rama V used to receive foreign dignitaries. Now it's a museum of traditional Thai handicrafts. The current queen is a huge patron of the traditional arts, and her organization, SUPPORT, maintains the museum. We saw some amazing jewelry, baskets, woven silk, niello and kram metalware, and wood carving. At this point, Johnny was really fading, but the sight of all that gold and silver perked him up some. The throne hall is made of teak, but the style reminded me a lot of the Mughal architecture in northern India.
Here's a view of the newer throne hall's dome from the Abhisek Dusit Throne Hall. The buildings are separated by more gardens.
Our last stop was the incredibly impressive Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall (and here), also commissioned by Rama V. (He was quite the builder.) Rama V (following in the footsteps of his father, Rama IV) worked to modernize and to an extent Westernize Thailand as a way of resisting colonization. The incredible thing is that they managed to remain sovereign at a time when most of their neighbors were falling to colonial rule. Impressive.
Anyway, the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall was built by Italian architects in the Italian Renaissance style. The inside is even more beautiful than the outside. You can see a couple of interior photos here (and here), along with photos of some of the amazing pieces of traditional art housed here. The throne hall is another museum of traditional arts, but these pieces are on a huge scale and must be worth several million dollars each. I loved the use of beetle wings in a lot of the art, but my favorite pieces were two huge needlepoint depictions of scenes from the Ramakien. I also loved a giant teak carving that told the story behind the nine sacred gems, or navaratna (and here).
Evie in a gazebo outside the hall ...
Since this throne room is still used for royal activities, it requires "appropriate dress," meaning I had to cover my pants with a sarong. I might start doing all of my tourism wearing a long skirt, because you never know when they're going to get picky. I missed a part of the temple complex the week before because I was wearing pants, too.
When you enter the throne hall, you get a little handset that tells you the history behind all the art you're going to see. Pretty cool, but Evie felt the need to listen to every second of every. single. piece. of. art. By the time she and I made our way through the galleries, the boys were sacked out on a bench by the exit, a clear sign that it was time to get home. Another great day in Bangkok!
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