Day 12 – Friday 9th January – Royal Temple (Refusal) and Wat Arun - The Temple of the Dawn

Our last day of sight seeing today and we’re off to the Temple of the Dawn and the Royal Palace. Both these sights are beside the river, so we’re off on the river ferry. We asked the Hotel Reception what was the best way to get to them and they said most people took the ferries as that was the most adventurous – adventure Hilton style – take public transport.

Asians are very modest people, so every where you go you have to dress conservatively – no short shorts, no sleeveless tops – given that we both wear shorts below the knee and short sleeved shirts, it’s never been any drama and we haven’t had to do anything exceptional at any of the temples of palaces we’ve visited. That was until we got to the Royal Palace in Thailand. As we entered the gate, there were the usual signs about what you couldn’t wear, but these ones went further and three quarter length shorts or anything tight would not be acceptable. This was no problem however, as we could get some long trousers for a 100 bhat refundable deposit. This did not please me and I’ve never handled being told I wasn’t adequately dressed very well, so after two minutes of standing in the queue with every other tourist waiting for my grey slacks, we both got the hump and decided that if we weren’t good enough for the king, then the king wasn’t good enough for us and off we went.

Please accept my apologies if this lack of commentary or pictures is spoiling your viewing pleasure. I’m sure that there have been suitably dressed people in the past, or ones with the patience and humility to obtain a pair of the Kings grey slacks, so if you were to type in “Grand Palace, Bangkok” into Google or Google earth, you will no doubt find some fine picture of this beautiful Palace

Where ever we’ve been in Europe or Asia, we’ve never had any problems with pick pockets, or unscrupulous people ripping you off. However, all round the Palace were signs warning us to “beware of wily strangers offering you Tuk Tuk rides or boat trips”. In Bangkok, there are always people offering you Tuk Tuk rides, so I’m not sure if they are any worse around the Palace, but anyway, we battled our way through the usual array of Tuk Tuk drivers, market sellers and people wanting to help you find your way, even when you weren’t lost and off down to the next ferry terminal to catch the cross river shuttle to the Temple of the dawn.

We saw a great sign on the way in, which I’ve put a photo of up on the site – “No Smoking Alcohol”. It’s not the drinking, is it? The temple of the dawn in another one of the Khmer style temples that you have to clamber up the steep steps, like the ones in Cambodia. The Thai ones are all decorated in porcelain, so are beautiful to look at. They have all had the OSH treatment, as they now have hand rails, which was a real benefit. From the temple of the dawn, you could look back across the river and see the orange roofs of the Royal Palace. There is a photo on the site of the view from the top layer of the Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn) temple.
After the temple of the dawn we caught a ferry back to River City, a shopping complex on the other side of the river to the Hilton, where we had lunch, before spending a quiet afternoon in the Executive Lounge working on our photos, writing the blog, had the complimentary afternoon tea, before another “Night on Paris” – wining and dining free on the Hiltons.