Bangkok is a huge city. It is smoggy and polluted. Some residents wear face masks to protect them from the harsh air quality. By the end of a day, my eyes burned and I had an intense headache. We saw the sun thru a fog, but the background of everything was grey. The cleanest air I breathed was in a shopping mall.
It was very hot too. When we arrived at the Grand Palace, it must have been 90 degrees and very humid. The Grand Palace is the residence for the King and his family as well as having many governmental offices. Within the complex is the Royal Monastery of the Emerald Buddha. Because of the spiritual significance of the walled district, all visitors must wear shirts with sleeves and shorts are not allowed. Since Molly and I had worn tank tops, we had to “borrow” shirts from the administration to cover our arms. Many visitors were like us and some also “borrowed” pants or skirts. Many visitors wore pink, a color of religious significance. Shoes are always taken off before entry into any temple.
The Thai love and relish their King. As happens, it was the King’s 82 birthday on December 5, just before we arrived. In celebration of that, decorations aligned many roads around the Palace and central areas and many additional tourists and worshippers were in Bangkok to see the lights, flowers and other honorary memorabilia. The roads were awful. It took us hours to get around the city later in the evening. We finally abandoned plans of visiting the night market and headed back to the hotel for another massage.
The hotel has some Christmas decorations up. The Christmas tree is pathetic and plastic. The signs in the restaurant say “Merry X-mas” , which I know is a frequently used abbreviation, but somehow it felt wrong. I had to remember the country of Thailand is 95% Buddhist. I think I was lucky to see a Christmas tree at all.
