After our tour of this magnificent temple we took leave of our friendly tour guide. She gave us the usual warning of being scammed by touts and gave us her cell phone number in case we needed any help. We thanked her and walked to the Royal Palace.

For just about 150 years, Bangkok's Grand Palace was not only the home of the King and his court, but also the entire administrative seat of government. Thai Kings stopped living in the palace full time around the turn of the twentieth century, but the complex still remains the seat of power and spiritual heart of the Thai kingdom. The palace is laid out following the general outline of Ayutthaya palaces. The Temple of the Emerald Buddha takes up one corner of the complex next to the outer court. Words simply fail to describe what we saw. Art and architecture joined hands together with Thai aesthetics to create this marvelous complex. We were absolutely stunned. The intricate inlay works, the colours, the statues amazed us. Another striking thing which we felt was that the chambers had been constructed and arranged in such a manner that you move from one vibration to another as you move from one chamber to another.

To properly see this out of the world palace one needs at least three hours. By the time we were through dark grey clouds had gathered and the air was humid and stifling. Wind had practically ceased to blow. We were sweating profusely. On our way to the exit we were talking about the scams that people fall victim to in this area which Shanek had once described as shark infested and how come no one came to us with friendly advice. My daughters were of the opinion that our Thai experience will remain incomplete without even a minor scam. I think God heard us and we bumped in to a lady wearing some kind of a badge on her blouse complete with a clip board in hand, a pen and a whistle hanging from the neck. We were to take the ferry from the nearby pier to cross the river to visit Wat Arun. I was not sure whether we should turn left or right after exiting from the palace. So I asked this official looking lady the direction to the pier. After muttering a few Hindi words this lady gave us the direction and said that the temple is closed now and will open at 4 PM and taking the map from my hand she began to make circles around places which we must see till the temple opens, cautioning us of looting Tuk Tuk drivers she blew her whistle and a non-looting Tuk Tuk driver materialized from nowhere. We thanked her for all the help and wished her a good day & better luck and started walking towards the pier.