Bangkok - Museums

The National Museum in Bangkok, formerly an 18th century palace, is a short walk from the Grand Palace but a quiet haven compared to the wall to wall crowds at the palace. It is a vast complex with many buildings (14 according to the brochure) although some of them were closed for renovations or maintenance when we visited, there were still a lot of things to see with close to 500 different exhibits.  Some of the buildings themselves are historical monuments, including a traditional Thai teakwood house (The Red House).

I am showcasing some of my favourites among the exhibits in the photos below plus a few of the elaborate buildings on the property. We enjoyed the museum very much and spent a couple of hours there. When we decided to return to our hotel, we hailed a cab off the street and was charged an unreasonably high fare for what must have been a 15 minute journey - because we were in close proximity to the king's crematorium lineups, the cab driver took advantage and we made the mistake of not negotiating a fare before we got in. He claimed that he doesn't use the metre on weekends!  Lesson learned.


We also visited the Royal Barge National Museum on our first day in Bangkok but there was a flash flood leading to flooding at the museum - the one photo I took was from the outside. We visited instead a vast storage facility where some of the festival barges were housed.

One museum I wish I had time to visit is the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles inside the Grand Palace. We didn't have time to visit when we were there but it would have been a worthwhile trip looking at beautiful Thai textiles.  Another time...

My favourite piece in the National Museum - I love the expression on this buddha with the broken head - it gave me an immense feeling of peace and serenity. (13th century bronze from Ayutthaya)

The main museum gallery

Relief of Bodhi Tree from the 15th century

Thai female musicians excavated from a stupa, 7th century

Dharmachakra Buddhist Wheel of Law

An antique teak litter

Mother of pearl inlaid cabinet

Entrance to the Buddhaisawan Chapel, guarded by demons (below)

Phra Buddha Sihing, the second holiest image after the Emerald Buddha in Thailand is housed in the Buddhaisawan Chapel with its red coffered ceiling. It is supposed to bring its owner good luck.  King Rama I brought it back from Chiangmai and housed it in his private chapel.  It is still taken out to the streets at New Year's for Thai people to sprinkle water on it as a merit-making gesture (Scrumpdillyicious blog)

Red Pavilion from the old palace on the Museum grounds

The ceiling of the Pavilion

The Red House - red teak house in the traditional Thai style

Gable of a second pavilion on the Museum grounds

Lacquered entrance to an exhibit hall that was part of an old palace building (part of National Museum)

Lacquered shutters

Royal ceremonial chariots used exclusively for funerals housed in a separate building inside the National Museum complex

Royal Barge Museum

Flooded museum grounds

Barge garage

Decorated barge, one of many in the storage building

Next post: Summer Palace and Ayutthaya

Bangkok - Temples & Palaces

 

We were in Bangkok for three days, part of it on our own and part of it with the tour group. The major landmarks are temples and the Grand Palace. The Wat Arun, Temple of Dawn, stunningly different from the other temples and standing apart on the west bank of the river, was easily my favourite temple among all the temples we visited in Bangkok - and yet it was not on our tour agenda.  I was glad we visited on our own on that first day.

We also visited a temple not on the regular tour list, Loha Prasat (Metal Castle). We were there in late afternoon just as the sun hit the gold on the building.  It was particularly striking...and there were no crowds.

I enjoyed the gigantic Reclining Buddha - it was pretty awesome and worth the lineup, which moved along fairly quickly even with people making stops for selfies, although frankly it's an impossible task - far easier to get someone to take a photo for you.

The Grand Palace was too grand for words but too crowded to be truly enjoyable - it was almost terrifyingly crowded, an experience I would hesitate to recommend no matter how grand the buildings. The National Museum which we visited on our own afterwards was a quiet haven which allowed us to recover from the trauma of the palace crowds.  This will be in the next post. 

Practical tip:
- Apart from the required temple dress code, wear socks or have sockettes available if you don't want to walk around with bare feet on floors that the world had walked through - you will be required to take off your shoes at the temples. At the Emerald Buddha temple, it is best to have your guide watch over your shoes because of the huge crowds.

The central stupa at Wat Arun from different perspectives - you can walk up this stupa to different levels

From the front entrance

This buddha behind bars at the top of one of the stupas

There were different temples with more traditional architecture at Wat Arun

An emerald buddha in one of the temples - this is NOT the famous emerald buddha, which was moved from Wat Arun to the Grand Palace

Rows of buddhas in long galleries - we would find this is a repeated theme at many temples

Over the top trimmings!

The beginning of the 344 steps up to the "Golden Mountain" at Wat Saket

This is another ornate temple not on the regular tourist route  - Loha Prasat; we hit it at the golden hour, making the gold more golden than ever!

The giant reclining buddha at Wat Pho - worth the short lineup to see it - it's quite spectacular

This is a little over halfway...

Here are the toes...

Even the back of the head was something else

Stupas and long galleries outside Wat Pho (Temple of the Reclining Buddha) - there will be more of these at every temple we visit

This is the crowd jostling to get in so they can walk in front of the Emerald Buddha, below - you can decide whether it's worth it...

There are six pairs of these demons guarding the Emerald Buddha

One of several temples on the Grand Palace grounds - this one actually had space for you to sit and pray!

This one with porcelain tiles reminded me of Wat Arun

This gold stupa is supposed to contain the relics of Buddha

The Buddhist Library built in 1789 - door panels are inlaid with mother of pearl.

Model of Angkor Wat, the Khmer temple in Cambodia - the King had this built so his subjects can see what the Khmer ruins looked like.

Statue of Cheewok Komaraphat - patron of Thai medicine and a doctor of the Lord Buddha

There are Chinese statues scattered throughout the palace grounds - these were used as ballasts when the Thai people were trading with China

One of many side gardens in the Grand Palace complex with Chinese statues

I love the energy of these demons and monkeys holding up the gold stupa - these are important characters in the Ramakien story (Thai national epic derived from the Hindu epic Ramayana)

Wat Arun at night