A Rambling Writer Rerun: Thailand, part 4: Bangkok Grand Palace and Wat Arun
Thor and I continue our explorations of important sacred sites in Bangkok.
NOTE: Due to health issues, Thor and I haven’t been able to do much travel the past few years, so here’s our Thailand trip from 2020. We were lucky to squeak through the pandemic flight closures that February of 2020 as we returned from our three-week trip. Crazy times just keep getting crazier. So escape for a few minutes from our new American dystopia to a country as beautiful and colorful as a dream! I’ll interrupt the reruns with occasional book reviews or Geezer Adventures…. (This blog series began 3/15/2025.)
In the last Bangkok post, we took the river “bus” to Wat Phra Kaeo, where we braved the crowds and heat to marvel at the sacred Emerald Buddha and elaborate architecture of the wat compound. We received our blessing bracelets from Buddhist monks robed in orange and wearing protective face masks, an unsettling reminder of the then-new COVID-19 virus starting to raise concerns. Now in July, of course, the sight of people wearing face masks is a reassuring sight. How quickly things change!
With our bracelets and our parasols to guard us from the intensely fierce sun, we left the wat past one more beautiful temple….
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You will find The Rambling Writer’s blog posts here every Saturday. Sara’s latest novel from Book View Café is Pause, a First Place winner of the Chanticleer Somerset Award and an International Pulpwood Queens Book Club selection. “A must-read novel about friendship, love, and killer hot flashes.” (Mindy Klasky). It’s also a love letter to the breathtaking wilderness of Sara’s native Pacific Northwest. Sign up for her quarterly email newsletter at www.sarastamey.com
2 thoughts on “A Rambling Writer Rerun: Thailand, part 4: Bangkok Grand Palace and Wat Arun”
I grew up near Washington DC and am very familiar with Greek inspired monumental architecture. Such a contrast to the incredibly intricate decorations on the Thai temples. Just focus on a square foot of the surface of one of these temples and then think about that complexity covering thousands of square feet. My brain overloads.
Just revisiting these photos and the closeups of temple decorations has me agog once more at the complexity.