Bankok Grand Palace - 5/1/2026
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
We visited the Grand palace this morning. It was very crowded and hot and humid but we made the best of it. The palace is no longer occupied by the current King, Queen or main royal family but other royals do live there. The grounds are massive and a year after the queen mothers death, people are still arriving to mourn her. They had large sitting areas where people queued until there was a group of 100 mourners and then they were taking to view her where she was laid out and waiting for her crematorium to be completed so that she could be cremated.
We entered inside of the gates and viewed the outside of many ornately decorated buildings and were amazed at the detailed mirror and gold work on every inch of every surface.
There is a famous emerald Buddha on the grounds of the palace in a temple. No pictures were allowed and you could approach the small Buddha, instead viewing it from quite a distance. It was difficult to see.
We left the palace with our group and headed back to the hotel. The bus made a “bathroom stop” on the way back at a Gem factory. Given it was only 12 minutes from the hotel it was clearly just an effort to get people to spend money. We decided that our trip on our own yesterday to see the reclining Buddha was a lot more fun.
We had the rest of the day to ourselves so we had a quick lunch and then spent some time at the pool at our lovely hotel.
We ended the evening at our favorite spot at the hotel. There’s a little casual space adjoining the lobby that serves dinner and drinks and has wonderful views of sunset over the river.
Tomorrow we leave the Shangri-la Hotel in Bankok to join our ship. We would definitely stay here again. The service was exceptional, the hotel is beautiful and we enjoyed everything about our stay.