Six years ago, I visited the city of Bangkok in Thailand for the first time and was fortunate to have a day to spare as a tourist. In my minimum travel, I concentrate on taking pictures of places of worship and was lucky to have camera around to take pictures at the The Grand Palace complex that neighbors the
Wat Phra Kaew. The picture accompanying this blog post was taken during that trip and because I do not take notes, I could not recall the real name until I referred to a guide book today. However, I could still remember clearly that it was a set of temples near the palace and that one of the beautifully decorated temples held the most sacred statue in Thailand, the
Emerald Buddha.
In a separate place nearby is an abandoned palace for the royal family in Thailand. Both the temple and the palace side of the complex bear perfectly manicured lawns.
As I recall, the place was so full of tourists and guides and there are portions of the temple that require the removal of shoes with warnings that
they are not always safe there is no guarantee that one will find a pair left behind. Somewhere within the temple complex is a very well-crafted and accurate model of the
Angkor Wat complex in stone. It is only upon my visit to the latter,
four five years later did I recall the craftsmanship and its apparent accuracy. The enduring question in my mind then is why palaces and temples are either very close or combined in a single complex as in both Wat Phra Kaew and the Angkor Wat.
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