Mouth felt like I had been run over by a fat tooth fairy this morning, but I'm not surprised. Had breakfast with Thelma on the river and we headed out to the Grand Palace.  No shorts allowed, which seems insane in this heat, but, it is what it is. Stopped in at the Pakklonttalab Flower market on the way, very interesting, and I'm having trouble inserting photos to my blog, but when iI get it organized, I'll drop some in.
The government, in order to curb the drug industry ( opium) of the Golden Triangle near Chang Mai, are encouraging the farmers to grow cash crops now, hence the huge growth in the flower market industry. A very fun place to walk through, Caroline is a gardener, I though she was going to have a cadenser..

The Grand Palace was spectacular, remenicent of the Forbidden City in China, but so interesting. I didn't know you could fit what seemed like 10 million people into the 65 acres of the palace, but you can.

THE ROYAL PALACE

 Most of the palace and the Stupa's are covered in gold filament. Gold is an inert metal, so over the hundreds of years , has not corroded.

The other buildings that are covered in ornate ceramic tile, well that's clever because when the Thai send goods to China by boat, the boat came back empty, so because you needed balast in the hull to stop the boat capsizing, the Chinese would fill the hull with their broken pottery, the Thai would then use the pieces to build the mosaics around their temples.
The Golden pinnacled buildings are Stupas, solid temple like buildings, often containing buried relics, or a bone from a priest or something.

The Emerald Buddha (photo above) was very interesting, but tiny. I expected to see something large. That's what you get for assuming I guess. Kind of underwhelming, like the Mona Lisa.
In North Thailand in the 15 the century, they had a huge storm, a bolt of lightning hit this old Stupa and broke it in half. A priest saw that a ceramic Buddha had been buried in this Stupa, so he saved it. One day cleaning the Buddha, some plaster came off its nose, and there was the Emerald Buddha inside that. A bit if a surprise once again. Sothe Emerald Buddha was sent to the palace as a gift, put on display and held in much reverence. One day a geologist got to inspect it to see if it was made from a single rock, it was, but it turned out to be green Jade. Can't win em all I guess, but it'sstill known as the Emerald Buddha.

Going to the night market tonight, yay for Streetfood. again, and i just might treat myself to a big Belgium beer.