Our first stop was Wat Pra Gaew or the Grand Palace, the home of the Emerald Buddha.
We could not take pictures inside, so I stole this from a travel website.
The rest are pictures we took during our visit. I won't go into all the history of this famous temple, but I will cut and past from this helpful website. Do teachers even bother to assign book reports anymore?The Grand Palace and Wat Phra KaewBangkok
The Grand Palace and Wat Pra Kaew really are places you must visit while you are in Bangkok. Both have considerable historical significance and are extremely beautiful places to see. The Grand Palace was built in 1782 by King Rama I who established Bangkok as Thailand’s new capital. The palace was to be bigger and grander than palaces built in the Sukhothai and Ayutthaya eras to underscore the significance of the change of capital. The result was a palace of jewels and gold and splendour the like never seen before in Thailand. The Grand Palace remained the Royal Family’s official residence from 1782 to 1946. The last king to live there was King Chulalongkorn.
Wat Pra Kaew was built to house the Emerald Buddha which was returned to Thailand after Thailand’s the capture of Vientiane in 1778. The Emerald Buddha is the most important representation of the Buddha in Thai Buddhism. To pray before the Emerald Buddha is to make merit, and although this is an important place on any visitor’s itinerary, it is important to recognise that this is a place of worship and should be respected as such.
Here they are in front of one of the former palaces of King Chulalongkorn.
Throughout the temple, you'll find these chinese-looking statues. Apparently, they were not initially intended for decorating the palace, but were used as balasts on empty Chinese junks that were returning to Thailand for more rice and other cargo.
Caught this guy catching a quick nap.
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