Bangkok Grand Palace

We had one additional day to explore Bangkok as a family before heading back to Dubai for Christmas. Many of the activities required a long drive but we wanted to stay close to the city. We decided to check out the Grand Palace, which is a complex of buildings where the royal government is housed in Thailand. The buildings are partially opened to the public as a museum, including the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. Visitors are required to cover shoulders and knees, even the men, so most of us end up purchasing the baggy elephant pants sold on the street corners in front of the palace.

We made our visit to the Grand Palace on a day when apparently every other tourist was there, because it was packed with people. The sites were certainly impressive to see in person, but it wasn't long before the kids and I were worn out from the crowds. Poor Jeff, he would've stayed for hours and hours exploring and reading if not for us!

The rest of our day to explore Bangkok was a bit of a flop. As much as we loved Thailand as a country, the city of Bangkok seemed completely snarled with traffic no matter the time of day. Getting around wasn't easy. We explored a little more of the area around the Grand Palace and we took a cab ride to see if we could find more roadside markets nearby to Chatuchak (only open on the weekends). No matter where we went, Starbucks was always nearby and continued to be a hit as we indulged in hot chocolates.

One interesting thing to note about the Palace and visiting Asia in general: many of the Asian people were fascinated with Kaitlynn. She has very light features, including fair skin, light blonde hair, and blue eyes, which isn't a common sight in many parts of Asia. When we were exiting the Palace, there was a friendly group of Chinese tourists that were very obvious about their delight in seeing Kaitlynn and pointing her out to their group members. We didn't speak the same language, but through their hand signals and body language, they were communicating to me how fascinated they were with Kaitlynn's appearance. On the plane ride home, there was another Arab gentleman sitting in front of her that was staring and smiling at her for quite some time. These situations really made Kaitlynn uncomfortable, but I tried to help her see that it was their admiration over her differences in coloring and nothing amiss. It became a dilemma for me to explain this, because quite frankly, I'm also teaching her to pay attention to that gut feeling at all times. (Sad to have to consider the world we live in!)