Hello from Thailand-Day 1!

Today we drove to the Grand Palace where we got a guided tour of the amazing temple! We had a fabulous guide who told us the history behind every piece of the temple such as how the demons in their culture wear shoes and the good people do not.

We got to see the Jade Buddah which is changed out every season but pictures are prohibited inside the temple unfortunately. An interesting part of the culture is to remove the shoes before entering any of the temples (probably because of the demon theory), so they gave us little bags to carry our shoes around in and everyone had to go barefoot. We also had to opportunity to bless ourselves with holy water before entering the temple. The 9th King of Thailand passed away exactly one year ago, and we got to see where his body was kept until his cremation which happened this past Sunday (yes, they mummified the body for a full year!).  The palace was the most ornate, beautiful place I've ever seen.

We then went to a second temple called Wat Pho where we found the Reclining Buddah and some magnificent statues and garden areas. 

We then went to lunch where we sampled some local Thai cuisine at the suggestion of our permanent tour guide Am. It was all very spicy in my opinion but all still really tasty! The food is very different and they eat a lot of rice with every meal-even as a dessert with mango! It is undoubtedly warm here, but it definitely beats the cold New England weather!