Dusit Palace and Park, Bangkok...

The daughter and I were tourists today. Taking advantage of the fact that her teachers were having their teacher's day meeting we heading down to Dusit Palace and Park. It's located on Rachawhiti Road which is not far from Khao San Road. Well, maybe a tuk-tuk or taxi might be in order but from khao San Road I would guess it would be less than half an hour's walk.

Entrance was 150baht which included entrance to the Abhisek Dusit Throne Hall, Ananda Samakhom Throne Hall, Vimanmek Teak Mansion, and various residential halls, carriage halls and royal photographic exhibitions. All in all a good day and nice place to relax.

The teak mansion is the biggest in the world, though I've never heard of any competition for the title, and was built by King Rama V in 1900 following his tour of Europe. This was followed by the Abhisek Throne hall in 1903 and the Ananda Samakhom Throne Hall in 1907. The European and classical influence is clearly visible and there are vaious gifts from overseas and interesting objects throughout.

The gardens are very well laid out and provide an excellent setting for the whole day. Included in the entrance price is a compulsory guided tour of the teak mansion which proved quite informative, when I could hear what the guide was saying; there were hundreds of noisy school children also on a tour at the same time.

Three buildings provide displays of royal photographs taken by the present king which were quite interesting and give a window into royal life, mainly from the sixties.

The only real annoyance was the need to continually remove shoes and lock bags, cameras etc away in lockers. Mostly this was free but for the teak mansion there was a 30 baht charge for storage which felt a bit of a con.

The daughter seemed suitably impressed and had a good day though much of it must have gone over head I'm sure.

Still not fully recovered from the accident so I guess the gym is still out of the question.

Dusit Palace and Park, Bangkok...