The Grand Palace

Storytimeee ! Take a seat and grab your favorite TJ Maxx blanket. Get your Sugar Babies and Diet Coke. Okay, so yesterday I had the honor and privilege of going to the Grand Palace to pay respect to the late King Rama 9. The yearlong mourning period is coming to a conclusion in mid October, so the public can only come to pay respect until September 30th. The Grand Palace will have the royal cremation ceremonies in late October. I was told there were approximately 50,000 visitors a day coming to pay respect to the late king. I was also informed that we would be waiting for at least five hours, but some people had been waiting there for as long as 48 hours. There were people everywhere you turned. I went with my host mom, dad, two brothers, great grandmother, and my exchange friend from Texas. Most of the day was quite boring, just sitting and waiting. I won't go into too much detail about that. However, it was so so so incredibly worth the wait. I don't have pictures unfortunately because it is actually illegal in some cases to take pictures and they discourage you from bringing cameras and phones in, but the palace is truly breathtaking. As we finally approached it around 3pm, we could see every intricate detail that was made hundreds of years ago. It was so sparkly, colorful, and just absolutely stunning. I was in shock no joke. I marveled at how beautiful it was until we got in the line leading inside to where we would pay our respect. I started getting anxious walking up the steps to the doorway. As I got close enough to see inside, I was literally so taken back by how beautiful it was that my mouth dropped. It was the first moment in my life, I believe, that all I could describe that moment as is "wow". I don't know what it's called exactly, but it's this very tall, large pure gold structure for the king, and it took my breath away. It was STUNNING. Pictures wouldn't do it justice even if I could've taken pictures. I couldn't take my eyes off of it. It was genuinely the most beautiful thing I think I have ever seen in my life. But anyways, back to the story. They take groups in of about 20-30 people. Once everyone is in, they have strict orders of how close you are to the person in front of you as well as behind you. It's two people in each row, and we were told to put our arm out to ensure we were arms length from the person in front of us. Once that was quickly settled, they said something in Thai (you just learn to go with whatever everyone else is doing hahaha) and we all took a seat on the floor in a particular, proper way (I will find a picture to show this). Then, the officials said something else, and we bowed our head to our hands that were in prayer position placed on the ground. We stayed like this for a few moments, and then they told us when to lift our heads back up and to exit. This is to simply pay respect to the great king that Thailand deeply loved and cherished. It was incredible to be a part of this once in a lifetime opportunity, and I am so so grateful I could do this. Thanks for reading my quick story time, and I wish I had pictures to share ! -Kalynn 

This is the best picture I could find of the way you pay respect to the king   !