We’ve seen countless shows about how many scams there are in Bangkok.  It’s true!  Although it is an intriguing city, there are certainly some things to be wary of.  The scam we encountered was at The Grand Palace.  Note – The Grand Palace is open every day!

At the first entrance we encountered “wily strangers” who told us the temple was closed for the morning due to monks being on the premises. Only, we’d just seen a whole tour bus of tourists let in!  He said women weren’t allowed in at that time because it was too distracting to their prayer. The official-looking man tried to get us into a Tuk Tuk for other sight seeing. We didn’t go with it.

At the second entrance we encountered the same thing, only the story was slightly different, same Tuk Tuk scam though. Again, we didn’t go with it. Unfortunately there was no avoiding them and just walking through the entrance anyway as they are quite forceful and have great scam technique.   Luckily, at the third entrance we finally got into the Temple.   It really was a waste of time just trying to get into the Palace.

We stayed near Phra Sumen Fort which gave us the opportunity to explore on foot.  We were able to visit the impressive Buddhist temples of Wat Pho, Wat Saket, and Wat Arun.  While we were there Songkran festival, Buddhist New Year in Thailand, was taking place.

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From what we learned, there are several things to do as a Buddhist during Songkran festival.  Washing Buddha, and pressing gold leaf on to Him asks for forgiveness and fortune in the coming year.  Making sand “castles” in the temple also returns all of the dust carried out from the temple on the soles of the feet during the year.  There were offerings of colourful fabric, money and bells as well.

For a first look at Buddhist temples and practices, Bangkok was a great start.

~j