the grand palace | ngagang goes travelling

3 December 2012
Sony NEX-C3

A must go when you’re in Bangkok. Upon arrival at Maharaj Pier, you have to walk for a good 10 minutes to get to The Grand Palace.

On my way there, I actually saw a guy who was wearing a polo t-shirt which says “Tour Guide” or something along the line. I saw him approaching many tourists asking them if they were going to The Grand Palace. I overheard one of the conversations and he told some of the tourists that The Grand Palace is actually closed and he advised them to visit somewhere else, citing that he has some good recommendations. Well, needless to say…

Meanwhile, when you are just, like a 5 minutes walk away from the Palace, you will most likely hear loud speakers broadcasting an announcement which says “The Grand Palace is opened everyday…” Oops haha.

This is the official, real entrance to The Grand Palace. There are a lot of fake entrances beware! Oh well, and I was really annoyed that there isn’t any signs, giving directions to the Palace.

Oh anyway, please make sure that you are not wearing sleeveless shirt and short shorts. If that is so, you have to go to the Tourist Service Center to rent some appropriate clothings before you can enter.

It was bloody hot I swear I was gonna melt. But the architecture was really magnificent so there isn’t any regret going there 🙂

How I got there:
Took the Chao Phraya Tourist Boat and alight at Maharaj Pier. The Grand Palace is just a 10 minutes walk away from the pier.

3 December 2012
Sony NEX-C3

There are many modes of transportation in Bangkok. BTS, taxi, tuk tuk and then there is the boat. There is a tourist boat by the Chao Phraya River which takes you to many major places of attraction in Bangkok which includes, The Grand Palace (which was where I went), Wat Pho etc etc…

And here comes our first scamming incident.

The 1st pier was the Sathorn Pier which was quite a distance from my hotel. Feeling really lazy, my family decided to take a taxi to the pier. The taxi driver, who spoke limited english drove us to Shangri-La Hotel instead and took us to the private pier, which the rent for the private ferry costs a bomb. The taxi driver then quickly scrambled. Gosh, we definitely got scammed. We then tried to find our way to Sathorn Pier, which was a 15 minutes walk away from the private pier.

What an interesting experience, not.

1. Sathorn Pier

The service runs daily from 9.30am to 4pm and the boat leaves Sathorn Pier every 30 minutes. It only costs 150 Baht for a whole day unlimited ride. So much cheaper than the private ferry lol!

There’s a tour guide on every boat explaining to you the major attractions along the river banks. The first tour guide we met had a really strong accent so no one was actually listening to her. The second tour guide we met on our way back to Sathorn Pier was really good and he was really informative.