A day at The Palace

Last February 22 was the Makha Bucha day, an important Buddhist festival celebrated on the full moon day of Māgha in Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand, and on the full moon day of Tabodwe in Myanmar-  okay...basically, it is a public holiday in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand and is an occasion when Buddhists tend to go to the temple to perform merit-making activities.

So I took this day as an opportunity to go to Grand Palace and took some photos for my assignment. I did heard that the entrance was free every holiday so I went in to check it and what do you know? It's free!! 

*coughbutfullofpeoplecough* 

I also wanted to go and check Wat Pho (Temple of The reclining Buddha) since the structure itself was good but there was an entrance free around 100 baht. I don't want to spend money....

When visiting Grand Palace, I suggest you come by around 9 or anywhere that's before noon because I tell you right now... It. Is. Hot.

Buddhist Pilgrims came here to pray and worship. They did various things in here such as chanting while doing wai, did some burning of their sticks (I'm sorry, I don't know what's it called o_o), merit-making and others.

But of course, as a Christian, I did not participate any of the activities... I just observed them...

There's only one God for me! ;)

But I did notice one thing when they chant: they're facing one particular temple. 

By the way, both Pilgrims and tourists have to wear a proper dress code when entering/visiting Grand Place, it's how you pay respect. After all, this is the heart of Thailand.

 Lotus o3o

And since the entrance was free for the day, tourist are flooding everywhere in the Grand Palace. I saw mostly Chinese, then S. Koreans and Japanese, and then some western foreigners. It was really difficult to capture composition photos since people are passing by and are not aware of it. I don't blame them though.

I did also spotted some Royal Guards in the palace. They seemed to be preparing something, and sure enough, they did!

I was lucky blessed that I was able to see the parade/march by the Royal Guards minutes before I decided to leave. It was a good thing I made it!