Ancient Siam

On one of our days in Bangkok, we decided to visit Ancient Siam.  It is a very large compilation of buildings and attractions, some of them replicas and a few of them the real thing that has been moved to the museum site.  

Who can walk past the cardboard "poke your head in here and get a photo taken" tourist trap?
Not these 3!

The park is so large that your admission fee comes with free bicycles.  We decided in the name of fun (and sanity since we were doing this as 3 adults with 6 kids) to rent a couple of golf carts to shuttle us from place to place.

I don't know who gets paid to transfer these signs into English, but I'm not sure they're as competent as they portray themselves to be.

I was pretty sure the first one just meant they didn't want the kids driving, however I was a bit worried about the "Golf Card is a car disappears adjusted" note for 50 baht.  Since it's less than $2, I figured as long as we didn't offend the rule too many times in one day, we'd be ok...

A better tourist/blogger would have written down all the names of the buildings
and temples and given you some history to go along with the pictures.
I've decided I'm going to make it more like a mystery.  Yeah...that's it.  A puzzle
for you to figure out.  Or like me, you can skip the mangled English signs and just
enjoy the view!  ;)

One of the sections in the beginning of the tour is a market place type area.
The handmade artwork was beautiful!
Kind of wishing I'd bought this now that I'm back home.  LOL!

More pretties...

A Buddha with offerings was tucked into a quiet corner.

The kids hiked right up these stairs to check out this temple.

This picture gives some scale so you can appreciate how big these stairs
were.  You can also see my how my dna has flowed right into my son.  I
knew with my history of tripping and falling, I should just stay on the ground
for this one!

This lovely flower vase was at a replica of the King's home.  You see these flowers
in use in the arrangements that hang over people's rearview mirrors quite often.  I would
love to live in a place like this.  The rooms are all set up like a house would be,
only instead of corridors or hallways connecting the rooms, they open up
to a beautiful wooden courtyard.  Instead of just being able to walk into the room,
you had to step over a mid-shin height piece of wall.  We came up with a few theories
as to why they were there, the most likely of which, I believe, is to keep out snakes.

What little girl wouldn't LOVE to have this bed?

A shrine to the King

An area to worship Buddha inside the King's home

The Rainbow Bridge.  The kids look so tiny way up there!

We had our lunch at this little table in an area that is made to look like the Floating Market region of
Bangkok.  It was here that I had the hottest curry of my life.  Quite uncomfortable, if you must know.
It was all curry paste, no coconut milk.  There was NO way I could even come close to finishing my lunch.  I thought I'd be running back to the market section to see if they had a Thai version of Tums!

Instead, this little lady showed up right across from where we were eating with her coconut ice cream business.  If you look up in the building, you'll see Katie and Abby who ran across the way and into the other restaurant to get their ice cream after they finished their lunch.  That coconut ice cream definitely took the burn in my stomach down to a more happy place!

Oh dear...where to begin with this one...
I'll start by scrolling my page up high enough that I don't have to look at it while I type.
Who would buy these???  Like getting a free lizard with your flip flops isn't bad enough, you get to
paint your own mental picture of the horror that occurred to the disgusting little beast before it died.
Since the bag was sealed, I can only guess that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time at the shoe
factory.  Gaak!  Disgusting!

Marshall thought this river must be the Mekong River based on it's appearance.

Great big fish!  The kids wanted to climb in it's mouth, but apparently they weren't the first ones with that idea as the sign posted nearby was quite clear that they wanted you to stay out.

Such ornate decor!

This area was still in the process of being completed, but had a bunch of gold statues of monks inside.

The amazing part was that if you looked closely at them, room after room, the statues were all different.

One of the kids favorite attractions was this replica of a Thai Junk.

They liked to pretend like it was the Titanic and reenacted the scene where the ship sunk.

It's hard to tell the scale in this picture, but behind this reclining Buddha is a group of trees, not bushes.

One particular temple was quite a hike up a few sets of stairs which gave us a remarkable view of the city and it's flooding.  Some of what you see here is rice paddy, but even the rice paddies are overflowing.

A beautiful Plumeria tree in bloom.  Smells so much better than that Victoria's secret stuff!

The Beaven 3 at the top!

Everybody's got a water buffalo...well, this guy does anyway!
He was happy to bring his water buffalo over to us for a photo op.
Love that he is giving us a hang 10 sign and that Amelia is getting her pocket picked!

A boat carved out of a tree.
A really tall tree.

Lia and a huge fan shaped plant.

This garden is an homage to Yoga and had many statues in various yoga poses.

Another pretty flowering tree

This replica of the Grand Palace was by far the most impressive exhibit.

This was covered in tiny mirrors.

I love this ornate gold painted stand.

By the end of the day, we were all tuckered out and ready to head back to Laura's parents home.

The Buddhist blessings of Monks inside our taxi cab.

Madeline fell asleep in the taxi home, walked up to the apartment and sprawled 
herself across these chairs to finish her nap.  Good thing we got those golf carts!