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Title: On The Top of The World
Location: Grand Palace พระบรมมหาราชวัง , Bangkok, Central Thailand
Date: 3 September 2009, 2:26pm
Camera: Nikon D60 with Aperture: f/7.1, ISO Equiv.: 100
A stone statue 'sitting' on top of a building.
Title Red Temple Guardian
Location: Grand Palace พระบรมมหาราชวัง , Bangkok, Central Thailand
Date: 3 September 2009, 2:45pm
Camera: Nikon D60 with Aperture: f/8.0, ISO Equiv.: 100
I've seen similar temple guardian in Wat Chaiyamangalaram, Penang Malaysia.
Title: Green Temple Guardian
Location: Grand Palace พระบรมมหาราชวัง , Bangkok, Central Thailand
Date: 3 September 2009, 2:45pm
Camera: Nikon D60 with Aperture: f/8.0, ISO Equiv.: 100
There is a gold ring on the right hand of the temple guardian.
Title: I SEE GOLD!!!
Location: Grand Palace พระบรมมหาราชวัง , Bangkok, Central Thailand
Date: 3 September 2009, 2:19pm
Camera: Nikon D60 with Aperture: f/10, ISO Equiv.: 100
An unknown statue next to Phra Siratana Chedi. It was a damn hot day. Three hours under the hot Sun virtually transformed me into sunburn man just like Louis Koo.
Title: Chedi Lifting
Location: Grand Palace พระบรมมหาราชวัง , Bangkok, Central Thailand
Date: 3 September 2009, 1:30pm
Camera: Nikon D60 with Aperture: f/7.1, ISO Equiv.: 100
One of the many elaborate statues decorated with wonderful coloured glass.
Title: FIERCE Blue Guardian
Location: Grand Palace พระบรมมหาราชวัง , Bangkok, Central Thailand
Date: 3 September 2009, 1:30pm
Camera: Nikon D60 with Aperture: f/6.3, ISO Equiv.: 100
A close-up shot.
Title: ROAR!!!!
Location: Grand Palace พระบรมมหาราชวัง , Bangkok, Central Thailand
Date: 3 September 2009, 12:32pm
Camera: Nikon D60 with Aperture: f/4.5, ISO Equiv.: 320
This is one fierce looking creature. Look at those hairs.
Title: Where Are You?
Location: Grand Palace พระบรมมหาราชวัง , Bangkok, Central Thailand
Date: 3 September 2009, 12:44pm
Camera: Nikon D60 with Aperture: f/4.2, ISO Equiv.: 200
Surreal looking piece of wall painting.
Title: The Warrior
Location: Grand Palace พระบรมมหาราชวัง , Bangkok, Central Thailand
Date: 3 September 2009, 12:35pm
Camera: Nikon D60 with Aperture: f/4.2, ISO Equiv.: 220
Another masterpiece wall painting.
Title: Giants & Orcs
Location: Grand Palace พระบรมมหาราชวัง , Bangkok, Central Thailand
Date: 3 September 2009, 12:45pm
Camera: Nikon D60 with Aperture: f/4.5, ISO Equiv.: 200
This picture reminds me of Warcraft & God of War.
Title: Ancient War Machine
Location: Grand Palace พระบรมมหาราชวัง , Bangkok, Central Thailand
Date: 3 September 2009, 12:38pm
Camera: Nikon D60 with Aperture: f/4.8, ISO Equiv.: 200
There's a story behind this painting.
Title: Into Siam War!
Location: Grand Palace พระบรมมหาราชวัง , Bangkok, Central Thailand
Date: 3 September 2009, 12:38pm
Camera: Nikon D60 with Aperture: f/4.8, ISO Equiv.: 200
Look carefully, I can see humans fighting along with strange looking soldiers. Who are those weird guys?
Title: GIMME More!!!
Location: Grand Palace พระบรมมหาราชวัง , Bangkok, Central Thailand
Date: 3 September 2009, 1:47pm
Camera: Nikon D60 with Aperture: f/4.0, ISO Equiv.: 360
A thought provoking picture. Try to guess. Is this giant protecting or chomping?
Title: EXOTIC
Location: Grand Palace พระบรมมหาราชวัง , Bangkok, Central Thailand
Date: 3 September 2009, 12:43pm
Camera: Nikon D60 with Aperture: f/5.6, ISO Equiv.: 160
A close-up shot of the wall painting. The colours and motifs are BREATHTAKING!
Title: The Motifs
Location: Grand Palace พระบรมมหาราชวัง , Bangkok, Central Thailand
Date: 3 September 2009, 12:44pm
Camera: Nikon D60 with Aperture: f/5.3, ISO Equiv.: 320
Some workers were restoring the wall paintings and adding gold paint to make it more realistic and lifelike.
Title: Ancient Art
Location: Grand Palace พระบรมมหาราชวัง , Bangkok, Central Thailand
Date: 3 September 2009, 12:42pm
Camera: Nikon D60 with Aperture: f/5.6, ISO Equiv.: 180
These ancient wall paintings....It never fails to amaze me!
By the time I reached Grand Palace พระบรมมหาราชวัง or Phra Borom Maha Ratcha Wang, there were hundreds of visitors! A few travelers were stopped at Viseschaisri Gate (main entrance) for wearing improper attire. According to Wikitravel "A strict dress code applies for visitors to the palace. Ladies must cover their upper arms and legs down to the thigh, while men must wear long trousers and at least a T-shirt. Sarongs can be borrowed for free at the entrance, but you must leave a deposit."
I paid 350 THB for the entrance ticket. That was really expensive. Later, I discovered it was a 3 in 1 package. Basically, I got myself three separate tickets. 1st ticket - Entrance to Grand Palace พระบรมมหาราชวัง & Temple of Emerald Buddha วัดพระแก้ว, 2nd ticket - Entrance to Nimanvek Mansion and 3rd ticket - Entrance to Pavilion of Regalia, Royal Decorations and Coins. The 2nd and 3rd tickets can be used 7 days from the date of purchase.
The Grand Palace พระบรมมหาราชวัง is SUPER HUGE!! I took four hours exploring the entire place. The palace was established in 1782 and it houses not only the royal residence and throne halls, but also a number of government offices as well as the renowned Temple of Emerald Buddha or Wat Phra Kaew วัดพระแก้ว. It covers an area of 218 000 square metres and is surrounded by four walls 1 900 metres in length.
The first thing that caught my attention is the ancient wall painting. The walls are decorated with scenes from the Ramakien first painted during the reign of King Rama I. The first scene depict the initial stages of war waged by Rama of Ayothaya to rescues his wife Sita, who had been abducted by Thotsakan (Ravana) King of Longka. I was mesmerized by the drawings and spent one hour admiring the story behind the paintings before exploring the rest of the palace.
Next Post....Grand Palace พระบรมมหาราชวัง is G.R.A.N.D! (Part 2)
yeah we went there in shorts but lucky we only need to pay deposit =p well the entrance fee is not expensive as compared with those attractions in china eg. mount. huang is 230Yuan(rm 115)
yeah it's a GRAND palace indeed :) i took ton of pictures there as well but not as good as yours >< wish i have a better camera at that time!!
i was impressed by both red and green guardians =p so stately standing and guarding the temple... *salutes*
I like the second last picture. There must be stories behind each paintings, it would be nice if you can tell us the stories as well :-p
Can't wait for your palace post, 4 hours of exploration! Must be either extremely huge or too fascinating.
@fufu,
Mount. Huang for 230Yuan(RM 115)?? That's EXPENSIVE. But, worth every single cent. I saw the beauty of Huangshan from fufu's post. Heaven on Earth.
Come on, fufu. My pictures are OK and SO-SO only. My initial shots on the temple guardians were bad! Gloomy clouds were looming earlier that day. But, by mid afternoon, the sky was ocean blue. I decided to made a U-TURN back to the statues :) Thanks for the kind compliments!!
@Shelyn,
Indeed, there is a story behind these wall paintings. I overheard a Thai translator explaining the first portion of the wall paintings. It sounds so exciting. But, I think these stories is a mixture of fact and myth. I guess this mystery made it more spicier and sensational.
Shelyn, most individual visitors took at least one full morning or afternoon to truly see the entire place.
It's TOO BIG (with over 34 attractions) and way too fascinating :)
Cheers!
mylo
I like the ancient war machines. The colours of the photos are very vivid. Did you photoshop them? Impressive photos and story.
@Roger,
All my pictures are fresh from SD cards - without Photoshop :)
Actually, I forgot to mention that the wall paintings were being restored by workers. On that day, I some workers/painters adding some 'gold touch' to these paintings making it vivid and fresh.
Cheers!
mylo
Cheers!
mylo
Read the finalist of Best Travel Blog of Asia Pacific organized my Nuffnang? http://awards.nuffnang.com/votes.php
What do you think?
@Shelyn,
Will reply to you soon. My internet connection is SLOW! Got to check out those listed blogs tommorow.
Cheers!
mylo
@Shelyn,
OK...this is my 'verdict':
http://nicolekiss.blogspot.com
Nicole Tan is an occasional contributor/writer for The Star paper. Mostly, articles about food & travel.
At first glance, it look like a rojak blog with topics ranging from travel, food and personal stuff. Her travel articles are good...mostly brief comments about her personal experiences.
http://www.ironwulf.net/
The wordpress layout & design is simply clean, efficient, readable and awesome. This is how a travel blog suppose to look like!
The travel photos are relevant and beautiful! Also, love the personal travelogue - comprehensive yet fun to read.
http://www.akademifantasia.org/
LOL! What a misleading title :) Looking at his ABOUT ME column, I can see the following words:
"blog is about beauty places around the world and also odd stuff found along the way"
So, I doubt the author visited those places listed on his website. But then again, with a Google PR ranking of 4 and over 22K unique visitors per month...that's SOMETHING!
http://travelerfolio.com/
Love the navigation bar & simple layout. One click to get to her travel destination. Another good example of good travel blog.
Love Eunice's photos and travelogue. Travel tips are a great addition to her blog.
http://www.passportchop.com
Also another nice travel blog around the corner. Bright and friendly layout. Simple and professional :)
The Trip Itineraries is AWESOME! Sharing that with travelers is GREAT. People like us (travelers) usually plan our own itineraries. But, having that in public domain is really helpful!! A brilliant idea!
A random click on this topic Night Train to Budapest from Krakow Not bad. Very good review with loads of pictures to about their train ride.
So, I'll narrow down to three finalists:
a) http://www.ironwulf.net
b) http://travelerfolio.com/
c) http://www.passportchop.com
Cheers!
mylo
Wow... didn't expect you to write a full review of all the blogs :-p
I think I prefer Nicolekiss. She's awesome to backpack alone traveling around the world. I enjoy reading her blog as she did interesting stuffs that are not found in other shortlisted blogs.
Oh.. by the way, my bf (who read only National Geographic) told me he prefer your blog than Travelerfolio, your photos and writings are way better than Travelerfolio... haha..
I seriously think that http://www.akademifantasia.org/ is a plagiarism site, the blogger basically just copied the information and photos from different resources and put them into his website. I don't even call it a blog when it's not original at all. This really pissed me off as it's really unfair. I found few of his articles were just copied exactly the same from different websites.
I don't know what's wrong with the judges.
oh yeah... maybe you and fufu should consider participate the contest next year, when you have had enough contents in your blog.
@Shelyn,
It's good to see what others have to offer. In fact, I was impressed to see some really good ideas from these travel blogs. Well, every blogger have their strengths and weaknesses.
I am just a small fry in the big ocean. I'm not a frequent traveler and I'm not ready to be in the limelight :) I blog to share and motivate myself to organize the pictures.
Shelyn your travel blog 'Travel & Living Bliss' http://www.travel-living-bliss.com/ is a hidden gem and also one of the finest! Honestly, I LOVE the way you compose your travel articles. Full of wits, informative, with personal touch and also relevant pictures. Keep up the good work!!!
Cheers!
mylo
Hi shloke
Thanks for your review of PassportChop.
Anyway just an update - Ironwulf.net won the Best Travel Blog Nuffnang Awards 2009 - very deserving winner; his photos are beautiful and his travelogues a joy to read too.
ZQ
ZQ Travels
Not really reviews. Just my two cents :)
You have a wonderful blog! Keep up the great work!
Cheers!
mylo