Wat Phra Kaew & Grand Palace

Today I went and took photographs at Wat Phra Kaew and the Grand Palace. You can see the pictures here. Wat is the Thai word for temple.

If you come and visit Thailand, these places are virtual must visits. The architecture and statues in the temple and palace are really interesting to behold. Interestingly, a visit to the temple can enlighten sight seers on how Thais treat foreigners differently than Thai citizens.

One difference is the entrance costs. The entrance fee for the wat and palace was 250 baht for foreigners. Thais are admitted for free. My wife's Vietnamese friend managed to beat the system by walking through the Thai line. She kept silent and the guards didn't notice that she wasn't Thai. I might have tried that but I'm not sure that the machine gun equipped guards that I saw upon entering would have thought my prank a delightful lark.

The dress code is also slightly different for foreigners and Thais. All men must wear long pants and all women either long pants or a skirt. Foreigners, however, are required to wear closed toed shoes, while Thais are not.

There is also a Thai only exit to the temple. While foreigners must exit through the main gate, there is an exit for Thais in another part of the temple.

You probably won't find this in any travel guides, but there is another things that Thais can do that foreigners cannot, and that is enter the temple in a car. Ten years ago, Tim and I came to Thailand for her brother Top's wedding. I'll write about it in more detail in another entry, but part of the ceremony involved taking a donation to the Wat Phra Kaew.

Tim and I had accompanied Top and Tham to the temple to make their offering. People normally do not drive into the temple, but as they were making a donation of goods they were given permission. When we reached the entrance, the guard spotted me in the back seat. He stopped the car and made me get out. To enter the temple, I was required to pay the entrance fee and enter with the rest of the tourists. I'm still not sure if it was the fact that a falang entering the temple in a Mercedes somehow profaned the holiness of the place, or they just wanted to make sure they got the 250 baht entrance fee.

On our way out, I ducked down in the backseat so the guard didn't see me. I really didn't want to have to walk all the way around to the main exit.

While the difference in treatment may not conform to Western ideals of equal treatment, they actually serve a good purpose. While 250 baht (around $8) is not a lot by Western standards, it can be more than half a days pay for a lot of Thais. Charging Thais 250 baht would effectively prevent a great many Thais from being able to visit and worship at this temple. That would truly be unfair. I'm not sure about the shoes, but its possible that a lot of poorer Thais don't have an Imelda Marcos trailer full of shoes attached to their one room home. As far as the separate exit, perhaps that's a bit gratuitous, but its really not a big deal.