Grand Palace and The Emerald Buddha

The Grand Palace is one of the must see tourist destinations of Bangkok and after being in Thailand for couple of weeks now I'm finally going there for the first time.

I was more than happy to take up the offer of P'Poan the Alumni of AIESEC in Thailand who offered to take us their and share the history.

Though sometimes used for royal ceremonies the Grand Palace is more or less a touristic place nowadays with many foriegners and even more Thai visitors everyday. The first sightings of the gold coloured stupas had me in awe as it is very much different to the white coloured style back home. Stupa's here seem to be smaller than those in Sri Lanka but more colourful and decorated.

The Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha were two things that my mom use to always metion about Thailand since I was a kid and to visit these places was very special because of this also. The Emerald Buddha is at Wat Phra Kaew ( Wat = Temple) also located within the grand palace walls. Though the statue was not large in size as I expected the aura it had around it was powerful.

After visiting these two places P'Poan took us next to the Vimanmek Mansion ( Palace) which is the largest teakwood mansion in the world. The mansion was used during the times of the grand father of the current king and now serves mostly as a meuseum. :)

So after all the sight seeing I got back happy that at last I had visited the famous Grand Palace only to find that this was not actually my first visit there.

It was only when I looked through some of the old pictures that my mom gave me when I was leaving for Thailand that I noticed this one with me and my mom at the grand palace over 24 years ago. :) (For those of you who didn;t know I was born here in Bangkok while my parents were living here for couple of years.) So the current visit was not actually my first visit to the Grand Palace but likely my second.

I guess this is what is gonna make my time here in Thailand all that special for me. In a way its a oppertunity to trace back to my past or may be you can call even the roots...eitherway I'm happy to have gained this experience.

Live from Thailand

WOW ! I am here in Thailand and the experience has begun, the first couple of days was taken for adjusting to the reality and then had no time to waste as we moved into transition.

In the picture is me and my MC team ...(from left) Anand, Miw, Gof, Sine, Herdis and Nueng. These are the people that I will be working with the closest in the year ahead ! With four Thai members, An Indian, An Estonian and A Sri Lankan we are diverse !

So far I know very little about each of them so my first step is to get to know each of them :) I know relationships matter more here in Thailand as it does in Sri Lanka!!!

I;ve been wanting to go through this international experience for many years and now its finally on the way !

The journey has begun...