Vimanmek (Teak Palace)

This morning marked my final trip to the hospital where I was given a clean bill of health for my eye infection - thank goodness! Just a few more days of no contacts and prescription eye drops and I should be fine; plus my vision appears to be normal again. We celebrated by treating ourselves to a leisurely lunch at our favorite restaurant “shack” and then hopped in a cab to attempt a bit of sight seeing before the rain started up again.

We arrived at Vimanmek, The Teak Palace thinking that it would be open until 4:00. Bangkok travelers, be aware that you must arrive before 3:15 because all visitors are sent on a very structured guided tour of the building; you do not just wander around as we had assumed. We learned the reason why when we were on our tour - the building is still in use by the Royal Family. This palace was constructed in 1901 to be a royal residence constructed entirely of golden teakwood. It was closed for many years but renovated in 1982 and opened to the public as a museum. But apparently, the family will still drop by and play the piano in the sitting room or entertain guests in the receiving room. I also noted that each of the guides bowed down to the images of past royal Thai figures as they spoke about them which was a lovely sign of respect. We finished the tour just before closing time, and just before the rain began to fall.

Later that night, we went to dinner at a place called ‘OHungry where we finally had a proper restaurant meal. However, at the end of the meal, I was forced out of my seat by a dangling spider that was waiting for me to evacuate the premise. As soon as I got up, it magically shot strands onto my chair and on the beam above, and it quickly began spinning a web. I felt like we were watching Charlotte herself, except I decided that I should be the one to write the message….to the next set of patrons. I had just written a note on a napkin with a “spider warning” when two little girls came by trying to sell roses. The oldest one dropped her sales pitch as soon as she saw my pen and immediately picked it up and started doodling on my napkin. Then she launched into a full scale portrait session and drew caricature of each of us, all while mimicking the way sidewalk artists analyze their subjects. She continued her imitation by completing her drawing and then pretended to demand money for her work. We were so tickled by her brazen and opportunistic tactics that we started fishing for coins but she walked off before we could find any. This little girl is destined to be a great salesperson!