Sawatdee Khrap! At last I’m up early, out onto the dusty pavement, a quick stop for half a chopped pineapple and on route to the much anticipated Royal Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaeo (Temple of the Emerald Buddha).

One could idle a day away staring in wonderment at the architecture, statues, and grounds but what captured my eye were the amazing murals depicting the story of the Ramakien. The Sanskrit version or Ramayana consists of seven books overflowing with some 24,000 couplets so I wont go into detail here!

Basically it’s a love and war epic of unparalleled popularity throughout the Indian subcontinent, South East Asia and to a lesser extent, the rest of the world. The murals are just mesmerizing and date back to 1831.

Here are few pics from the day, the rest are etched in my memory!