Summer Palace

On Saturday we visited Bang Pa-In Palace a summer residence of the Thai Royals, a very short drive of 60 kilometers (40 miles) north of Bangkok along the banks of the Chaopraya River. This is the summer palace of the kings of Thailand. We recently purchased a GPS system so we decided to drive our selves. Bryce fell asleep on the way so we had a chance to drive around for an hour and see other sites.

This is an old city so there were many ruins.

An old train station with great carved wood eves.

The palace dates back to the 17^th century, pre-dating the establishment of Bangkok as the capitol, although it did fall into disuse for a long period. The buildings there now date from its revival by King Mongkut (Rama IV) in the 19^th century. The palace is set on 46 acres, so we rented a golf cart, actually it was more of the novelty for Bryce, besides being mid day and 95 degrees.

There were many fish in the pond below and they must have guessed Bryce was food, because about 6 feet below a fish spit a large stream of water and got Bryce right on the nose. It shocked both Bryce and myself. It got him pretty wet too.
Today, the palace is only used infrequently, and then mostly for state occasions rather than as a royal summer residence.

This lookout tower is an observation deck for viewing the surrounding countryside.

Our favorite part was seeing the georgous manicured gardens. Life sized topiarys of elephants, rabbits, lions, and deer.

walking under the topiaries.

enjoying the shade.