World Travel 2013-2014, Dusit Zoo and the Marble Temple

Today was a rather memorable day, and unfortunately it wasn’t completely for the right reasons. We were attempting to head out to Dusit Zoo to spend the day, and help pass some time while we waited for some availability on a bus to Cambodia. After we got on the local bus, the ticket lady attempted to help us get to where we were going by directing us off the bus and towards another bus. Unfortunately, where she directed us to landed us right into a protest zone. Fortunately neither Takeshi or I were wearing any yellow or red (these are political party colours in Thailand, and we had been carefully picking neutral coloured clothing during our visit in Bangkok) and we quickly negotiated our way out of the area… and straight into the main police zone.

That said, it was probably a lot safer visiting the sights for today with what was probably every police officer in Bangkok in the same street! We headed into the Marble Temple, or Wat Benchamabophit Dusitvanaram. It was completely deserted, and we were able to enjoy wandering around the complex with only one or two other people. The temple is rather beautiful with lots of white marble, and gold and red designs across the roofs.

From there we headed onto Dusit Zoo, and initially thought the zoo was closed. We were waved in, and discovered that there quite a few people in the zoo… but they were all police. It was rather strange wandering around a zoo with two other tourists, and a lot of police officers taking photos of the animals. The zoo wasn’t bad, but it was certainly in need of some attention and a bit of work. The grounds were beautiful though as it was formally the Royal Botanic Gardens for the personal use of the King.

Definitely a memorable day.

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